After a Week Away

After such a wonderful holiday, it all ended on a bit of a downer, thanks initially to a computer glitch on the flight deck of our aircraft.  This meant we were over an hour late in leaving Budapest and the captain announced that we would not be able to land at Edinburgh, as scheduled, because the runway would be closed for planned maintenance by the time we arrived.  Instead, we were diverted to Glasgow airport.

This was bad enough news in itself, as we then were advised we had a coach ride to get to Edinburgh, but it was compounded when we were eventually allowed off the plane at Glasgow after waiting on the runway for half an hour as there were no Immigration staff on duty to inspect passports!

Finally through Immigration Control, we expected coaches to be waiting, but there was nothing and we had to hang around for another hour to then be told that coaches couldn't be found at that time of night, so a fleet of taxis was on its way.  Actually, the "fleet" was 10 taxis - for about 120 passengers!!!  Fortunately for us, priority was given to those with children (i.e. nobody!), those with medical conditions and those over 60.  We claimed a taxi on the latter grounds, so age has some benefits:-)

Goodness knows what time all the passengers got away, but we arrived at Edinburgh Airport at about 2.30 am, then had to wait for the courtesy coach to take us to our car park and finally got home at about 4 am.  Our friends L & A refused the offer of a bed for the night for various practical reasons and faced another hour of driving before they reached their own home. 

It wasn't meant to end like this and the blame for the shambles rests squarely with Jet2, the airline, which should have had contingency plans in place as soon as they knew the flight would miss the deadline for landing at Edinburgh.  Very poor show:-(

We slept like logs for seven hours and still feel only half awake, so it will be an early night tonight.  I didn't go further than the supermarket and the cattery, so took this shot of the garden which shows the changes after just one week.  It must have been windy while we were away, as the Boston Ivy is now bare and there were masses of leaves on the lawn from the sycamores in the park.

A quick glance at your photos shows some beauties, so I look forward to having more time tomorrow to start to catch up:-)