UK Road Trip

August 28, 2014 — Minneapolis to Glasgow

August 29, 2014 — Glasgow to the Isle of Sky

This was our first trip on Icelandair, and it was very pleasant.  We left MSP about 7:30 Wednesday evening, August 27th, and arrived in Reykjavik after about a 6 hour flight.  The flight attendants (all female) wore cute uniforms with stylish hats and high heels! The layover was only about an hour, and we got back on the same plane and flew about 2 hours to Glasgow.  The time here is 6 hours later than at home.  We walked from the terminal to the Premier Inn and took a short nap before going to pick up our rental car—a diesel Volkswagen Golf.  Had a nice dinner at the hotel (no haggis on the menu) and are hoping to stay up late enough to get adjusted to local time.  The Scots have been very friendly.  The hotel clerk was hard to understand, but everyone else’s English has been easy for us to decipher.  The weather is great, sunny and warm.

Had a good night’s sleep and a hearty breakfast at the hotel.   We started on our drive to the Isle of Skye a little after 9, shortly after it started to rain.  It’s about 215 miles from Glasgow to the Heatherdale B & B on the island, but it took us a little more than 6 hours.  Once we got out of Glasgow the roads were very narrow and winding, especially around Loch Lomond.  Jay had a steep learning curve for driving in Scotland besides sitting on the right side of the car and driving in the left lane.  In addition there was rain most of the day, lots of roundabouts (especially in Glasgow) and issues with the car.  We rented a Garmin from the rental car company and we got it in the mail a few days before we left.  We had it plugged into the car’s electrical outlet, but when it went dead, we realized the outlet didn’t work.  Next to the backup plan—a GPS on the iPhone that didn’t require wifi that Jay had added to the phone at home, and that worked but was draining the phone's battery.  We stopped and bought a good road map, but didn’t need it because we found from the car’s owners manual that there was a second outlet in the rear of the car that worked.  We had voice from the Garmin in the back seat but couldn’t see the map.  Shortly after that problem was solved, a warning light came on and told us we had a tire (tyre) pressure problem.   We had to drive some distance to find a service station with air, and all the tires had plenty of air when Jay checked.  And we thought the Germans built good cars! In spite of these problems we found our destination without any wrong turns.  It was only when we were trying to find the Edinbane Inn for dinner without GPS that we got lost and had to return to the B & B for better directions.  The food was great—we had fish and chips and a steak burger and shared.  Our ATM card and credit cards are working fine.

Leaving Glasgow

Photo stop

Still heading north (on A82) - from car

Another photo stop

Scenic overlook - (and bagpipes!)

Skye Bridge

Blue sky at last—taken from Heatherdale B&B backyard

© Jay 2020