Chronicle of a trip to Scotland: 3/29/04 - 3/30/04

home, Glasgow, Edinburgh

Departed BWI. We arrived very early and got checked in easily. We stopped in a shop just outside the baggage check to have a soda and pass the time. While we were chatting, the baggage check line grew to the point of stretching all the way around the international flight area, so that we had to wait in line for well over an hour everyone in line was late for their flights. Apparently, there was a heightened security check on at the time, but none of us was aware of that.

The flight was fine - we even had empty seats beside us to make things more comfortable. We had dinner of chicken cordon bleu, which wasn't bad. We arrived late to Reykjavik because of the delay at BWI, but they had held our connecting flight for us. Jo couldn't find her passport at first, which she'd just put in her purse instead of her pocket. The second flight was crowded, but fine. They served us breakfast of eggs, tomato, and sausage. We arrived in Glasgow not too terribly late.

The rental car from Europcar was not what was reserved - it was much smaller. We had reserved a moderate-sized wagon, and they had a hatch-back for us. Our luggage wouldn't fit at all. We lost a lot of time arranging for a bigger car, but Europcar was very accommodating, giving us a minivan to take to Edinburgh, and then bringing out the promised estate car that evening to our B&B. The car we ended up with was a very nice Skoda Octavia, which drove beautifully and had lots of power despite being a diesel, and got amazingly good gas mileage. We drove around 2000 miles and only filled up three times, and never got the tank close to empty.

After the long wait for the car, we wanted to hurry and have lunch so we'd have time to do one thing in Glasgow before heading out to Edinburgh. As a result, we stopped at a McDonald's as our first meal in Scotland. Jo tried something new - a vegetarian chicken burger on their menu. (Not bad, not great.)

Then we headed to St. Mungo's (Glasgow) Cathedral in downtown Glasgow. Our approach proved interesting, both because we couldn't find anywhere to park (Wayne dropped us off and spent a long time searching for parking before arriving to join us) and because the three of us were approached by a slightly-drunk local who really wanted to talk to us, but we had a great deal of difficulty understanding him, between the thick Glaswegian accent and the slurred speech. He kept pointing out things in the cemetery, including supposedly where "Wee Willie Winkie" was. When we finally got into the cathedral, the guards wouldn't let the man come in - apparently he had come in and starting yelling obscenities the day before, so they had banned him, even though he'd come many times before and behaved. It was a strange experience. St. Mungo's is a beautiful cathedral with some interesting history. The guides were very happy to answer questions and tell stories. We learned of a story of the Catholic loss of the church, where the people were so angry with the Catholics that they started attacking the bases of the pillars with swords, leaving heavy scar marks across the stone pillars at the bottom. Local tradesmen took a stand to save the church before it was burned, and there are windows in the church dedicated to these tradesmen for their heroism.

After the tour of the cathedral, we drove to Edinburgh and stopped at Sherwood Guest House, our home for the next three days. The rooms were nice, but tiny. We showered, which was quite a relief after the long hours of traveling, and then waited for the rental car exchange. After this, we walked down the street to an Indian place called Lasani, which served us an excellent meal - we were the only sit-in customers there. We tried a few phone calls, picked up some snacks at a local newsagent, and went back to the B&B. Wayne and I played Fluxx, had tea and oat flips, and went to bed. During that first day we saw lots of Magpies, Rooks, and a few Wood Doves.