Plenty of down time this morning, as our flight isn’t until 2:55pm and the airport is only about 20 minutes away on the bus.  We cool our heels as long as we can in the apartment, leaving exactly at 10am and stopping once again at Roasters for more coffee and to hang out as long as we can.  We finally make our way over to the bus stop – where an airport bus shows up immediately.  Way too early for us to get to the airport, but there is space on this bus and we don’t want to risk waiting only to find the next bus full – so on we go, onto what has to be the hottest bus on the planet!  The heat is blasting full power – and it’s like 80 degrees outside.  Yikes.  Thankfully the ride is fast, but still.  Eek.

Arriving at the airport – what a mess!  It is crazy busy, and of course we can’t check into to Ryan Air until 2 hours prior to the flight.  We get in line with hundreds of others in the same predicament – some with earlier flights, some with later.  The line moves at least, and the helpful airport/airline line “attendants” are really sweet – god knows how considering all the mean and upset passengers they have to deal with!  After a while, the line “guard” actually lets us in early – thank you Mr. Line “Guard”! – and we are able to check our bags with plenty of time to spare.

Then comes security.  OMG.  The security girl was a total witch. She directed people to each security line of which there were 4.  She shooed us down to the last line, which BTW was the longest, and wasn’t moving – at all! – for 15 minutes.  Meanwhile, the line next to us, which the people 2 behind us got to go into, moved at lightning speed. Talk about frustrating!  And she would NOT let us switch lines.  I was so steamed.  I actually tried to take a picture of her so I could get her name to complain, she saw me and came barreling over yelling at me that I couldn’t take a picture of her. Fortunately, the camera didn’t work so I didn’t have a picture and could prove it, but still.  International incident!  Cathy almost gets arrested in the Edinburgh airport!

20 minutes later we are finally through the damn security queues only to add insult to injury – the lounge is packed and we are on a waiting list.  After 20 minutes there, the sweet lounge attendant (who tried begging with his boss to let us in) told us to try the other 2 lounges – which we did – finally managing to get into the one near our gate, only to sit down and have a text that said the original lounge could accept us now.  Oh, this day……

Let me tell you how good that beer and wine tasted!  As did the shortbread we tried there – really good, and probably more traditional and really Scottish.  Who knows? It was good – and we were happy munching and drinking. 

Of course our plane was delayed – Ryan Air, remember? – but we know that drill and were positioned in the front of the line to board.  Once on the plane, the flight was smooth and fast with amazing views out the window.  First of the Scottish coastline and crazy, slammed in development and then of the Irish Coastline and beautiful farmland. 

Before we knew it, we were on the ground, grabbing our luggage and catching the shuttle over to the Clayton Airport hotel, our final stop for the evening.  After organizing and confirming our room really did have air (only one wing of the hotel has A/C) and making sure the stupid window was shut (yeah, we did that again – it was so noisy, until we realized the problem!) we headed downstairs to the lobby for dinner in the Playwright Bar, a really nice, huge bar with comfy seating and a perfect pub grub menu.  Fish and chips for Ed, a crispy Chicken Burger for me (not what I was expecting, but a nicely sort of fried piece of chicken breast on a bun), beer and wine – and all was good.

Exactly as we planned!  Back to the room, back to TV, and our last night landside before heading to our home for the next few weeks, Azamara Quest.