To the Kilt: Our Scottish Adventure (cont.)
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| Good morning from the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum! |
Day 12
On our first morning in Glasgow, we slept in, then went hunting for breakfast. We found it at the Hidden Lane Tearoom, which is tucked off a main thoroughfare. I really would have loved to have ordered the morning tea, but it requires a 24-hour advance booking. Instead, I ordered scrambled eggs and smoked salmon on toast, which was delicious and very filling. I got hubs and I a pot of chai and a lovely fruit scone to share as well. The tearoom is small, and the decor is charming.
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| In Kelvingrove Park. Glasgow's got jokes, y'all. |
We were lucky enough to catch a free organ concert, which was such a moment of serendipity. The museum offers one daily at 1 p.m., and we just happened to be in the right place at the right time. The billowing sound balloons up, filling the arched ceiling. Such a special thing to experience.
We also ran into Elvis at the Kelvingrove. Sean Read's Return to Sender is a fun caricature of The King, and hubs and I watched delightedly as one group of tourists after another walked up to the statue, struck the same pose, and asked their friends to photograph them. (Mississippians, y'all. We are *everywhere*!)
After relaxing and packing up a bit back at the rental, we went out for dinner at Meze Meze, a great little Turkish/Persian eatery super-close to the rental. I had a great chicken plate with rice and salad. It was delicious and light after a week or two of heavier food.
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| James Hamilton's Massacre at Glencoe. We'd learned all about this sad history the day before, at the Glencoe Visitor Center. |
Day 13
It was our last full day in Scotland! We started out with a delicious breakfast at the colorful Finnieston Fez, where I had a glorious pistachio Moroccan pancake and hot, sweet mint tea.
Then, we checked out of the rental and headed for the Glasgow Cathedral and Necropolis. When we arrived, we found a spot in a public parking lot and went to pay for parking. Oddly, the kiosks at these public lots did not accept credit cards, only cash. (We hadn't changed any cash during the entirety of our trip. We'd paid for everything with credit cards or Apple Pay. So, we didn't have any cash on us.)
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| Beautiful Rosslyn Chapel |
The other option for payment was downloading a parking app. However, after many, many tries, we weren't able to successfully register as a user on this app. (We discovered later, as we searched online, that the app won't text the registration code to a non-U.K. phone number. So I'm not sure how tourists from outside the U.K. are supposed to use it to park at a lot for two of the biggest tourist attractions in Glasgow.) We spent a frustrating 40 minutes or so trying to make this work, but finally, we gave up.
Our plans to explore the cathedral and the Necropolis spoiled, we instead pointed our GPS towards Rosslyn Chapel. The chapel was founded in 1446 and features incredibly intricate carvings inside, in addition to beautiful stained glass. If you are a fan of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code (and/or its companion movie), you may have heard of it before, as the structure figures largely in the ending of that story.
We really enjoyed our visit here, and the gift shop had some fun items, too! (I got a wine bottle stopped with a replica of a Green Man carving from the chapel on it, as well as some Christmas tree ornaments.)
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| The Dalmahoy, which started as a private estate in the 1700s and was converted to a resort and country club in the 1970s. |
Then, we made our way to the last rental of the trip - the Dalmahoy Hotel and Country Club. We'd chosen this rental because our flight out of Edinburgh was EARLY the next morning, and this property is very close to the airport. In addition, this really is a full service property. They have on-site restaurants, a pool, fitness center, etc. So we knew we could dig in, do our final pack for the trip home, and relax without having to worry about getting around on our final (early) night in Scotland.
We had a nice meal at their on-site restaurant, packed up and went to bed early.
Day 14
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| Mississippians. You never know when we'll turn up! |
Upon arriving in Charlotte, we had to collect our bags and re-check them. However, there was a jam on the baggage carousel for our flight. We waited. And waited. We checked with the baggage agent, who told us he was sure that the jam would be cleared in time for us to catch our connection.
We waited some more. When the carousel was finally clear, and all the bags came out, we were still missing two of our three bags. A quick check on our Apple air tags revealed they were still in the U.K. And by this time, we'd missed our connecting flight.
Le sigh.
So, we had a further delay in Charlotte and returned home later than we'd initially planned.
I have flown with both American Airlines and British Airways many times, and I have NEVER had the types of flight delays and baggage errors that I experienced on this itinerary. I'm not sure if the systems of the two companies don't integrate well with one another, or if the employees of the two companies don't collaborate well. But there is clearly a disconnect here, and it significantly impacted my family on what was my son's first trip to Europe. I will think long and hard about booking itineraries that feature flights from these two companies, supposedly working as "partners," again.
By the time we finally made it back to Jackson, our bags had arrived there, too. So we were able to pick up all of our luggage and head home.
Even considering some of our travel glitches, this was a fantastic trip. We learned a ton, had new experiences, ate wonderful food, enjoyed jaw-dropping scenery, and spent some great time together. Scotland is a beautiful place!
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| The stream from Sligachan Waterfall, with the Cullin Mountains in the distance |
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