Day 7 -- Homeward bound

We luxuriated in a limo ride from Prince's Garden to Euston Station. The driver was to pick us up at 6, but by 6 we were almost at the station, giving us an hour and a half to enjoy cappuccino, butter croissants (but trying to leave room for the first class breakfast on the train), read the morning paper, and crowd-watch. 

It had been pitch dark when we entered the bowels of Euston, but the train smoothly drew us forth into a bright blue-and-gold day. We had reserved seats, but there would have been room to choose our own, in first class. Roy had a bacon sandwich for breakfast and I a sausage roll.

This part of the route had been already dark when we rode down from Glasgow Tuesday evening, so the scenery was new. Scooting along at high speed by a canal. Field of Belted Galloways. Locks and canal bridges. Fields and fields of sheep. A week in England and I had not yet seen a castle, nor even a stately country home. Made do with several Romanesque village churches. More canals. Plenty of wind turbines, even wind farms. Several large nuclear power plants. 

Climbing into the hill country, a dramatic change of scenery.  Now we see farms where the house and barn are polar ends of the same stone hut. Field of moor ponies. Black fern on a hillside. Still some blue skies, but wuthering gray sheets of rain approach and engulf the train. Neat stone walls replace the hedges of the lowland farms. These walls divide the crops and pastures from the wild moors. Passed a logging operation. 

Back down in civilization, I see my first and only castle. It's small and part of a modern farm, but THERE IT IS. We see a diminutive old stone bridge, left in place over a swift, little river, with the longer, new steel bridge built alongside.

Now we are barreling through the Scottish Borders. The farms are neater, the patches of forest more sustained. The village homes have more elbow room, and, there are breaks in the clouds.

Noted in my journal:  "If there are any other castles and stately homes left, someone has thrown a cloak of invisibility over them for the week." 

Glasgow Airport, in its present stages of reconstruction and expansion, is somewhat counter intuitive. It is a VERY LONG WAY to the gates. Our Sage-level tickets helped swish us quickly through check in and security, but we still had to make our way through acres of shops, then long, blank corridors where the moving walkways were not functioning. 

Then, there was a scavenger hunt to find out how to turn in the VAT tax refund papers on Roy's camera. Then a candy shop. I was getting more and more concerned at the nearness of  the departure hour and the still unknown distance to Gate 28. Obviously, we made it, back into our friendly, first class cocoon.


Icelandic food was just as good on the return flight, but Reykjavik Airport was a crowded disaster for tired travelers. We in particular were held up from boarding our final flight to Boston while workmen were power-drilling the underside of our jet-way.

 And here are the obligatory last looks at Scotland.
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Customs in Boston was long, but moved quickly. We experienced our first bio-metric machines. The wait for the Concord bus to Maine was long, too, but we had our same reliable driver, Eric, who got us back to Portland fast. Roy drove the rest of the trip to Harrison, dear Roy.

Some of the things we learned:
We just do not sleep on planes, or trains that do not allow for tilting seats.
Do NOT use the Euston station cab rack -- very awkward.
Charge the Oyster cards with at least 50 pounds for a week. Don't use the Oyster card to get on or off a railroad. 
The clothes dryers are very hot, very fast.
But bring a hair dryer. Bring conditioner to avoid another week of frizz. 
Sit up front at the evensong service, so as to not be distracted. 
No need to reserve a car ahead. Check the tires on a rental car. But it is wise to have the pre-purchased rail tickets. Don't buy phones ahead. Or, order better ones, or buy overseas -- or bring your own.  
Get rooms on the quieter, back side of a hotel. Bring laundry soap (I did, but gave the rest away to those who didn't). 
Make sure we really know the way to where we want to go, despite GPS.