Scotland is Calling Us!

Today we turn in our dandy little, automatic, unblemished car to the rental agency at Shannon Airport and head to Edinburgh by plane, and Glasgow by tram.  Should be easy enough, she says.

From tiny car to tiny airplane we go.

Arriving at Edinburgh Airport, the task is to find transportation to the Scotrail train station downtown in order to go to Glasgow for the night.  Steve, brilliantly, suggests “How about a coffee first and a snack.”  Perfect!  

Then a short wander out the door and what do we find but an information booth for the tram!  Hey, it looks just like a....tram!

We are off for the center of town and the train station for the train to Glasgow.

Ahhh, here we are...it’s all working....

Yes, Big Blue and Giant Grey cases are still with us.  And those great, but huge, back packs are tucked tidily inside.

Steve is Mr. Train Guy, if you didn’t know.  Ever since....well, forever...

We booked Motel One in Glasgow...because it said it was right across the street from Central Train Station, which is the station we depart from in the morning on our way to Dumfries for The Ukulele Festival of Scotland.  Early train...

Motel One turns out to be a German owned hotel franchise.  This company buys real estate that is established in old cities, adjacent to transportation hubs like...train stations...and remodels the inside to trendy, cool, small, functional overnight or probable short stay accommodations.  I did say “SMALL.”  But also, “Perfect!”

Our tv screen was programmed to wait for your choice in “aquarium mode.”  Very relaxing to watch fish...

Just in case one might forget why one is there...a little writing on the wall.

Lucky for us, we were in Glasgow a year ago and ate at a pub we enjoyed and remembered...Waxy O’Connells...

A few sheep in the lobby of Motel One Glasgow...keeping with the Scotland theme.

Even the elevator is trendy....for Europe, really really trendy!

All in all, a long travel day with many transfers and modes of transportation....and yet, amazingly, everything worked perfectly.  The Shannon Airport check in was quick, security line was quick, the plane was on time, we found the tram to take us to the station where we could easily use the ticket machine to buy tickets, got to our Scotrail train and hardly had to wait...umm, maybe five minutes...and bingo...we walked out of the station downtown central Glasgow and across the street to Motel One.  Done.