Optimism vs Murphy's Law - Part 2
 |
| Scotland Road Trip |
Warning: This is a long blog! Make sure you have time to read!
Our plan for the weekend was to relax. We didn’t make hotel reservations, and we didn’t have a specific itinerary for most things – just general times of day that we’d like to be at our next destination. This turned out to be good in some ways, and not so good in others.
On Thursday afternoon I called to book a taxi for 9:00am Friday morning. We book taxis all the time since Michael travels so frequently and we’ve never had any problems. The taxi company called at 9:00 on Friday and we thought they were calling to tell us the driver was downstairs. No, they were calling to say that they hadn’t found a driver for us yet and then asked if we still wanted them to dispatch someone. What?!? Yes, we still need to get somewhere, please send a taxi. He finally showed up about 30 minutes late – it’s a good thing we didn’t have a flight to catch. We should have known when the taxi was late that the tone for our weekend was being set, but we just blew it off. We were excited to get on the road.
We instructed the driver to take us to the Hertz location at London Heathrow. We got to the Hertz location, but then we couldn’t figure out how to actually get inside. We drove around in circles for a while, stopped and asked for directions – which were vague at best. I say we, but actually our driver was the one asking for instructions. He even turned the meter off because he felt bad about driving in circles. But, alas, we finally arrived.
Once we arrived at Hertz we were expecting our name to be on the board so that we could just get our car and leave (with Hertz #1 Club Gold you can do that). Of course it wasn’t there, so we had to wait inside. When we got to the counter and gave the woman our info, it really didn’t take very long. When she mentioned the extra insurance, we almost said no, but something in the back of my mind was saying – just in case. We decided to purchase the insurance; it really wasn’t that much extra.
Then, we were on the road – headed for Stonehenge! It didn’t take Michael long to get the hang of driving on the left side of the road. Before we took our trip we were warned by some of the locals that driving in England is not like driving in the US. As we were leaving London – driving on the motorway – I remember thinking, “This isn’t so bad, what were those people talking about?”
We turned off the motorway onto a smaller highway, and then the traffic started to back up a little. By then, though, we were almost there and it still didn’t seem like a bad trip. We made it to Stonehenge without any problems; then it started to rain. It was just a light rain, and it did stop long enough for me to take some pictures.
After Stonehenge we headed back to the road that would lead us north toward the Lake District. We stopped at Pizza Hut for lunch! I love it: Stonehenge and Pizza Hut! We’ve become so spoiled by our American conveniences – it’s a good thing they have them everywhere!
After lunch we were on the road. We drove through this little village where all of the buildings had thatched roofs. We even saw new thatch being applied to one building. I wasn’t able to take any pictures because the roads were narrow, and there was no place to pull over. We continued to drive and drive and drive – oh my, those roads were narrow. And so much traffic! We needed to get our minds off the stress of driving, or rather sitting still in traffic. We finally whipped out the Logitech Stereo so that we could listen to the iPod.
After driving all day – about 12 hours or so – we finally reached Windermere. We hadn’t made reservations so we had to try a couple of places before we found a bed for the night. We ended up at Craig Manor Hotel. It was a nice place with a comfy bed and a pretty view.
Saturday morning we had breakfast at the hotel and got a few pictures of the view before we hit the road. We stopped at several viewpoints on our way through town. It reminded both of us of our trip to Alaska – mountains, lake, etc – except that Alaska was warmer. That’s not normal of course, there just happen to be a warm front in Alaska while we were on our honeymoon cruise.
We continued driving north on the A592, stopping periodically when the view struck us – and there was actually room to pull over. We stopped at the top of a large hill and took several pictures of the valley below. There was a small inn and restaurant there as well, but we didn’t go in. We took in the view for a while and then hit the road again.
