Scots Wha Hae! Part 1 - Dang It, Amy!

In early October, Chris and I had the incredible opportunity to visit Scotland for a week, and we had an amazing time!  

Happy to be safely on the ground in the parking garage at the Glasgow Airport

I've always had a strong connection to Scotland.  The city I grew up in, Dunedin, Florida (in the greater Tampa Bay area) was founded by Scottish families, and Dunedin's long-time sister city is Stirling, Scotland.  Our band uniforms featured kilts instead of pants, and we marched with bagpipers and drummers.  Every year, the city holds their own highland games celebration (and used to hold a miliary tattoo), and it's completely normal to hear folks speaking with a Scottish brogue all around town.  

My first trip to Scotland happened in 2001, when my Mom, Aunt Denise, and I tagged along with my brother's band trip.  We ditched the high schoolers most of the time and did our own thing, although we did see them perform once or twice; we three had a fantastic adventure touring distilleries, eating mushroom soup, and using all of our collective brainpower to navigate round-abouts while driving on the left side of the road.

A much younger me, outside Dewar's

When Chris and I came into each other's lives a bit later that year, I knew I'd have to take him to Scotland some day, and in 2013, we were able to make that happen.  He loved the country and its people as much as I did, and we always planned for a return trip.

Chris at Doune Castle, one of the filming sites of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

I still remember the gift shop lady being like, "here are your rental coconuts - PLEASE DON'T BANG THEM IN HERE."

That's fair.

Our past trips to Scotland have included lots of standard tourist fare - wandering through the bigger cities, visiting castles, climbing and staring at a variety of monuments and historical plaques, eating and drinking all manner of delicious things, and whatnot.  While we'd do some of that on this adventure, it would be a bit different, and the main reason for that was the West Highland Way.  The Way is a 96 mile walking path (over here, we'd call it "hiking" instead) running from just outside Glasgow to Fort William, on the western coast of the highlands.  We first learned about the Way in 2020; before COVID hit, we'd booked a cruise around the Scandinavian countries (to celebrate the Olsen family heritage) that left from Southampton, England.  As you might imagine, around May of that year, our cruise payments were refunded, but we figured that even if the boat wouldn't sail, surely we could still fly to England, and from there, we could take a train to Scotland and hike the Way.  Obviously, the entire trip was cancelled, but we vowed someday to get back and do at least part of the Way.

A slightly different Way than that

Back in January, we started working with Mickledore Travel, a tour operator specializing in walking holidays around the UK and Ireland.  While we could certainly have put together our own accommodations, baggage transfers, and the like (and many folks do), it was much easier and time efficient for us to hire Mickledore to do it for us (you can also wild camp and backpack the Way, but that wasn't something we were interested in).  We paid a small premium over the DIY method, but as you'll read in upcoming blog entries, the assistance Mickledore gave us turned out to be worth its weight in gold.  

Although many folks do the entire Way, generally taking 7-10 days to hike the full 96 miles, we didn't want to dedicate that much time to this endeavor, so we settled on a three day itinerary; we'd walk the northernmost third of the trail, starting in Bridge of Orchy and meandering through the highlands, ending at the trail's conclusion in Fort William.  With our deposit paid, we started training in earnest, logging miles around our local area, in the Smoky Mountains, and all over Mammoth Cave National Park.  Finally, the calendar page turned to October, and it was time to head across the pond!

On our 2023 trip to France, we learned that it's far nicer to take an afternoon flight from the States to Europe; while an early flight seems to make more sense, getting to Europe in the morning means you can't check into your lodging yet, so you're wandering around, totally jet lagged and un-showered, and all you want to do is take a nap.  While you miss out on a day of sightseeing with an afternoon flight, we find it's worth it to arrive after your hotel is ready, so you can immediately shower, go out to dinner, have a nightcap, and fall the heck asleep, generally at a normal bedtime for the country you're visiting.  With this in mind, we had most of Thursday to meander around our house, since we didn't need to leave for the airport until around 2.  We dropped the dogs at their Airbnb, vacuumed the floors, did some laundry, and watched Survivor, until it was eventually time to depart.

We killed our layover in Detroit at their Gordon Biersch location, enjoying a salad and dessert, as well as some "it's vacation, why not?" cocktails.

