Day 1,2,3, Utah -> Amsterdam -> Glasgow -> Stirling

August 21-22-23, 2022

B has made the decision he does not want to travel further than a couple hours by airplane ever again. It makes him too sick and takes him too long to recover to ever enjoy himself. I will admit that this really makes me sad, as I truly expected our retirement would be full of travels and adventures. So I made a decision, and discussed it with him. I still have a great deal of wanderlust and once a year I want to go on a trip, whether with my kids, my friends or by myself. This year, Coldplay was playing in Glasgow in August over Lelu’s birthday with Master D’s absolute favorite band opening for the them – London Grammar. I really wanted to go see a concert and visit Michelle T in Ireland also – so this was my first annual wanderlust adventure. (Although, I compromised by agreeing to never plan another one during “Montana Time” again.)

Master D met us in SLC and we went on to Amsterdam. I made a mistake when I booked my ticket. I didn’t realize there would be more than one flight from SLC to Amsterdam and put myself on the 2:00 pm flight. The kids were on the 9:00 pm flight. I went to change it and it was going to cost me $1200. Yikes! I figured I’d just go on ahead – even though I had NO DESIRE to pick up the rental car and drive on the wrong side of the street sitting on the wrong side of the car and no-one to navigate with me. I swear there was some divine intervention showing up for me when my neighbors in MT were telling me they had a nightmare flight – the 2:00 pm from SLC to Amsterdam – a couple weeks before we were leaving. And I knew that was a sign to change my flight! no- matter-what. That night I checked again and it was only $250 to change it. Phew! We get to the airport and the 2 pm flight had been delayed, delayed, delayed and then cancelled and everyone was trying to get on the 9 pm flight! I don’t think I can emphasize my PHEW!! enough!

When we landed we had to book it to our connection, as our gate was literally a mile away and when we got there we walked right on to the plane. I was super worried about our luggage but they all made it.

When we landed in Glasgow, Master D and Jake were all too happy to drive and I was happy to let them – although very nervous. We drove to our Aribnb and wow! Our first taste of reality vs instagram……what a disappointment it was! This photo is of the very narrow and old stairs up to it. Not at all what was advertised. I hate when I feel duped.

The first night, Master D found a good pub (with delicious onion rings) called the Church and we set about trying to find a hotel to move to. Sadly, we would have had to move out of the city 40 miles, as there was not a single hotel room available anywhere: busiest time of the year, 2 nights of concerts at a venue that holds 50,000 seats yada yada. We found out it was “Trivia Night” at this pub – which was a ton of fun even if we came in last place or second to last every round. Apparently, we are a group of Americans that don’t know anything about Scotland – go figure.

We survived our first night in our dump (aside from Lelu killing a cockroach in the middle of the night) and set out to explore Stirling.

Stirling is about 40 minutes outside of Glasgow where all of the Robert the Bruce (we are related to him according to family history) and William Wallace history is. We loved this town. Cutest cafes, stores, cobblestone streets, narrow alleyways, and not at all crowded. The weather was also perfect

This is where Master D decided to start of series of photobombing Lelu’s photos and calling it the “Where’s Dhane?” series.

We walked up to the castle and there was a church and cemetery called the “Church of the Holy Rude” next to the castle. I don’t usually like cemeteries at all but this one was pretty cool and very old.

We went into the castle, walked around the wall and hung out in the gardens. It was totally worth it!

The William Wallace monument is this massive tower on top of a hill. So before you even climb the tower you have a pretty good hike up this very tall hill. I wished I didn’t wear long sleeves and I never did again after this day. We passed a family who were taking a break and the woman asked us why we weren’t “all puffed-out”. I thought that was a very fitting phrase for how I felt climbing, but I was very happy I had been walking so much so I could actually do it without “puffing out.”