Blogs from Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe - page 2

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

Having been allowed a lie-in until what holiday-Claire calls almost lunchtime……7:30am…..we headed into town. Glasgow was very quiet and yes I know it’s Sunday but, for such a populous city, the streets were mainly devoid of what you may know as people. Great stuff. We had a few hours until we were due to checkout so plenty of time to walk to the cathedral and necropolis. There are plenty of old buildings in Glasgow to photograph, plenty of decay and dereliction too as well as litter bins almost as tall as Claire! What a city! Somehow she didn’t fall in any and didn’t accidentally fall into the cat cafe we passed either…..thank goodness we only had limited time!! Despite the walking last night and lots more today we still never found what could be described as ... read more

Remember in the good old days when you could just go on holiday without having to check whether you were actually allowed to go on holiday? When facemarks were just things worn in the far east and to filter Claire’s farts? It all seemed so simple back then. Save up, buy tickets, go. We’ll never take it for granted again! Even now, just driving up into Scotland, we had to check what the restrictions were up here and whether we needed to shove things into our mouths and noses beforehand. Things are a bit stricter up here as they’re lucky enough not to have the partying custard lump in charge of their guidelines and most people are more sensible and thoughtful about wearing masks. The drive up was a bit like driving in the States: turn ... read more