This morning, we left London
for our LondonAway in Scotland.
We’re staying in Dalkeith, a smaller town just outside Edinburgh. Our coach bus picked us up at 10
am; we were the last group to leave. The group to Brussels had to go at 4:30 this morning. No
thank you. When we got on the bus, we were excited to see that both the AC and
bathroom were operational, since we’ve had some bad luck with coach buses on
this trip. When the AC was turned on, however, I discovered that where most
people had a sliding grate to regulate the airflow, I had a gaping hole. But
Christine and I creatively managed to patch the hole with her old luggage tag
and band-aids, and shockingly (with a few close calls) the patch held all the
way to Edinburgh.
We were just a pair of regular MacGyvers.
We were required to make two 45 minute rest stops. At the
first one, there was a grocery store that had a package of green beans on sale.
I’m fairly certain they were being sold as side for a family dinner, but I had
them finished by the time we reached Dalkeith. I’ve been pretty starved for
veggies; Sainsbury’s Local does not have a great selection.
Our second break was a disaster. We stopped at a small gas
station and equally small rest stop. None of the bathrooms had bathroom paper
(Alison started unrolling napkins from around the silverware), the cash machine
was frozen, and the coffee machine broke down. Not a fun place to kill 45
minutes.
The ride (without our two stops) would have taken about 7.5
hours. It’s wild to me that we traveled almost the entire length of Great Britain in only a little longer than it
takes to travel across Wisconsin.
Before we arrived, we were concerned about the fact that we
were staying in Dalkeith, which is a half hour outside of Edinburgh. Then we saw the house…
Dalkeith
Palace was built in 1711,
and served as a palace for hundreds of years. George III stayed here, as well as
Queen Victoria and Oliver Cromwell. Since 1984, the University of Wisconsin
has run it, so the interior looks a lot like dorms at this point, but the
overall structure is still the same, and the exterior is beautiful.
I ended up in a 3 girl room, and the room is totally full of
furniture. We have three beds, and a ton of wardrobes. We were certain we’d
find Narnia in one. That’s the sense the estate has. It feels like you’re in a
novel where someone discovers a magical world.
After we got an orientation and picked up some dinner (which
was an adventure in itself), we ate it out on the picnic tables on the grounds.
Dalkeith sits on 800 acres, which now function as a grand park. Because we’re
so far north, it’s light most of the night, so even though it was nearly 10 pm,
we walked around a bit and took pictures. Then, we decided to explore the
inside of the house.
In the basement, we found a ping-pong room, a weight room,
and a pool hall. Clearly, this is a place college students stay. The house also
has a ballroom and a grand stair case. We had fun walking around and guessing
what the rooms might have been once. We found the servants’ stair and the area
of the house that was probably their space, and is now a study lounge. Many of
the rooms have doors that are nearly invisible in the walls, and we opened
every one we could find, hoping to find Narnia. No such luck. Finally, I
quickly checked in with the family from the wifi in the library, and then fell
asleep writing this blog post.
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