Blogs from Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe - page 17

Monday 4 July 2022. Day 2 on the West Highland Way (WHW) from Drymen to Balmaha. 7.8 miles by Garmin. 1043 feet Elevation gain. 5 hours 18 minutes walking. Last night we had the best night’s sleep since arriving in Scotland. Alarm woke us at 0620 to start the packing routine before breakfast at 0730. We all had our bags down for pickup and started the day’s walk by 0910. The four fast walkers took a different route from town to the trail but we all arrived at the same starting point for the WHW walk over Conic Hill and down to the scenic shores of Loch Lomond at Balmaha. The first 100 yards was through a beautiful natural foliage arbor. We were joined by several other groups of WHW walkers from the various hotels and ... read more

2 July 2022, Saturday Arrived in Milngavie, the starting point for the West Highland Way. Jet-lag affects one differently on different trips. Having slept little on the flight over to Edinburgh and with a 5 hour time zone change we slept better and longer the first night than last night. Finally got to sleep about 0500 local time and woke to the alarm at 0830. Organizing and packing for the train trip took more than an hour. Have to disconnect and pack the CPAPs; get the cords and adapters for charging the cell phones, watches and computers packed in the appropriate bags or in coats to carry. Thus we only got to our breakfast at about 1000. The standard hot British breakfast consists of sausage (links and blood), ham, broiled tomato halves, hash brown potato patties, ... read more

We woke up refreshed after our day of vacation from the vacation. My stomach seemed to suddenly be fine so we looked forward to a good day (and it was.) We found our way to the breakfast room; it was in the subbasement and very small for a hotel with at least 800 rooms. As a follow up to my comment earlier regarding certain types of travelers; if there is one thing we learned in our years and miles of travel, that no matter where we are in the world one thing always remains the same, people no matter where they are from have zero elevator etiquette. As we were going down to breakfast, we first let the man in a wheelchair on, then made sure he was comfortable with us also riding down with him, ... read more

Half of the day was on the train from inverness to Glasgow. I had hoped to get all caught up on the blog, but only managed one entry before I could no longer keep my eyes open. For most of the journey we had the entire first-class coach to ourselves. The scenery on the way down was very beautiful through the heart of the highlands. Sleep did win out for Jerry he was so tired his eyes were burning. I nodded off here and there while trying to take in the view. Our hotel here in Glasgow is actually at the train station, but not the station which we arrived. We could have walked, but again the luggage and being tired just screamed taxi. The taxi rank was directly in front of the station, so no ... read more

A last-minute change to the itinerary, the original plan was to combine a castle and scotch tour on our way to Inverness our next city on our tour. Instead, we opted to drive along the northern coast of the top of Aberdeenshire to explore a few more potential villages for retirement summers. It was a good decision. It was another beautiful day in Scotland, we are beginning to believe it really doesn’t rain here. Before heading out of town we picked up our laundry that we had dropped off when we first got her, much cheaper and better service than our cleaners in Rhode Island. Then we drove to the Bridge o’Balgowine, up until 1827 the only northern route out of Aberdeen was over the river Don on this single-arch bridge. The first burgh as they ... read more