Dessert calls for a White Russian - I think the Dude would approve of my comfy cardigan

Before too long, we boarded the flight overseas; although our final destination was Glasgow, we'd be going first through Amsterdam, an airport we'd visited on our most recent trip to France.

We were in Comfort Plus (somebody's excessive height makes it necessary),
so we took advantage of the free Woodford's and ginger ale

Airline dinner!  A chickpea and veg salad, pretzel roll, chicken curry main, and a lemon blondie for dessert.

With a few hours of layover in Amsterdam, we had a light lunch with some caffeine and browsed the airport shops.

This man enjoyed a wide variety of flat whites while we were overseas, and most of them were quite good

So.much.cheese!  This wasn't even one of the dedicated cheese shops in the airport!

Eventually, it was time to board the short flight across the southern part of the North Sea and make it to Scotland proper.  As we are wont to do, we'd been carefully watching the weather leading up to our trip.  While it had been pretty standard (highs in the 50s, lows in the 40s, light rain most days), on the day we arrived, the western coast of Scotland was hit by a major storm front, and this extended inward even into Glasgow and Edinburgh.  Since it was the first big storm of the season, it was named, and like our hurricane naming system, the first storm started with the letter "A."  Can you guess what the storm was named?  Well, can you?  You have just one try...

Yup, that's right.  You seriously can't make this sh*t up.

I love that dog.  Unbothered, moisturized, in his lane.

As one Amy started hitting the coast with all of its force, the other Amy (and her Chris and a plane full of Dutch folks) were attempting to land at Glasgow International.  The pilot warned us before departure that the landing would be a bit "rough" due to the storm, and we thought we were ready.  However, when our original landing attempt was aborted by a sudden wind shear, and then we had to climb back into the sky and circle around to try things again, that plane became deathly silent.  The approach from the east is directly over the River Clyde, and more than one of us threw a brief wish into the sky to any available deities that we wouldn't end up right in the drink.  Thankfully, our amazing pilot landed the plane on the second try, and the galley erupted in cheers and clapping.

We claimed our luggage, breezed through customs, and met our Uber driver for the ride to our lodging for the next few days, the City Apartments in the Kelvingrove area of the city.  

A video of the trees on the side of the freeway blowing like crazy

Our check in was friendly and easy, and we quickly gained access to our room, which was huge.  The City Apartments has all the amenities of a standard hotel room, but for pretty much the same price, we also got a sitting area, small dining table, and fully functioning kitchenette.  While we didn't plan to be making gourmet meals or anything during our time in Glasgow, we needed to buy supplies for a few train and trail lunches, and our small fridge kept things nice and cold.

So so so SO pleased to be here in one piece

Outside the City Apartments and ready for foods!

(That's our room's window in the far right of the shot, on the ground floor)

We unpacked, showered, and changed into nicer clothes, and then it was time to hit the streets and find some dinner!  Since we didn't know what vagaries of travel we might experience on the way into town (the vagaries I'd planned for didn't include 100 mph wind gusts, I'll tell you that), we hadn't made dinner reservations for the night.  Even though it was a Friday, we hoped someone might have room to seat us, and we were happy to find a table at Stravaigin, advertised as the best Scottish restaurant in Glasgow.  Our hostess took us upstairs to a cozy loft area with just a few tables, and we perused the menu while settling in.

Chris needed this reminder - it was pretty low up here!

Our traditional haggis, neeps, and tatties appetizer with a whisky cream sauce

Everything at Stravaigin was absolutely delicious, from our cocktails to the appetizer above to our mains (cod for Chris and chicken thigh curry for me) to the whiskies our server helped us choose for the aforementioned nightcap (as you might imagine, their whisky menu here was extensive).  We'd both eat here again in a heartbeat, and it was my favorite meal of the trip.

Stuffed and tired, we wandered the short distance back to the City Apartments, ready to sleep and start our first full day in Scotland!

A very angry, overly full River Kelvin

Those purple lighted windows are a beer bar called Inn Deep - we visit it in a future post!

In upcoming blogs, we spend a day in Glasgow, seeing local sights, admiring art and architecture, drinking whisky, and having another amazing dinner!

Later!

Amy