Today is Wednesday, July 27, 2022. Elliot and I have returned from our European trip that ended yesterday with our return on an American Airlines flight that left London at 5 p.m. British summer time. We visited London and then Edinburgh, Scotland, where we spent a night, really, at a British seaside resort called Blackpool that Elliot fell in love with after viewing the 1960 film The Entertainer starring Sir Laurence Olivier and his soon-to-be wife Joan Plowright who plays his daughter in the movie. The reality of the town which features amusement arcades, rides including vintage wooden roller coasters, which I didn’t get on, and the landmark Blackpool Tower, built in 1894, which I did pay to ride the elevator to the very top where I got a complimentary drink from the bar, is one of faded glory. The area seems a little scuzzy and seedy, but this is what Elliot had expected anyway.

The real highlight of the trip was meeting up with a cousin in London whom I’ve never set eyes on until Saturday, July 16, when I met him at our hotel in the heart of Bloomsbury called the Mentone Hotel. He brought pictures with him and an extensive family tree that he said was now mine. I brought some pictures of my family as well to show him.

After this remarkable meeting, Elliot and I took Brit Rail to Scotland, which was about a 4-and-a- half-hour journey. Then we spent five days in Edinburgh, where we took two day-long minibus excursions to Loch Ness (the site of the supposed “Loch Ness Monster”) and St. Andrews, the Highlands of Scotland, and the fishing villages of Fife, and took a 90-minute boat ride called Maid of the Forth which sailed under all three Forth Bridges in Edinburgh. Going through the city of Edinburgh itself, Elliot and I toured St. Giles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh’s principal church for over a thousand years, and the Palace of Holyroodhouse, which is still used by the current Queen of England and her family when she visits Scotland. I visited a Writers Museum on my own which pays homage to three writers: Robert Louis Stevenson, Sir Walter Scott, and Robert Burns, all fellow Scotsmen. All in all, the trip was very enjoyable and informative, except for one quibble that I had: no one was wearing a mask anywhere generally, both in London and in Scotland. So Elliot and I had to don a mask in most venues.

I’m still acclimating myself to the time difference between London and New York, so my blog tonight will be a short one. Yesterday, I went to bed close to 1 a.m. here, but it would be close to 6 a.m. in London. So it will take a little time to adjust, I suppose.

Oh, need I mention how lucky we were in leaving London just two days before an oppressive heat wave settled in and scorched the population as we traveled to Edinburgh which was less humid and sticky. We had good weather throughout the trip, I must say. We even missed the heat that descended on the Northeast while we were away. So we just had exceedingly good luck with the weather overall. As you might expect, hotels in London are not air conditioned for the most part, so it would have been unbearable for us if we had to stay during the length of the present heat wave. That would have not been much fun, I dare say.

Stay safe and be well.