UK TRIP 2022 – PART V

 May 11, 2022

London to Glasgow, Scotland

I couldn’t sleep all night, anxious about what would happen if we didn’t receive our laundry before we checked out in the morning. We were promised it would be delivered to our room by seven a.m. So, we set our alarm for six-thirty. Got up, showered, and dressed. Then waited—and waited. Nothing by seven-thirty, so we went down to breakfast.

Erika was off. (No wonder since she must have put in at least twelve hours the day before.) We said good-by and thanked the rest of the staff.

Thought about checking with the concierge desk again, but decided to go to the room first. When we got there, the laundry had finally arrived. Thank God!

We finished packing and got ready to leave.

The night before, we had checked in for our flight to Glasgow. Our original flight was supposed to be in the morning. However, just before we left California, Julie told us it had been changed to a five-p.m. flight, and everything had been adjusted accordingly.

We had tried to contact Hertz the night before, but they NEVER answered their phone, despite several attempts. We also had tried to contact them via their website, but there was no way to directly connect to anyone. Since we had been told they had been informed of the change and would be prepared for our arrival, we weren’t too concerned.

We contacted our transport company and verified a pick-up for one p.m. We were transferred to a couple of different people and weren’t entirely sure they really understood the change in time.

Check-out time was noon, so we went downstairs at about eleven-forty-five. Larry took care of the checkout. They only charged us half the price for the laundry because of the delay. Seemed fair.

Petra came out and greeted us. We had our photo taken with her and said good-by.

We decided to wait in the lobby until our pick-up time. We watched several groups arrive, including what appeared to be a wedding party. Some ladies, in their fascinator hats and party dresses entered. They appeared to be a group of friends gathering for a shower or ladies’ luncheon.

A mother and grandmother arrived with three little girls in party dresses and tiaras. They were obviously there for a “princess tea.” So very cute.

Our van arrived about ten minutes later than our scheduled time, but we were happy to see it.

The ride to the airport was without incident, even though many of the streets were under construction and were closed.

Went through the usual security checkpoint hassle. I was exhausted after two sleepless nights, so I felt more stressed than normal. And I had forgotten to get out my passport before we got into line. But I located it and got it out.

Our boarding passes were sent to our email. Because Larry’s phone had died the night before, I could access his on my phone. However, for some reason, I couldn’t open mine. Fortunately, Larry could open mine on his iPad. So, I checked him in, and he checked me in.

By now, it was after two, and we needed something to eat. It had been over six hours since breakfast.

We walked—and walked—and walked. We finally found a place that had something other than sandwiches and pasta. Well, sort of. I got two hard boiled eggs with about four leaves of spinach. No salt. No mayonnaise. Nothing. I also picked up a small container of mixed berries with a bit of yogurt and granola on top. Since I don’t eat nuts, I scraped the granola off the top with some of yogurt. Larry ate it.

Larry got an “egg salad” sandwich (hard boiled eggs with mayonnaise and a few sprouts—nothing special). But it was food.

I was nearly asleep on my feet and felt terrible. I had a raging headache, despite having taken half an extra-strength Excedrin.

Half an hour before boarding time, they finally posted the gate number. We walked over and waited—and waited—and waited. Boarding began nearly an hour late.

The flight was without incident. When we arrived, we went to the car rental center. No one at the Hertz counter where a sign directed us outside to the Hertz location there, about a quarter mile away. It was a bit of a walk, but we found it—locked up tight with no one anywhere around.

So, back to the rental center. Outside, we found one gal (from Avis). We asked about the Hertz people. She said, “Oh, they go home at four.”

WHAT?

We explained our dilemma and asked if she had any cars. “No, but Europcar might have some left.”

Since we had no choice but to find another rental car because we planned to visit family in the Glasgow area, we went to their desk. The clerk was busy for quite some time with another couple.

While we waited, the young couple, who were from Oregon and who had sat in front of us on the plane, came in. They had reserved a car with Hertz, too, so they were in our same situation.

He asked if we had a safety pin or a paperclip so he could change out the SIM card for his phone. We didn’t, but we asked if a staple would help. Our documents were stapled together, so we removed one. He was able to straighten it and use it to replace his card.

We explained about Larry’s phone, and he said he could create a hotspot Larry could use to reset it. And it worked! Well, at least he could log in with Google. However, when he tried to retrieve his backup, his phone only found mine. So he was without a few of his apps and shortcuts.

I called and left a message for our AAA travel agent about what had happened and what we intended to do.

Larry was finally able to talk to the Europcar representative. He had three cars left: a BMW for £2000 (uh…no), a manual transmission one for considerably less (again, no), or a Toyota hybrid at a premium price. Since this was the only reasonable choice, we took it. (We assumed the young couple took the manual transmission one since Larry would have in his younger days.)

We soon discovered our car had no GPS. And since the youngsters had already left, we no longer had access to wi-fi. Which meant, we couldn’t get to Google Maps. Which meant, we couldn’t figure out how to get from the airport to the hotel.

Larry went back inside and asked for a map. The only one they had showed England on one side and Scotland on the other. Neither was a street map. The Scotland one did show the major routes, including the one into Glasgow.

So, we headed out on that one toward the city center. I called the Jurys Inn hotel and finally reached someone at the front desk—not an easy accomplishment. Unfortunately, NONE of the people were drivers and could not tell us how to get there. Their only suggestion was to go to the city center and locate the hotel once we got there.

I hung up, and we kept on to the center of the city.

Once we were off the motorway, I called back to the hotel and this time found someone who actually drove. BUT she said she didn’t know the street names. (And finding them is a real challenge anyway. IF they exist, they are shown on the side of the building, and you can’t read them until you are already there, when you can’t make the turn. And this was at night.)

It was now about nine-thirty. We were tired and beyond frustrated.

We kept calling out landmarks we passed for about fifteen minutes, changing direction from time to time, until we saw a landmark she recognized. The issue became more complicated because so many of the streets were one-way.

However, our navigator finally managed to get us to the hotel—in a somewhat dodgy area of town, judging from the graffiti on the walls.

We pulled up in front, registered, and dropped our bags in our room. Then we went back down and followed further complex directions to get to the car park facility across the street. (Of course, this involved going several blocks, taking a road in a loop to get back to a street near the hotel. Then another couple of turns until we finally found the entrance to the car park. We had to follow the route twice because we missed the entrance the first time.)

We finally got to our room after ten, thoroughly exhausted and hungry. We made instant coffee and ate protein bars before getting into bed for the night, thoroughly frustrated and totally worn out.