Saturday, August 27, Day 21

Our hotel was literally across the street from the Edinburgh Airport. We awoke at 6am for a 9:30am flight which was to take us from Edinburgh to Newark and from Newark to SFO. As we were having breakfast in the hotel's restaurant, I discovered that our flight...and all flights...to Newark had been cancelled because of the hurricane that was pummeling the East Coast of the US.

So, we left our bags on a baggage cart at the hotel and headed across the street to the airport. We went up to a Continental rep and she handed us a sheet of paper which set forth our rights as passengers on a cancelled flight. She informed us that there would be no flights to Newark until Tuesday!! She then told us, if we wanted to try and make other flight arrangements, we could go "over there". "Over there" was a Continental counter with two Continental reps and a line of about 150 people...which was not moving. Not knowing quite what to do, we moseyed "over there" and stood at the end of the line...which was still not moving...and I had visions that we would still be standing there the same time tomorrow. Margaret suggested that we might spend the next three days at St. Andrews.

I decided that there was no reason for both of us to be standing in this non-moving line and announced that I would return to the hotel and go on line to see if other arrangements could be made. In the meantime, Margaret had called Continental and was on hold forever. As I started to walk back to the hotel, a light bulb went on, and I went back to the woman who had handed us our rights sheet of paper and asked..."Is there a different line for first class passengers?" She asked to see our tickets and then immediately marched me to the counter where, in 10 minutes, we had a flight to London and from London to SFO. Only problem was, it was almost eight thirty and the flight to London departed at 9:20. So I hightailed it back to the hotel with a very unhappy cabbie who had been waiting in line to take someone to the city center for a nice fare. And here I was, asking him to drive me a block to the hotel so I could gather up our luggage. In the meantime, Margaret was running interference with the Continental people, arranging to get our bags checked.

The cabbie was a Knight. Although he wasn't happy about it, he realized the urgency of the situation and we flew back to the hotel...he insisted on loading the bags himself... and we flew back to the airport. It was pouring rain. He was wearing shorts. He got out of the cab and, literally, ran to find a baggage cart and then insisted on pushing the cart to the airport gate. I gave him all the pounds I had left, 18, for a 3 pound cab ride. He was a lifesaver. Not only did we catch our flight, we got into SFO an hour and a half earlier than we would have if we went via Newark.

An exciting end to a fabulous trip.