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I wanted to write about my vacation a long time ago. Nevertheless, some things came in between, namely exams. Still there is the need to get my impressions into text, if only for memory purposes.

So here I am, sitting in a bar and trying to sort through the mess of memories I have left from my trip to the UK. Just like last time, I went there via RyanAir’s Red-Eye flight, arriving somewhat bleary-eyed at Stansted airport around 7a.m. Having picked a seat at the very exit of the plane, I was one of first off, and, Murphy’s law striking again, pretty much the last to depart the airport. Here’s the story:
Wanting to get off the plane ASAP, I forgot the novel I had packed for entertainment purposes in the seat. Not being able to get back on the plane to pick it up, I asked someone from the ground personnel to please get it for me. Tough luck, 20 minutes later, being the last person around, still no book in my hands, I cut my losses and left for the luggage return.
Fortunately my mate Ken, who was supposed to pick me up, was already waiting for me. And off we went to his place. Some breakfast and napping later, we went into town to get our camping gear, look around some shops and return to the house.

Sunday was the “big day”. Much too late, we packed the car and headed out for Edinburgh. Just to give you some perspective: The Flight from Germany is something like 600 kilometers. The drive north was around 700. Thank the controllers at Ken’s company for paying the gas.
Around 250 miles on the road, I learned that my wish to go to Edinburgh turned out to be a very fortunate coincidence for Ken. He’d been planning to go to a convention of this mailing-list of his. When I asked if it was ok for me to come over for a week, he’d half expected to miss out on this. Imagine his surprise when I asked if it would be too much to ask for us to go see Edinburgh for a few days…
So there I am, mentally preparing to meet these strangers, who, coincidentally, make up the probably most left oriented political group to be found in the UK. In case you’re not-so-convinced about this statement, look up “Mark Thomas Product” on google.com. That’s the whole central axis of this list.
Anyway, there was still a lot of ground to cover and having been updated about traffic developments,we tried to avoid the M6/M1 and somehow found our way onto the A68.
For me, this turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip. The A68 is one of those routes that have neither a lot of traffic nor much in the way of towns along their way. But boy did it have scenery. Also, there is must be something sadistic about the UK’s manual for building roads: The countryside we went through consists mainly of hills and valleys. Those however don’t run the same way the road goes….. ,.-�’��`-., wheeeeee!
This turned out to be a lot of fun at first… going up a hill with a 14% slope, about 10 meters worth of summit and then suddenly dropping out below your wheels at another 14%… wheeeee! This was so much fun, in addition to the non-existant speed camera’s that we dismissed all those signs telling the number of accidents on the road in the last 3 years (something like 58). Until we got the shit scared out of us, anyway: There was another blind summit, only this one had a sharp turn on the top. Now that was exciting…
Some 50-ish miles down the road, another problem with the road-engineering made itself apparent: Pain. Drink several large caffeinated beverages and you will understand that they will make themselves known in your bladder. Add to that the constant ups and downs of a road at fairly high speed – almost resembling a roller coaster ride – the sudden changes in g-forces will make for one most unpleasant sensation. Soon we were actively looking out for the next sign telling us of the whereabouts of the next toilet facilities.
As luck would have it, there were none to be found for the next 30 miles, our discomfort growing exponentially with every minute not being able to relieve ourselves. But finally, there was the long awaited sign! We took the next turn left, drove along a well tended small road in the woods and arrived at a picnic site provided by the forest administration. In addition to having all the proper facilities, there was a wonderful view of the landscape as you can witness on the photo provided below.

Some sandwiches and 10 odd minutes later, we were back on the road. That was when Murphy’s law struck again: There were about 6 different restroom facilities along the next 10 miles. Doh!
The rest of the drive was pretty much uneventful but for a short stop at the border to Scotland.

Tired, but grateful, we arrived at our destination short outside Edinbrough and met the rest of the gang. Let it be said, they all turned out to be a nice and fun bunch. It was a lone house next to one of the main routes out of Edinbrough. About 5 meters off the road, we started to put together our virgin-tent. 15 minutes later, we realized we should have RTFM and de-constructed the tent again. Another 30 minutes later, the tent was up. We probably would have been faster weren’t it for the annoyance of having a 9-year-old “reporter” document our progress on video. I’m not sure if I’ll get my hands on it, but if I do, I certainly intend to put up some parts of it here.

Finally it was time for some relaxation and photos of the breathtakingly beautiful sunset that was visible on the wheat-fields behind the house.

Next update: Our trip into the city and The International Comedy festival

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 27th, 2003 at 6:58 pm and is filed under 2003 - Scotland, journal.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.