We continued north – now driving down the hill. The roads were so narrow and very curvy. After a couple of miles we heard a loud noise – sounded like the front passenger tire. So, we pulled over and got out to look. Sure enough, the front passenger tire was completely flat and coming off the rim. My initial thought was, “Well, this will slow us down a little, but it won’t take me longer than 30 minutes or so to get this tire changed. We’ll be back on the road in no time.” As I’m feeling all smug – thinking how proud Dad is going to be when I tell him I changed this tire – I glance back at the car and realize that the rear passenger tire is flat too. Well shit! There goes my “back on the road in no time” idea. With only one spare, there’s no way we can take care of this by ourselves.
So, Michael takes out his cell phone to call the Hertz Emergency Assistance number. Unfortunately we’re down in the valley, so there is absolutely no cell reception at all. We packed up the camera and some water, locked up the car, and started the long hike back up the hill. As we topped the hill (finally) and approached the inn/restaurant we got a cell signal. Michael spent several minutes on the phone with AA trying to explain where we were and what the problem was.
We later realized that part of the confusion was that Michael was explaining that we had two flat “tires” but the women on the phone didn’t understand right away. Then once she did, she asked what size the “tyres” (pronounced like we say “tears” – as in crying) were. He was eventually able to make her understand that we didn’t know the size of the “tyres” and that since we couldn’t get any cell reception at the bottom of the hill he wasn’t going to just trot back down the hill 2 miles to the car, check on the tires, and then come back up the hill to call her. She had to track down and tow truck, and called us back after about 15 minutes to let us know that it would be another 60 to 90 minutes before they were able to get to us.
We took advantage of the opportunity to have lunch and use the restroom at the Kirkstone Pass Inn. Once we were finished we started back down the hill toward our car. Since we had time, I was opportunistic and took several pictures on our way. The tow truck finally arrived; it was about 2 hours after we spoke to AA. The driver told us that he was taking us to Kendal to have our tires repaired. Ok, all is well. We’ll get the tires fixed and then get back on the road in a few hours.
Once we arrived at the tire shop and they had unloaded the car, the tire people tell us that they can’t fix the car because the front shock also needs to be repaired so it will have to be sent to a different garage because they were not equipped to handle it. The tow truck driving patiently waits while we try to call AA again and find out what to do.
By this time it is 4:30 pm and the tire shop closes at 5:00pm. The manager told us that the car could stay inside the garage and someone could pick it up the next day if that worked better. Well, not for us, but we decided it would work out ok if we could catch a train the rest of the way to Edinburgh. We waited and waited for the AA people to return our call, but they never did, so the tow driver had to leave on another call.
The tire shop was closing down, and we hadn't heard from AA about whether we could just it there. So, they pushed the car out onto the street and we had to get our stuff from the lobby before they locked up. We finally heard from AA that another tow would be there to pick up the car at 7:00 pm – well that didn’t work for us if we were going to try to catch the last train out of town at 7:20pm. We had vague instructions from the tire guys about how to get to the train station, but really had no idea how long it would take us to get there while carrying all of our stuff. We spoke to several different people at AA and at Hertz before we had any success.
Finally AA told us that they could get a tow truck to pick us up by 6:30 and he would drive the car to Edinburgh, so we could ride with him. Well, we had had enough of broken cars, and tow trucks. We wanted to spare what was left of the day and try to actually relax. So, we spent several more minutes on the phone trying to find out if we were required to go with the car, or if we could just sign it over to AA and then take the train. As soon as they gave us the ok, I headed for the train station to buy our tickets while Michael sat with the car.
It took me about 5 or 6 minutes to get there with no luggage and it turned out to be nothing more than a boarded up building and a platform. There was a sign that said, “Buy your ticket from the conductor”. So, I walked back to the car to tell Michael that all we had to do was get there before the last train left and we’d be fine.
I arrived at the car about the same time that the new tow truck did. I unloaded all of our stuff from the car then Michael helped the driver get the car up on the platform. We signed the paperwork – after Michael hurried the guy along a little. He seemed a little disappointed that we weren’t going to be riding with him. We tried to gently explain that we just wanted to relax a little and we thought the train would be enjoyable after the long day we’d had. We also kept thinking – there is no way that he can make it to Edinburgh before Hertz closes at 10:00pm, so we’ll be stuck at the airport with no car.
