I practiced letting go of planning, and went to Edinburgh for the weekend!
My friend used to work for the airlines; she knows the ins & outs of flying standby, and she loved the idea of us going to see an exhibit I’d donated a piece to.
We both love to take photographs, and were thrilled to have time to stop and compose shots. Our families would have been frustrated at all the stopping!
This is a view of Edinburgh Castle from the west, as the sun is quickly setting.
Flying standby sounds so carefree, but it was actually a lot of work and planning and computer time to find the best connections. Hats off to my optimistic, very persistent friend for making it work! We started on a Wednesday morning, and didn’t have firm plans until Thursday afternoon. We set our sights on a Seattle-Minneapolis-Heathrow flight, to arrive Friday noon, and hoped for the best. Worst case: arrive in Minneapolis late in the evening, find a full flight to London, and have to stay overnight and pick a new destination. Luckily it worked out, and we found ourselves on the tube to King’s Cross Station before we knew it.
We took a train up to Edinburgh and were alternately delighted (by the scenery, the frequent food cart) and frustrated (by the very spotty wireless, needed to find a hotel booking, and the incredibly unintelligible station announcements — perfectly clear but not parsing as English in the least!).
We had an amazing 3 days of sunshine (sunshine! In Edinburgh! In November!) to take lots of photos, shop, and enjoy the ambiance of the lovely dialect that became somewhat easier to understand. This trip was just a taste — I need to come back for a longer visit and see much more than just one city, wonderful as it was.