An update from Leatherhead!

Finally, I've made it to my uncle's house!

It's quite late right now and I'm very tired, so I won't regale you all with the awful details of how I got here; suffice to say, US Airways finally just stuck us all on coaches and we drove south through the British Isles until we got to Gatwick about two hours ago. Now I'm happily tucked away in the room I've got to myself here, with a cup of tea and just enough energy to post some photographs before I turn in.

I have to say, I made some wonderful friends while I was stuck in Scotland. Pictured to the left are three awesome folks who also got stranded with me in Glasgow; Angie, her lovely hubby Mike, and Kohi, a Toronto native studying abroad for a semester in South England. We became sort of a quartet over the course of the past two days, keeping each other company and making sure we all stayed relatively chipper and upbeat despite the circumstances. I took this picture this morning at the Glynhill Hotel right before we boarded the coaches that took us to Glasgow Airport... where, obviously, we did not make out connecting flight to Gatwick.

Here's one of us all together, but I look pretty goofy. And my scarf doesn't match!

We got on the road to London at around 1:00pm, and I took a few snapshots of the countryside out the coach window:

These are a bit small, so I might post bigger resolution images tomorrow. Unfortunately I was facing the wrong way in the coach and so couldn't get any shots of the mountains, but they reminded me a lot of the way the Appalachian foothills cradle the Tennessee Valley back home.

We stopped at a few very nice service stations, and while browsing for munchies, Kohi and I stumbled across the weirdest food dish I've encountered thus far:

Very weird.

And on that note, I'm going to finish off my cup of tea and crawl into bed. Good night!

A quick note on food.

I can in no way suppose that this is the case all across Scotland, but I do think it is interesting that at both the Holiday Inn and the Glynhill Hotel, I was provided the same sort of celery-potato-leak soup at meal time. I thought it was interesting that they didn't even ask, "Would you like soup?" but just.. assumed that logically, I would want soup. Why wouldn't I?

Anyway, it had a very nice flavor that reminded me of this potato soup that my mother's friend Susan Shellman, who passed away while I was in high school, used to make. So I'm wondering if maybe the recipes are similar, and if her recipe was inspired by this one.

Just some food for thought (no pun intended) while I try to make my way south to London. Assuming I get in, my step-grandmother and my grandfather have invited me out to see Cirque du Soleil with them at Albert Hall, which would be fantastic. I saw Cirque when they came to Huntsville early last year and maintain that that night was the best night of entertainment I've had in a long time.

Hello from sunny... Glasgow?

Yep.

If I look exhausted and bedraggled, it's because I am. However, despite the noticeably displeased expression on my face, my day has actually ended comparatively well given how lousy it was up until... well, I'd say an hour ago. I'm posting this update from my hotel room, by the way. Free wi-fi!

Monday night, January 4th, I was essentially up all night long unpacking and repacking my belongings, in an effort to make sure that I didn't forget anything important. Thus far, it appears that I haven't, which is apparently a testament to my wonderful packing skills!

To save you enduring the gory details of how I ended up in Glasgow, Scotland (technically Renfrew), instead of in Leatherhead, England with my family as planned, I've just got one word for you: snow. Snow, and lots of it. Here's an excerpt from the Telegraph:

"The South, including London and the Home Counties, was expected to bear the brunt of the snowfall overnight and early on Tuesday, with emergency services saying that they were already struggling to cope with the increasingly bitter conditions . . . Scores of rail services and flights were cancelled as temperatures struggled to get above freezing. On Monday night, temperatures dropped to as low as -14C (7F) in some areas — the worst since 1995."

In other words, the airports all closed down, and the only place that could accept us was Glasgow, Scotland. We ended up spending nearly three hours on the runway, waiting inside the plane because the airline wanted to "wait and see" if Gatwick would start accepting flights again. I was frustrated that they couldn't let us at least deplane long enough to stretch our legs, especially because we actually had several sick children onboard the aircraft (which resulted in paramedics coming aboard to make sure there wasn't some kind of epidemic breaking out on the plane--quite the adventure). But apparently due to security concerns, if you deplane, you've got to go through customs... which I eventually did. The bright side? I have a shiny Scottish stamp in my passport now! I do love collecting passport stamps.

US Airways was supposed to reserve us all rooms at the Holiday Inn, but after spending an additional four hours with over 100 other people crammed into the reception area, we discovered that US Airways had in fact only reserved 50 rooms. 50 rooms, knowing that well over 100 people were going to the Holiday Inn in search of a place to spend the night. Ridiculous! Fortunately, one of the other passengers called up the airline representative and pitched such a fit that we ended up getting much nicer digs at this lovely little hotel, the Glynhill Hotel, located in Renfrew. (I think Renfrew is to Glasgow what Madison is to Huntsville.) The building itself is very old and has lots of personality, with all kinds of twisting, winding hallways and a very friendly (and good looking) porter who carried my bag all the way to my room for me. So for tonight, I'm enjoying the free wi-fi, the BBC, and trying to unwind a bit.

Tomorrow, yet another flight leaves for Gatwick at 9am, though I'm apprehensive about my chances of actually getting to Gatwick. With the weather not letting up at all, it's possible that I'll need to investigate flying from Glasgow to Oslo, instead of to Oslo through Heathrow. This would bother me for a number of reasons, primarily because the whole point of my arriving in the UK before going on to Norway was to spend time with family. But, this is the hand I've been dealt, so to speak, so I'm going to deal with it to the best of my abilities.

Time to relax, watch a bit of TV, and possibly make an early night of it. I'm exhausted!

edit: My lovely friend Von phoned me at my hotel to keep me company!

Vonnie is my silly British friend, and I took this photo of her last year during her visit to Huntsville in May. I was hoping that I'd be able to pop down to Winchester while in the UK, but that's not going to happen this time around.

Much as this whole travel experience has exhausted me so far, I'm glad that I've got such a strong network of friends and family to keep me grounded. I've been in fairly constant contact with my father, my uncle, my mother, and several of my friends both here in the UK and back home in the states. It's nice that these friendships don't stagnate just because there's a bit of distance between us.