Our first day was one of the longest of my life. I of course couldn’t sleep very well, despite having been fully packed two days beforehand and my house being clean (which for me is a necessity before a trip). We even tried to sleep and wake up on Scotland time. I was very excited to wear my Very Hungry Caterpillar socks through security, although no one else seemed to notice.
Our flights from CHS-BOS-AMS were ok. Couldn’t sleep a wink on the long haul ove the pond. We watched Aquaman and more impressively saw all of the colors possible in a glorious sunsrise.
AMS is under construction and not at all like the gleaming pictures the internet shows (go figure). It was kind of a chaotic and confusing place. I feel my opinion is valid since they lost 1 of 2 of our bags.
Arrival in Scotland was everything we hoped it would be. Beautiful, cloudy and sunny all at once, green of course and yellow which was surprise. Some kind of pokey shrub that starts with g that I didn’t snap pic of yet.
Inverness was very welcoming and all of the people very nice and helpful. After dealing with the lost luggage we decided to splurge and get a cab. It was a brilliant decision. He pointed out landmarks and oddities of the road. Roundabouts make me nervous for Ben!
At the train station two other Americans were helplessly lost. I joked with ticket attendants “As Americans, are we all so lost?” “Aye I’m afraid so” he said. We joked about if he came to South Carolina he would be an instant celebrity on accent alone and would have many offers to be shown around and dinners at grandmother’s homes. (Thinking of my memaw and how she asks for us to bring home a man everywhere we go). We did get a pretty decent recommendation for lunch out of them too!
We took the train to Edinburgh and had lovely views of the countryside, when we were awake anyway.
Once in Edinburgh we checked in to our hotel with views of Waverly. We were thankful to not have to walk far.
We crashed, got refreshed and walked around Edinburgh with no other agenda than getting lost and finding dinner. A great little place on the Royal Mile called “The Clam Shell” was the winner, after Deacon Brodie’s had a terribly hot dining room and too long of a wait for the jetlagged travelers. We had fried haggis with chips, a deep fried Mars bar and Irn Bru.
Our adventure continues today with a car rental!
