Home for the next week

We made it to London during the middle of the evening commute.  Transferring from the National rail station at Kings Cross to the London tube at St Pancras was easy except for the hoards of people commuting home for the evening. From Kings Cross/ St. Pancras station would could take either the Circle (gold) or the City(pink) Lines directly to Paddington station.   Travelling during commute times meant crush loads on the tube, we were definitely crammed in our subway car.

Our apartment is only two blocks from the Paddington station.  We are on the ground floor of a 4 story walk up that’s part of a block long 1800s building with classic lines, columns, high ceilings and lots of period detailing.  I picked it for its proximity to the tube station and for the inexpensive eateries around the station but our grocery option are limited as they closed the grocery store at the Paddington station for remodeling.

Planes, trains and....

We are on our way from Edinburgh to London using rail. We could have flown in one of the many budget UK airlines but we thought this would be a great way for the boys to experience train travel for the first time. The trip is 4.5 hours with 8 stops before we get to the Kings Cross station in London and the trains run every hour. I discovered that the ticket prices varies greatly depending on the day and time.  By being flexible on the time. I found first class tickets for only a little more than economy.  Only £120 for the 4 of us and that includes WiFi and they keep offering hot food and sandwiches, drinks and booze after each stop.  I like train travel and the boys agree (at least in first class).

Overseas wireless option

I learned about renting a portable WiFi on the Visit Britain site and from friends but I was looking for a cheaper option than the £10 per day.  The websites of the UK wireless companies had pay as you go plans but it wasn’t clear if they were available to non UK residents if if there were other fees involved.  So our first stop in downtown Edinburgh was the Vodafone store.  They are a large telecommunications company like AT&T.  They had two starter pay as you go WiFi hotspot options, 3G for £50 or 4G £60,  both with 6gb of data which includes the cost of the device.  Since they were out of stock of the 4G hotspot device the choice was made for us.  6gb should be enough as lots of places including our train to London includes WiFi.  And from the coverage maps it’s mostly 3G or slower outside the major cities.

First time in Scotland

We landed in Edinburgh and were met with cool and dry weather when the cabin doors were opened.  Much better than the hot and humid weather we just left in Chicago. The airport doesn’t use jetways so we descended down the stairs to shuttle buses that took us to passport control.  Being near the back of the plane meant that we were the last to deplane and also meant that we were standing room only by the doors in the last shuttle bus.  That ended up to our advantage as the last shuttle bus was the first to leave for passport control so we were the first in a very long line from our flight to get processed.

Once we left customs we found the group that is part of number one’s summer camp at St Andrews so we said goodbye, gave him an embarrassing hug in front of the other students who had traveled there on their own and headed to the Airlink 100 bus stop for downtown Edinburgh.

I was impressed with the skills of our double decker coach driver.  He was passing and threading that coach through some narrow spots.   We arrived on the Waverly bridge in the middle of the old part of Edinburgh which was next to the train station to London.  Since we had a few hours before the train departure we went to the local wireless store to buy a WiFi hotspot and had breakfast but skipped the haggis option.  The English breakfast sausage was also not a hit, a starchy texture and unusual spices.

Roomy flight

We finally had some room to spread out on our flight from Chicago to Edinburgh.  When making our seat selection I booked aisle and window seats for the 5 of us about 2/3 to the back on the plane. This is because gate agents and passengers usually select the middle seats from the front of the plane. Again the strategy worked as we each had the middle seat free. 

 

It’s also nice that they retrofitted the old 757 with a decent entertainment system.  Here is number two super engrossed in one of the 20 e-books he checked out from the Seattle Library instead of watching a movie. 

Sweet Home Chicago

One of the downsides of flying using airline specific miles is that your flight choices can be limited.  It's easy to get a seat from the US directly to the overseas destination but few seats for the domestic leg of the journey.  Fortunately (or unfortunately) my miles are with United and they offer lots of their overseas routes from Chicago.

When booking the tickets to the UK, the only connecting flights from Seattle were the redeye with a 11 hr layover or a flight with a super short connection.  Since we love visiting Chicago we took the redeye from Seattle, got a rental car and explored our favorite places and visited family in the area.   Breakfast at Walker brothers was always a treat when we were at school so we had to take the boys to experience it.  They were not impressed by the huge and fluffy Apple pancake but enjoyed their omelets and regular pancakes despite a 1 hour of sleep.

Afterwards we stopped by the Northwestern campus and walked around the backside between the buildinga and the lake.    Lots of new buildings I didn't recognize and the dorm I stayed at my freshman year was getting gutted/remodeled.  That dorm was one of the newest buildings when I stayed there.  I guess that was a long time ago.

Adventure starts at home

We are starting our summer trip with a little adventure at home; getting to the airport without using a car or shuttle.  Seattle has slowly been building a light rail system and the route finally extended to our neighborhood and University of Washington. We were already taking this train to the airport before our station opened but that always required the generosity of friends with large cars or a long bus ride to the station a few miles south.

Not including the time it took to walk to the station it was 40 minutes on the train to the airport.  (Yes, I can drive there in less than 25 minutes but would have to pay to park) Lines were unusually short at the TSA checkpoint and the folks working were strangely very friendly.

Now I know the name of my blog is No Electronics as I thought travelling with the family would reduce the time we were on our devices. However as I learned from our trip last summer, there is always some downtime on every trip.  Tonight we have a few hours before our flight boards so I'm on a smartphone writing this post, and everyone else in the family has their screens out as well.  Number 1 found a table and strategically spread out his gear.  I think he spent more time packing his electronics than this clothes,  we'll wait and see if he forgot anything.