West Highland Way July 2022

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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, eggs (boiled, sunny side up, or scrambled), brown beans and assorted bread for toast. Our restaurant included in the buffet breakfast, croissants (they were all gone today), make your own coffee machines of 6 to 8 different selections, tart currant and berry with strawberries, yoghurt and dried fruit and nuts. One could also make a pancake or warm a packaged waffle. We did not go away hungry.

We had purchased two post cards for our grand daughters, which were written and addressed. The cards were of the cattle of Scotland and various scenes and the traditional kilt and dress. Checkout time was 11:00 so we had little time to spare before we were down the lift with our bags and out the door.

Our first stop was the post office, open on Saturday morning, to buy stamps. The price of the stamps for the cards to mail from UK to US was a bit of a shock at $2.50 each. Worldwide inflation and the $ is strong! Current exchange rate is about $1.22 per 1GBP. (Great Britain Pound).

We rolled our bags, carried our back packs and walked the 10 minutes to the Post Office. It was a historic building as well inside a nice shop. Two large lettered signs described the evolution of the several locations of the Charing Cross Post Office and the buildings. This task completed we then found our way back to the Charing Cross Train station, bought our ticket to Milngavie (pronounced mul - guy) for only 1 GBP each and made it to the platform for the 1210 train. The trip was about 21 minutes with several stops. The last being Milngavie so we did not have to hustle to get our things off the train at a brief intermittent stop.

The Premier Inn was a 0.8 mile walk with bags of irregular, broken stone and concrete walks and curbs to the Hotel. Traffic pays no mind to pedestrians so one has to be very vigilant to, "look right and stay left." And about half way to the hotel the rains came down in a sudden burst. By the time we got our rain covers over the back packs it had ceased.

Using Whatsapp we can all communicate on cell phone with each of the other members. Those who do not use Google FI cell phone service which works world wide, pay for cellular text service outside the US. So use this with wifi not cellular data. We can be in contact with any service at anytime with our Google FI service. Our group is Jo and Sandy from Sun City Anthem in Henderson, NV, the two of us, Norma from Louisville, KY and Lee Brand from Tampa Bay, FL. We met Lee on the Portuguese Camino to Santiago from Porto in 2016. The others all did the Coast to Coast, Wainwright trail across England, the grand daddy of the long walks in Great Britain.

So I must return to yesterdays blog and correct several things and add a few omissions.

And now from my dear wife, who usually finds my mistakes.

Wife here: I want to add a few lines--readers have said we have different styles and usually cover different topics. I use the blog to jog my memory as to sights, sounds and emotions connected with a locale--it helps to bring back authentic memories.

- Several in our party went to Edinburgh on the free day as they did not find the hidden delights of Glasgow. We had been briefly in Glasgow some time ago and I find it a very interesting city. Edinburgh is classy and a delight to the eyes. Glasgow, in contrast, is a 'gritty' city and I sometimes think of the scenes of NYC in the 80's when we first ventured into that city. Both cities could certainly benefit by Merry Maid teams coming in and doing a thorough cleaning! There are friezes on the old Stock Exchange building that are representative medallions of the three industries that 'made' Glasgow prosperous during its heyday: building, engineering and mining.

But the big surprise is the monster Edwardian Baroque Mitchell Library, one of the largest public libraries in Europe. It has over 1,213,000 volumes. Andrew Carnegie laid the foundation stone in 1907. The native lad of Scotland established the Carnegie library system in U.S.-what a legacy.

The departure hour will come soon--have to backtrack .8 miles to the starting point! Umm--the neat part is that the starting point is in a lovely village with many flowers and interesting shops--good thing there is absolutely no room in the suitcase!

Post Note: We were informed that we must pay extra for our CPAP bag to be transferred. Seems the original travel company merged with another who changed the original agreement. Far better though than having to drag it 12 miles across the terrain.

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