So, I just returned from a week and a half in Scotland. This was my first international trip (barring visits to Canada) since high school, and of course since 9/11 made all air travel more complicated.
In short, it was a blast. I long... there will be a bunch of posts forthcoming. :-)
Anyway, Scotland Day 0:
Unintentional Britishism of the day: 'join the queue' instead of 'line up.'
American Tourist (tm) move of the day: pushing "1" in the elevator and expecting to go to the ground floor.
The outbound flight was somewhat problematic - the plane was delayed six hours due to mechanical problems in Britain. British Airways did give us each a $19 (why $19 instead of a nice round $20?) coupon for airport food. Once we got on board things were nicer. The first leg was direct to Heathrow (London's primary airport) on a 747-400. In seat In Flight Entertainment included a selection of free movies (watched "Up" for the first time) and a 'where am I' flight tracking program that first thought we were going to Iceland then, about the time we went feet-dry over Scotland, thought we were going back to Seattle. Still, the food was tasty (dinner and breakfast) and BA includes liquor without additional charge. US airlines, please take note - OK, not of the delay, but of everything else.
Heathrow is a warren reminiscent of a RoboRalley mapboard. Just figuring out the right line to get in was more than mildly challenging at times.
British Customs wasn't satisfied to know that I was an engineer. They wanted to know what kind of engineer I was.
Through customs, I had to go through security again before getting on the hop to Glasgow. Perhaps I should have parachuted out when we flew over on the way to Heathrow. I can't really fault the Brits for putting people through security again; I don't trust the TSA to screen adequately, why should they?
Arrived at the hotel safely, and found a wrinkle I'd never encountered before. You have to insert your keycard into a card reader next to the main light switch and leave it there in order to operate anything requiring electrons in the room. I expect, given the general trend of other equipment in the room, this is intended as a power-saving measure since it means you WILL turn out the lights and such when you leave the room.
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2 comments:
I ran across the key-card-electricity-activator in Italy and was totally confused. Once you figure it out, it's obvious. Until then...
I also had a little trial-and-error realizing that not only did I need to put my card in to turn things on, I needed to KEEP it in there to KEEP things on.
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