Okay, here is sistuation: on my son's birthday we needed to be out of the flat and on our way down to Plymouth. That is quite the trip, basically from one end of the UK to the other. But the question was how to get there. By car made the most sense. So, all I had to do was rent a car right? I mean, how hard can that be?
Well it was Easter weekend and every major national car company was litterally sold out in Scotland. There was not one single car available anywhere. So I broadened my search down to England. I was on the phone with a rental car company which shall remain nameless, and I asked about the next major city across the Scottish boarder, Newcastle. They had a vehicle big enough. YEAH!!! So at 6am I caught a train for Newcastle, about an hour and forthy-five minutes away on the east coast.
When I arrived I looked at the map to figure out where they were located, and found, or rather, didn't find the name of the road they were located on. So I called them to find out where they were located.
"Hey, I'm having a tough time finding Liverpool Rd, there's a Liverpool St. but no road."
"Not a problem, ... Which Newcastle are you in?"
The 'which Newcastle are you in?' question gave me a sinking feeling.
"Newcastle-upon-Tyme"
"Right, we are located in Newcastle-under-Lyme"
"...okay...how far away is that from here?"
"It's only about 200 miles south."
Let's just say I wasn't amused. Well, they put me intouch with the branch in the correct Newcastle, and I was able to rent their last car, smaller than I had planned. They almost didn't rent it to me as I hadn't brought two pieces of paper proving I lived where I said I did. But, through my great powers of persuasion I was able to convience them that my Student ID card and my MBA Business Card was proof enough.
I drove back, and spent the day dropping off luggage with friends to store for us until we get back. It only took until about 11pm to leave, and by the time we dropped off the keys to the letting agency, I had 12 hours to drive down to Plymouth.
My son, came to me and asked why he had to work on his birthday, and how come he didn't get to open any presents on his birthday. To which I responded, "Son, just think about it. On your nineth birthday, your parents had the wisdom to teach you the value of work. And I can guarantee that no other kid can say that they got such a great gift as what we just gave you."
"dad... it's okay... you don't have to give me that gift. I'll take a present and I won't complain at all."
Obviously, he didn't buy that one bit. But the day before I had let him choose both the hotel we would stay at in Barcelona, and how we would get there, either by ferry or by plane, and he picked by ferry. So that was our day. And we now bid farewell to Edinburgh... for now.
We had just enough time to make it to Wotton-under-edge before returning the rental car. I didn't get to spend more than 15 minutes in the town, however we really liked it and plan on coming back when we head back to Edinburgh and spend a day or two in this town, the roots of the Thatcher family. I didn't get any good pictures, mostly due to time, but will provide better information later.
e where they filmed part of the Harry Potter movies, and scores of other movies (Robin Hood Prince of Theives, Ivanhoe [just found out we live a block away from where Sir Walter Scott was born, we can see it out our back window], Blackadder, and dozens of others). A very neat place, not to mention the family still live there. They open up the castle for visitors until 5pm when they take over the entire place. Anyone recognize which scene this photo above was in the Harry Potter movie?
