To the Land of Kilts and Bagpipes

And I’m off again! This time my destination is Glasgow and the country of Scotland. I was excited to leave the heat of Germany behind and arrive in the cloudy, mild climate of Scotland. It was going to be a very nice change. At this point I have been on the move and away from Delft for about a week. It feels much longer than that, but I’m not complaining! I’m now entering the part of the trip with my family that I had helped to plan out before leaving. That seemed so long ago now! The original flight over to Europe on Icelandic Air feels like it was a very long time ago. I’m lucky to be able to spend so long seeing so many different things.

Unfortunately, my cold from Munich followed me to Glasgow. I was hoping to leave it behind, but I didn’t do enough to ensure that I would be healthy. Ah well. I still was able to see Scotland and enjoy all of the sights, even if I went at a slower pace than I would have. Overall, I found Scotland to be beautiful. I appreciated how different it was from where I had come from. The architecture in Glasgow and Edinburgh was much different than that in Germany and the Netherlands. I could definitely tell that I was in a new country. I think this is the first time that I had experienced that to such a degree. Maybe it’s because going directly from Munich to Glasgow was a bit of a drastic shock. It was good though! In addition, the Scottish people were some of the friendliest people that I had met so far. Everywhere we went people were asking us if we needed help and were engaging in small talk with us. It was nice to see!

The thing I was looking forward to the most in the UK was returning to an English-speaking country. I never had any major issues in the six weeks in Holland and Germany, but I was just very excited to have everyone greet me in my native language and to be able to read every single menu. After six weeks, it’s one of the small things I was looking forward to.

Friday (8/14/2015) was my travel day from Munich to Glasgow. I don’t like flying very much, and this day did not help that. I probably had one of my worst days of the summer on this day just in traveling across Europe.

I woke up around 6:30 and got ready. I took advantage of the free breakfast in my Munich hotel, which included croissants, bread, deli meats, cheese, and fruit. I liked it. In South Dakota in 2012, we stayed at a German themed hotel and the breakfast everyday was bread, salami, and cheese. I liked it but my parents did not. This breakfast in Munich reminded me of that, except with more selection for deli meat and cheese. I found it pretty entertaining that I sitting in Munich reminded me of being in South Dakota, which is literally on the other side of the world.

After breakfast I checked out and took the 40 minute train ride to the airport. At the airport I checked in at the British airways counter and checked in one bag. Then I went through security pretty seamlessly and got another stamp in my passport. My flight was at 10:30, but was delayed about 30 minutes leaving Munich. Once in the air the journey was uneventful. Except that my head was still very congested, and the pressure and elevation change was not very pleasant. We landed at London Heathrow (where I had a layover) and we had to sit on the tarmac for about 20 minutes before a gate became available. By the time I got off the plane, I had about 45 minutes before the gates closed on my connecting flight. Normally I thought 45 minutes would be plenty of time, but I did not realize I had to go through security again. I followed signs to my connecting gate, and I ended up at the UK Border Control where I had to stand in line and get my passport stamped again. That was fine, but then I had to go all through security again. What could I have smuggled in since I last went through security in Munich? 

Well then. I didn't realize the border went through the airport.

I entered the security line at 12:35, and my gate closed at 12:55. It took me about 15 minutes to get through security, which gave me 5 minutes to rush to my gate. I ran there just to see that my flight to Glasgow had been delayed. They hadn’t even started boarding. The joys of traveling.

After the flight finally boarded, we sat on the tarmac for about 45 minutes waiting for our turn to take-off. Overall, we were about an hour behind schedule. The pilot decided to go fast to make up time. Normally I would appreciate that, but the very fast elevation change up and down gave me such a bad headache. We made it to Glasgow in 50 minutes, but I had never had been more in pain on a flight. Once on the ground it took over a day for my ear drums to fully adjust back to normal air pressure.

When we landed in Glasgow, the fun only continued for me. I went to baggage claim to get my bag but my bag never came out onto the carousel. It turns out that my bag did not follow me from London. What fun! I gave the British Airways people my information and the address for our apartment and they said it should hopefully be there within 24 hours. Overall it wasn’t that much of a nuisance, but at the time I was very annoyed. By the time I made it to the apartment in Glasgow, I was about two hours later that I should have been. But I finally made it! I met up with my family, which was good because I hadn’t seen them in a while. My parents and Lauren and John all arrived earlier in the day from Boston and Washington DC. Lauren had her own issues with baggage where her bag had broken and they had to go to a department store in Glasgow to buy a new bag. No trip is without its issues!

Now it was time to see some of Glasgow. It was a pretty city. I really liked all of the grey stones used for the buildings. It made it seem so different from where I had been. We had dinner at a pub where I got a chicken curry pie. As a table we split an order of the mushy peas. It was all pretty good! Much different from the food I had just been eating in Munich. After dinner we walked around the city center to see some of Glasgow.

Chicken Curry Pie and Chips!

Buchanan Street in Downtown Glasgow. This is the main shopping district.

A road in the West End near our apartment.

Typical Glasgow architecture

Glasgow City Hall on Georges Square

Georges Square in the center of the city

Looking down Buchanan Street toward the River Clyde. These location names are much easier to remember and spell than the ones in Germany!

Pitt Street! We're home!

We ended the night and a pub down the street from our Airbnb. I really like our apartment. It was in the city’s West End, which is where a lot of shops and restaurants were located. The apartment building was very old, which I thought was cool. And the nicest part of the unit was that we had two bathrooms. Overall I was happy. We were back not too late, and with that my first night in Glasgow was over. Unfortunately I hadn’t put any clothes or toiletries in my carry-on, but it was only for one night.

