Sadly this was our last day in Scotland. We had to return the rental car to the airport by 11:00 a.m., which we were a little late for due to missing our exit and ending up in Glasgow center city. The guy at the return desk luckily let us slide saying he'd worked in the Glasgow center city area and it was crazy. He also let us know, a little too late, that for 10 pounds more we could have had a GPS (or Sat Nav as they called them) in the car, but the agent (and online form) did not let us know. Sigh…
As our flight didn't leave until 6:30 p.m., and not wanting to spend that much more time at the airport, we left our big checked luggage (which they couldn't check in for us until two hours before the flight -- double sigh) at the left luggage area and took the shuttle downtown. We wandered around the shops on Buchanan Street then to the real Willow Tea Room on Sauchiehall, once we got past the Saturday bagpipe parade. I had pancakes. Yeah! Of course everyone was taking photos, which was a bit disconcerting knowing you'd be in strangers photo albums. Later we found out the real original tea room was an additional flight upstairs near the restrooms, but I did get a shot of it and felt very awkward doing it, even though the wait staff said it was fine. We then wandered over to the Glasgow School of Art, but having just missed the 2:00 p.m. tour, and me really starting to feel both under the weather and exhausted, we just browsed the gift shop and took photos. It was really windy, as the reduced audio will show, so stills give a better view, although the low sun was a bit hard on the eyes and the camera. I was envious of the pretty tabby cat with the yellow curtain across the street from the school who gets to look at the school all day everyday.
It seemed time to get the shuttle back. After a brief mishap of standing at the wrong stop, we made it back, got our bags, checked them in (with the cops walking around with semi-automatic weapons at the airport, I didn't chance it taking any photos or videos). Unfortunately our flight was delayed about two hours due to a malfunction, so instead of staying with friends in Amsterdam (yes, our flight again took us back to Amsterdam before returning to the U.S.), we were stuck overnight at the Yotel Hotel at the Schipol Airport in Amsterdam. If you've ever seem footage of the pod hotels that Japanese businessmen stay in, you will know what we experienced. I'm just glad I had been lifting weights or I'm not sure I would have been able to lift myself up on to the berth. I was terrified I'd roll out during my sleep, but luckily there were no further mishaps other than none of the cafes at the airport being open for our Sunday 8:00 a.m. flight (we were told to be at the gate by 6:15 a.m.??!!??). The duty free shops were open, so we could buy booze and tacky Dutch clog items, but no coffee! Triple sigh.
No comments:
Post a Comment