Air travel is much like transporters from science fiction. You walk into a metal box here, and walk out somewhere completely different. Even if you're staring out the windows during the flight, it still feels much like an amusement park trick, that it can't possibly be real to travel so far so quickly.

It only took three of these transporters to take us from Los Angeles to Edinburgh. First, a flight up to San Francisco, then to London, and on to Edinburgh. The first flight went without fanfare, much like any other type of commuter line.

In San Francisco, we approached the long long line of people waiting to check in for our flight, and realized they were in the Economy line. The "Premium Economy" line was about 3 people deep. The privelege of flying on someone else's money! When we got to the counter we found out the flight was overbooked, and we had been upgraded to Upper Class for the flight. Couldn't have planned it better myself.

Unless you have unlimited cash, I'm not sure it's worth the cost, but Upper Class air travel on Virgin Atlantic is posh. Good food, enough legroom you can't kick the seat in front of you, free liquor if that tickles your fancy, and a private 6 inch monitor for watching the in-flight entertainment. You also get a spare pair of lounging socks, a sleep-mask, and a "wakey-wakey kit" with some lotions, a toothbrush, a shoeshine cloth, that sort of thing. Instead of a plastic bag with airline peanuts, there are cashews in a porcelain bowl. Threre's a menu for the dining choices, and the food is served with some far-too-cute airplane-engine shaped salt & pepper shakers christened with "Pinched from Virgin Atlantic" on their feet. Unfortunately, we had no access to the Upper Class lounge on either end of the flight, which offer an equivalently swanky experience for the airline terminals themselves. But all in all, no reason to complain.

We arrived in London, got to clear customs, and headed to the next flight. The incoming flight was late, so we just barely made our transfer, thus saving us from time wandering around the terminals aimlessly. (We got to do that in San Francisco, on the other end of the delay.)

The final hop up to Edinburgh, and we were now in a Foreign Land. Even more foreign than Los Angeles. At the airport, we apparently broke some rule about an airport taxi monopoly by hailing a regular city cab, we got a taxi to our hotel without any further waiting or hassle.