Day 21: In which we arrive home

 Four in the morning is an ungodly hour.  Yet, that is the hour we had to be awake to get ready for our flight.  Up at 4.  Down for breakfast by 5.  Meet the OCS attendants at 5:45.  Be at the airport as quickly as OCS attendants can walk, which, for the record, is pretty darn fast.

I cannot say enough about OCS.  The attendants are polite and cheerful, even at 5:45 in the morning.  They are constantly checking in, seeing if we wanted to stop at cafes before checking in our luggage, and pointing out cafes, washrooms, and bar near our gate once through security.  Considering our later experience at Pearson, I've said it before and will say it again, Glasgow Airport can give lessons to Pearson in customer service.

With the help of OCS, we were through luggage check in, security, and at our gate by 6:30.  It gave us plenty of time for coffee, tea, and a comfort break before boarding.  

As we need special assistance, we get on first, and as we make Laura carry all our hand luggage, getting on first is rather handy.  Being in the first row is equally handy.

By some miracle, we took off exactly on time and then we had an uneventful flight.  When one is flying, one wants an uneventful flight.  A second miracle occurred and we landed 20 minutes early. As Laura had done our customs declaration while waiting for the flight to unload (as we need special assistance, we're the last ones off) customs was a breeze.  Denise has a history of customs being a problem, for reasons we've never understood, so the speed through customs was the third miracle for the day.  With so many miracles, we should qualify for sainthood.

What was not a breeze was the lack of attendants.  We had one for the two of us, and while he handled both chairs with aplomb and considerable speed, it highlighted the difference in service between Glasgow and Pearson.  

Our driver for our ride service home had kept up with the flight and thus knew it was early, so there he was waiting for us.  Just like our driver down to the airport, this one was affable and told terrible jokes.  As our family has an appreciation for terrible jokes and puns, it was an amusing ride.

I came home and promptly flooped.

The ladies headed off for the most important part of the day: picking up our dog.  

Thora literally jumped on Laura upon seeing her and we've been told our dog is a wonderful house guest welcome back any time.  Apparently, she also slept on the carer's bed, which we're sure Thora enjoyed.  She has a great appreciation for human beds.  Thora also became fast friends with her carer's dog.  She's friendly like that.

Thora and I were reunited once the ladies said hello to a half dozen neighbours on the way back.  We learned important dog information that a new dog will soon be joining our neighbourhood.

 As we've been up since 11pm Canadian time, we're off to bed early.  I'd love to say something greatly philosophical or meaningful about our trip, but there are no words for how spectacular everything and everyone was in Scotland.  I can only hope I'll be there again sooner rather than later.

Day 20: In which we pack up and prepare

 This was supposed to be a day of rest and relaxation and recouping from our journey to the Highlands and Lowlands of Scotland.  For the most part, we were successful but we did have a serious hiccup with our hotel room: our lock didn't work. 

One of the basic functions of a door is the ability to go in and out of it at will.  This did not happen with our hotel room last night, leaving Laura and Denise to go up and down to the front desk, first thinking our key cards demagnetized, then discovering the problem was with the equipment, not us.

Have you ever heard of a door lock's battery dying?  Well, that's what happened to us and we were so late in last night that no one in evening maintenance knew how to change it.  Thus, we were left with two options: 1) switch rooms, 2) have someone with a master key let us in our room every time we left it.   We went with option 2.  Since we were in for the night, we'd only need the front desk again after breakfast.

The morning came and Laura set her alarm but forgot to set a sound for it, so she was up much later than expected, but we made it down for breakfast just before 10.  Since the breakfast went until 10:30, we had time to spare.  Laura and I had omelets, while Denise had almost a full Scottish breakfast, but couldn't be convinced to have blood pudding or haggis.

The staff at the Marriott bent over backwards for us, and even let us check out at 1pm for all our troubles.  As for the lock, it did get fixed but they're aware something else is going wrong with it. It's a good thing one of concierges let us in after breakfast. 

At exactly five to one we left our hotel rooms and headed for checkout.  For a bit of interest, with the world cycling championships being held in Glasgow, our hotel had to deal with teams Canada, USA, France, Australia, and New Zealand.  There may have been more but those were the uniforms we saw wandering through the hotel.

A traditional black cab loaded most of our stuff in the area where most cars have the front passenger seat.  The cabbie was amused at our askance that a black cab could hold us and our stuff, but it did with room to spare.  A short cab ride later, we arrived at the Glasgow Airport Holiday Inn, checked in and flooped (again, with a complete lack of grace as we're all tired) in our rooms until dinner time.

Dinner was simple but yummy and yet a little sad as it's our last full day in Scotland.

 

We skipped desert in favour of hot chocolate in our rooms so this blog could be completed early.  Why so early?  Tomorrow we have to be up at 4am, have breakfast and cleared our rooms before 5:30, because at 5:30, OCS comes to pick us up to take us across the way for all the airport security.  I can't believe how nonplussed I am about it as OCS has just whisked us through everything before without one hassle and I expect the same thing tomorrow.

Stay tuned to see if Denise has trouble with Canadian Customs as she has for our last two trips.

Day 19: In which I would drive 500 miles...

 Actually, it was 540km but that doesn't fit with the song lyrics.  Also, I didn't drive, my tour guide, John, did.  Still, the title works.