On Saturday (8/15/2015), the rest of the family got up early to head over to Edinburgh. I had to stay at the apartment and wait for my bag, which arrived around 11. It probably was for the best, as I needed the extra rest. My cold was still with me from Germany. When I got my bag, it came inside a giant plastic bag with my suitcase unzipped and everything falling out of it. I’m glad the airline treated it well. My theory is that my bag went through customs in London and the customs agents didn’t like my wheels of cheese I was transporting. The bag probably spent so long at customs that it did not make the short layover onto the next flight to Glasgow. They didn’t take the wheels of cheese from me though! Overall losing the bag was just a minor hiccup.

I ended up taking the 12:30 train from Glasgow to Edinburgh to meet up with the family (the train ride was a little under an hour). The train was packed with people! Edinburgh was hosting the Fringe Festival, so the train was filled with people heading to the festival. Before meeting me, the other four had time to climb up a small mountain and to tour a palace. I was impressed with their pace. 

Once we all met up we grabbed a quick lunch at the train station food court. Then we went out to walk around and to head to the Edinburgh Castle. I really liked Edinburgh! The architecture was very ornate and had the same grey brick as Glasgow, and the topography of the city made sure there were hills and views to be had all over. As I mentioned earlier, we were there the same time as the Fringe Festival which meant that there were people everywhere. While a lot of people came to the city just for the festival, we actually wished that the festival wasn’t going on. It made walking around the city difficult and it took away from some of the city’s charm.

Typical street in Edinburgh

The Royal Mile in Edinburgh. So many people!

Buses to move all of the people around. The hills in the city made sure that there were nice views to be had everywhere.

Typical Edinburgh architecture

Another view down the Royal Mile

The Edinburgh Castle was really cool to visit. It was built hundreds of years ago on top of a hill that looks over the whole city. Today it still stands above all of the other buildings in Edinburgh. We walked around the courtyards and the castle walls and took in several of the great views. We also went through some of the buildings in the castle. We saw the great hall, the prison cells, the war memorial, and the Scottish crown jewels. I realized at the castle that I knew very little of Scottish history. I had heard the name Mary Queen of Scots but I could not list a single thing that she actually did. The displays in the crown jewels exhibit and throughout the rest of the castle helped me learn a little bit more about Scotland.

Outside of the Edinburgh Castle

Lauren and I made it to the castle!

Nice Coat of Arms

View from just inside the castle

Looking out over the city of Edinburgh. I can see why they chose this spot to build their castle.

Mom and I up at the top.

Nice and cloudy, just like Scotland should be

I think this is the outside of the chapel part of the church. I could be completely wrong though.

View over to Arthur's Seat past the temporary stadium set up for the festival.

Proudly flying that Union Jack

Outside of the War Memorial

Inside of the Great Hall

So many swords! This is about the point when the whole castle began to remind me of "Game of Thrones" and that's all I could think of for the rest of the time there.

Another view of the castle.

After the castle we walked down the street a short ways and went into the Scotch Whiskey Experience. We felt that we needed to learn a little bit about Scotch if we were in Scotland. It was pretty interesting, as I knew very little about Scotch (just like the history). The Scotch Whiskey Experience itself reminded me a lot of the Heineken Experience in Amsterdam. It was very gimmicky, but still interesting. The experience started off with a moving ride where we learned about how Scotch is made, and then we went through a museum area. Afterwards we went into a room where a guide taught us about the different types of Scotch and how to properly drink scotch. And like any good tour, it ended with some free tastings.

Outside of the Scotch Whiskey Experience

This room held one man's private collection of scotch. So much scotch!!

I can see myself in the reflection of the scotch bottles!

Fancy!

Following the Whiskey Experience was time for more walking around the city and buying some more obligatory souvenirs (one can never have too many refrigerator magnets). 

I thought this was a cool part of the city. It reminded me of Quebec City.

The Royal Mile yet again. Nearly impossible to move!

Another selfie. Lauren's going to love all of these.

Even streets beyond the royal mile are packed.

I don't know what this building is but I thought it looked neat.

At this point I’m beginning to lag because I’m still not feeling 100%, and I think the rest of my family is too because they had been moving non-stop all day long. We ended up going to a pub to rest for a bit and have a drink. However, it took quite a while to find a place that wasn’t slammed packed with festival goers. Eventually we found this little place down an alley.

Now it’s time for dinner! We walked a little bit down the Royal Mile and actually found a place with open seats without spending too much time looking. It was another pub, but this one was more restaurant-like than the previous one. John was the most adventurous of the five of us and got a combo plate that included haggis. I had a bite and it actually wasn’t half bad. I’m not sure if I’ll be ordering a full plate anytime soon, but it was much better than I was expecting. (I was going to write about what I got, but I cannot remember at all. This is the problem with waiting a month to write the post!)

After dinner we walked back to the train station and took the train back to Glasgow. The train back was just as crowed as the one there. Everyone is travelling somewhere! We go back to Glasgow and walked to the subway station to take the train the two stops to our apartment. However, it was 11:31 when we got to the station and it closed at 11:29. On a Saturday. We were all a little surprised that city’s subway system shut down so early, but what are you going to do. We ended up taking a taxi, and it was actually cheaper than if all 5 of us took the subway.

And with that our one day in Edinburgh came to an end! Up next was our one day to see the Scottish Highlands. Who says you can't see an entire country in 2 and a half days?