Getting ready for a looong travel day today – about 20 hours door to door. A Southwest flight from San Diego to Denver leaving midday, a longish layover in Denver (by design, gotta go through international security/checkin there), then catching an Iceland Air flight from Denver to Glasgow. I chose Iceland Air because their business class seats were about half price of everyone else’s. That’s mostly because they have recliner-style seats in business class rather than lie-flat. I’m OK with that – it’s not like we’re going to Africa or Asia. It’s only seven hours from Denver to Keflavik (our stopover before Glasgow), and I’ve gotten pretty good at sleeping sitting up due to hundreds of hours on Southwest. So I hope the service and food are good, and we can get a nap or two along the way.
Once in Glasgow, we hunker down at a friend’s house for a day and a half – she’s picking us up at the airport. That’s perfect – if we’re zoned out, we don’t need to do much. If we’re rested-ish, we can get out and see the city. We’ve toured Glasgow before, and it’s a lovely city. On Wednesday we catch a train from Glasgow to Inverness, where the formal/scheduled/curated part of our trip begins. We’re not staying in Inverness proper, but at a nice little place on Loch Ness (Bunchrew House) for the first couple of nights. Then we move on down the Loch to a country estate, Foyers Lodge, where we can go biking, hiking, and take a cruise on the Loch. Two days at Foyers then off to Edinburgh for a short day there, then a plane ride to Ireland. The Scotland part of our itinerary will go by quickly (5-6 days total, depending on how you count flight days). I hope it’s relaxing – that’s the plan, but with travel you never quite know.
Final prep today – download travel apps from IcelandAir, RyanAir, and Aer Lingus. Each airline wants you to use their app for boarding passes and status updates. Plus read a little more about tipping customs in each country.
Title photo is a picture I took in 2006 atop Castle Stuart, where it all began. I always liked the light in that photo, and the Scottish flag. The castle itself (more of a fortified large house, actually) is pictured below. In 2001 we rented the entire place and 23 of our friends joined us, staying there for the wedding. It’s not open for such shenanigans today, and even if it were we probably couldn’t afford it. Destination weddings in UK castles got pricey after we set the trend.