We were early risers and somehow ready for our tour to start at 8:30.  This tour was to include a round trip into the highlands as gifted to us for our anniversary and birthday presents from Laura, who had arranged everything. 

We met our be-kilted guide outside our hotel and discovered our ride for the day was an Audi, how posh! Our tour guide was John Duthie and he was in full Scottish regalia so we were already amused.  Fortunately, John was a knowledgeable and affable guide, which is good as he had to spend 12 hours with us.  

Heading west, we passed Dumbarton Castle, Laura's white whale of places to visit in Scotland.  Every time she's here, it's closed. This time around she thought it would be different.  She had tickets and everything, when they suddenly closed and refunded them.  So the brief glimpse she had as we drove past had to suffice.

Our first stop of the day was Loch Lomond.  I honestly can't say if we took the high or low road there, but we still arrived.

We stopped to admire the view and Laura snapped a quick picture of Denise and our very Scottish guide before we moved on.

Today was much better weather than the last time Laura was at Loch Lomond.  This time she came away perfectly dry.  The weather was a bit overcast, but it was not the torrential rain of her day out here 24 years ago.  An interesting fact, Laura went to Loch Lomond the first time with Dana, who was featured on this blog previously.

We drove through some pretty Scottish villages, and Laura had to capture the garden of a house in Luss, as it exemplifies how some people in the UK take gardening very seriously.

John pointed out the exact moment we crossed over from the Lowlands to the Highlands while we were making our way up through to Glencoe. The scenery was spectacular.

While John was regaling us with stories about Glencoe, Laura and Denise had an interesting observation.  Two years ago they were in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia and found the history of the place overshadowed by the number of tourists and the way everyone there was trying to sell something.  They had the same impression of Glencoe.  It didn't help that the entire population of a small country picked today to visit Glencoe.  We were like salmon swimming upstream trying to get into the cafe, where hot chocolates and food were had.  Next came the time to learn about Glencoe itself.  

Honestly, we learned far more from John than we did the visitor centre but we did take a picture of the three of us as proof we were there.

We left and while I would post a picture of Ben Nevis, a cloud rudely hid it from us.

One other interesting stop was the memorial to the lost commandos of WWII.  Laura took picture to show Kevin at home as he has an encyclopedic knowledge of all things WWII.

Across from the memorial, we caught a glimpse of one of those Cold War bunkers, the ones people actually thought would protect them from the nuclear bomb.  Oh the naivete of people during the Cold War.

Did I mention we saw sheep?  We estimate we only saw a couple hundred thousand of them rather than the four million in Shetland.  On the way Laura was hoping to see a some Highland cattle while in the Highlands, but I will not leave anyone in any suspense.  All Highland cattle hid from Laura.  Instead, she had to be amused by the tour bus company called The Hairy Coo.  We saw plenty of those buses today.

The first part of our trip featured famous lochs, though there were a few lesser-known ones like Loch Oich and Loch Lochy.  Sadly the latter is not just called the Scottish version of "Lake Lake" but rather an English bastardization of a now lost word.

The second famous loch was Loch Ness.  We came to it through Fort Augustus, which was as tiny a town as Fort William was large, but as busy as Fort William seemed empty, some strange dichotomies there.

While Fort Augustus was yet another Lunenburg, the Loch itself reminded us of home on Georgian Bay.  It was windy and the water was choppy.  It was also distinctly lacking in monsters.

This is where our guide had a stroke of absolute genius. He took us for tea and sweets to the Glengarry Castle Hotel in Invergarry, which was a little off the beaten path, but well-worth the visit.  Not only was it a beautiful building:

But also had a beautiful outlook:

We sat in their lounge, looked out over Loch Oich, and ate delicious food.  

I had coffee and a fruitcake that reminded me of my mother's.  Denise had tea with a lemon honey cake and John and Laura both had a scone with cream and jam.  Laura forgot to take a picture of it before we all tucked in, but if you're imagining a beautiful tea service with perfect-sized cakes, you might be close to understanding how wonderful it was.

The hotel even comes with its own castle on the grounds, the ruins of Glengarry Castle.

I have now found a place I definitely want to stay on my next trip to Scotland.  It's a little Highland gem that everyone should know about.

This was really our turnaround point to returning to Glasgow.  Sure we took the extended scenic route and saw the River Tay, and Pitlochry (where the entire small country that went to Glencoe had moved to for the early evening), and John was both informative and entertaining, but nothing can live up to that lounge in the Glengarry Castle Hotel.

I would like to add that every mile or so we had some point of interest along the way to look at: like Denise saw the house used in Monarch of the Glen, and we saw a monument to some Canadian war engineers who died saving the lives of others, but to list them all would make this blog have more words than Shetland has sheep.

On our way back to Glasgow, Denise learned about the Antonine Wall and we caught a glimpse of Stirling Castle, which we first visited 24 years ago.

Upon arriving back at the hotel, we said goodbye to John, who did an exemplary job, and we told him so.  

Dinner was organized in the hotel restaurant, who expected us at 8:30 and we walked in at 8:33 (thanks John).  It was delicious and the staff and chef couldn't be more attentive and we closed the place down and headed for bed thinking our day was done.

Plot twist! It wasn't.  Stay tuned for that story tomorrow.