Scotland Day 1 (and 2?) and 3: The Day of Too Many Hours

The time for Scotland has come! 

KDew and I met up in the Philadelphia airport Wednesday afternoon to catch our flight to Glasgow. She’d been traveling since about 6am, and I’d been up since 6am, so we knew it’d be a long day. Boarding our flight was easy and painless. Kdew escaped sitting next to a baby, while I ended up next to Professor Ken Hobson of the OU science department. Small world! Our other seat mate, Ross, was a Scotland native, and we asked him all sorts of questions. Prof. Ken and I chatted quite a bit about the new OU president, the various professors at OU who I had who he knew, and my travel abroad experience. The flight was reletively short (only about 6 hours), and we soon landed after maybe an hour or two of awkward plane sleep. 

***Commercial break! I bought the Trtl pillow advertised on FB, and it was AWESOME! Highly. Recommend. ***

Annnyyyyway, we landed in Glasgow around 7am (2am Phily time), got our car (keep left!) and found our way to our first B&B, where Helena served us a hot breakfast with tea. Let me tell you what, this was the best bacon I’ve had! She also set us up in the nicest room in the house, so it’s going to be all down hill from here. 

Despite it being the middle of night for my brain, the day was just starting for the Scots, so we pushed ourselves to stay awake. We attempted to drive over to Inverary Castle, but the high winds had knocked some trees onto the road, blocking passage. We turned around and instead drove up and down the little peninsula that we were on until we finally made our way over to Loch Lomond. We took a boat ride around the loch (I may or may not have fallen asleep on the boat...) before grabbing a quick meal. Finally, we decided we had stayed up late enough and could return to our B&B to sleep. We were nearly home when there was a massive traffic back up on our peninsula, so we had to turn around and go around the other side. Luck was on our side as the sun came out for a few minutes. We ended up driving along the coast, seeing some amazing homes, and getting to explore a little rocky beach. It was our first glimpse of the scottish magic that is to come!

Back in our rooms, we were served some very nice cake, took hot showers, and collpased into bed. I had been awake for about 30 (million?) hours, and Katie even longer than that. Needless to say we were both dying and ended up sleeping soundly for another million years.

Day 3: The road to Fort William

After the best night of sleep ever, Dunt and I headed to Fort William. We started the day by driving to Inverarey Castle--and stopping about every 15 minutes or so to get out and photograph our surroundings. We quickly learned that this would become quite a process. Put the rain coat on, zip, hood, climb out of the car, take pics while exclaiming "Wow!", run back to car sopping wet, clamber back in, take off rain coat, mop up water with small towel, pull out gps and iPod. Repeat five thousand times. But man, oh man, was it worth it.

Kdew and I (okay I) were pretty excited about twinning for the day, too. 

***Commercial break: rain pants! Holy moly! This was a last-minute purchase for me, as I kept talking myself out of it, but I am SO glad I brought them along. So helpful to keep me warm and dry #LayersForLiz ***

Okay, back to the drive. We made it to Inverary, where we stopped in the little village for some lunch before heading over to the castle! And you guys--it’s, like, a real castle! Not one of those silly chateaux that France lies about. It’s got turrets and a ridged roof line and just, wow!! 

They let you walk around the dining room, sitting room, saloon, turret rooms, and a couple rooms upstairs. This particular castle is owned by the Campbell clan, and the 14th Duke of Argyl still lives there today with his family! They even had a trampoline and a baskeball hoop on their driveway! 

Anyway, I decided that when I become a princess, then Inverary Castle is about the right size. Not too over the top, but still unmistakably a castle, thankyouverymuch. 

We took some pics with the neighboring Highlander coos and then were on our way! 

The rest of the drive consisted of us pulling over at nearly every scenic stop to take pictures. We stumbled upon Kilchurn Castle and plodded thru a lot of mud to check it out from across the loch. I wasn’t yet wearing my water-proof boots, so I quickly ended up with wet toes, but c’est la vie. Kilchurn was built around 1450 as a fortress of the dominant Campbell clan as they conquered the surrounding lands. It’s in ruins now, but still so beautiful! 

Back in car we crossed officially into the Highlands and immediately saw the change in scenery. Where we had been seing rolling hills and green forestry, we now saw soaring peaks of snow and short shurbbery. Waterfalls of melting snow scattered all the hills, filling the lochs below. 

By dinner time, we arrived at our glamping pod in a cute little village called Spean Bridge. It’s literally a pod in these people’s yard with two beds, a kitchenette, and tiny bathroom. Dunt has to duck. 

We grabbed some traditional meat pie for dinner and then retreated to our pod to relax before bed. If today’s adventures are just a sample of the ones to come, then this trip is going to be amazing!!

(Have I mentioned that it's been raining? Like, a lot? Cause it has. And all signs point to it raining forever and ever for the rest of time.)