We left him there strapping the car down and headed for the train station. We got there in plenty of time for the last train, and I even got a few more pictures while we waited at the train station. We got on the train and then had to switch at the next platform 5 minutes down the track. We never had to buy a ticket for that short little ride. We did buy tickets to Edinburgh at the next station, though. Then we had to wait for about an hour for it to arrive. Thankfully I had prepared for our road trip by packing some goodies, so at least we had water, some cheese, homemade ciabatta, and banana bread to snack on while we waited.
The trip on a Virgin train to Edinburgh was so nice. We both enjoyed the relaxing trip, the beautiful scenery and the fact that no one else was in our car! It was so quiet! We talked about our plans for the next day, and we recapped the day a little – both proud that we hadn’t let it get us down or ruin our vacation.
As the train approached the station in Edinburgh we realized, a little belatedly, that the city was much larger that we had expected. However, we were still hopeful that, since the train station was in the middle of the city, we wouldn’t have any trouble finding a room in one of the many hotels close by.
We left the train station and approached the first hotel. They had a vacancy, but wanted to charge us £510 for one night (about $1020 USD)! Needless to say, we left and went to the next hotel, but when we got there we were told there were no rooms available. So, we walked a little further and found the same to be true at the next hotel. About this time we were starting to panic. Then one of the workers at the hotel we were about to leave offered to call the other hotels to inquire about vacancies, so that we didn’t have to keep walking all over town. She called eight different hotels before she finally found a vacant room for the night. She even called a cab for and let us wait in the lobby until it arrived.
The hotel with a vacancy turned out to be a Hilton - The Caledonian Hotel - and the man at the desk was so nice, and very helpful. We ended up in a beautiful room with the biggest bed you’ve ever seen! And it was much more affordable that £510. We both had a fabulous night sleep. The next morning we had a fabulous buffet breakfast that was included in our room rate – even better!
We checked out after breakfast and left our bags with the concierge before heading for Edinburgh Castle. It was really amazing – it sits way up on the hill in the center of town. I took some cool pictures as we walked up the hill toward the castle. While Michael stood in line for tickets, I took some more pictures and also chatted with the soldiers standing guard outside the gates. They were hilarious and had some great stories to tell. They had been on duty since 6pm the night before, but they were still a lot of fun even 15 hours later!
We spent several hours exploring the castle and taking pictures before walking back to the hotel. We picked up our backs and then took a taxi to the airport. After checking in, we found the Hertz desk and returned the NeverLost GPS they had given us for the car. As we’re signing paper work and turning in our accident report the man at the desk is calling around trying to actually locate the car. He said that the car never made it to Edinburgh, but was possibly taken to Glasgow because they were open later. We didn’t think a whole lot about it, except to be thankful that we took the train instead of riding with the tow truck driver.
The plane to London was little more than a puddle jumper, but at least it didn’t have propellers! The ride was a little bumpy, but relatively short. We took a cab home and then unpacked and started laundry. It was early evening by the time we got home, so we were able to relax and enjoy the evening at home together. We laughed about the car crisis, and then laughed some more when we talked about some of the great pictures that we never would have been able to take if we hadn’t been stuck walking on that road back to our car in the middle of nowhere! I guess things always work out.
Well, most things anyway. Last week on Wednesday evening a garage call us to tell us they had our car. Michael explained that the car belonged to Hertz, not to us. She seemed a little confused and said that she didn’t know what she was supposed to do with it then. We weren’t really much help. Michael asked where the car was and she told him that it was in a garage in Kendal – that was the same town they picked it up in!!! So, apparently it never even left!?! I guess it was a really good thing that we took the train!
I’ve probably left something out. If so, then I’ll just have to add it later. Enjoy the pictures and thanks for being patient since it took me over a week to get this post up.
