Off to Scotland! (8-1-19)

The morning we left England was the rainiest day we had so far. We hired a car, and stood in the rain waiting for him.  Luckily it was a short wait.

 We had elected to take the train to Glasgow, so we could all enjoy the views of the countryside along the way.














We were a little dismayed when we arrived at the station and saw the huge set of stairs we needed to climb- with all our luggage. And then something amazing happened. A complete stranger scooped my large suitcase out of my hand and without saying a word, dropped it off at the top of the stairs and kept walking. When I looked behind me I saw that someone had also taken Julie's bags from her- so awesome!

Our seats in First Class were very comfortable for our 5 hour trip to Glasgow, where we were picking up our rental cars.

 Getting from the train station to Hertz was a bit of an adventure-the car service sent a vehicle that was too small, so Julie and I traveled with our suitcases on our laps rather than waiting for a bigger one.

Once we had our own cars, we could buy some food, and of course, drink. I was joking with the Hertz agent about driving on the "wrong" side of the road, and she said " it's not the wrong side unless someone is headed straight at you".  Cute.

Its been a long time since Paul has driven on the left side of the road, so we were happy to have Mike take the lead on that first day.

Since our plans did not include a stay in Glasgow, we headed straight to Arrochar, near Loch Lomond.

Our accommodations for this spot were hotel rooms in a very small hotel, on Loch Long. We had a pretty view from our window, which was the best thing about the place. The rooms were small and not wonderful, but we were only here for two days so we didn't care.

The pub attached to the hotel had decent food and we ended up eating there both nights- none of us were up for driving around at night looking for a place to eat.







We finally got our new walkie talkies while we were here. In our early planning stage we decided it would be good to have them, making it easier to communicate between the two cars.  There were several hurdles- first off, they use different frequencies in Europe, so we couldn't buy them in the U.S. and bring them. And of course we had to get them shipped.  Julie found an Amazon locker near our flat in London, and they were shipped there, arriving soon after we did. The only problem was, all FOUR of us forgot to get them! We ended up having to return those, and have another set shipped to Arrochar.













With only one day to explore Loch Lomond, we took a small Ferry/sight seeing boat across the lake to the small town of Inversnaid.













There was a waterfall just next to the hotel, with several hiking trails just behind it. Paul and I intended to hike a longish trail and Mike and Julie were going on a shorter walk. But then it rained. Hard. So hard, I couldn't even get a picture with my phone, never mind my camera!

Our hike lasted about 10 minutes, after which we headed to the hotel to get a bite to eat before the next ferry.








Our captain on the boat was a hoot- telling us tales and pointing out items of interest. He informed us that the waterfall is usually flowing much more, but they have been in a water shortage- it hadn't rained in.......6 hours.  As we pulled up to the dock,  he shouted out "Abandon ship!" because you have to take advantage of every opportunity to say it.