We woke up relatively early this morning to finish packing and ready ourselves for our trip to Scotland. James was still fighting a headache that Erin argued was due to sinus issues; however, it was nothing a potent cocktail of ibuprofen caffeine and some food couldn't fix.
We said our goodbyes to Richard and his lovely parents, who we honestly could not thank enough for their generosity. We invited them to stay with us in the states when we finish our travels (Richard clarified that he would only be interested in the offer if we lived in San Francisco!). Before we left, Richard's parents warned us that the weather was supposed to be particularly bad today, so we might experience some delays on the ferry or the train. (They also reminisced about the last time a ferry-boat crossing from Ireland to Scotland sank - luckily it was nearly 60 years ago!). Rebecca was kind enough to drive us to the ferry station, where we again said our goodbyes.
We had arrived early for the ferry, and Erin wandered off to take some pictures from outside the terminal. She had not been gone longer than two minutes when the conductor called for people to start filing through the gate; as he did in DeGaulle airport in Paris when Erin wandered off to take pictures, James ran outside to find her and warn her that the boat was leaving. We made it onboard without any further issues, using our pre-paid internet tickets.
The ferry was surprisingly nice – it had several different sitting areas, movie areas, casino games, children's games, a food court, a bar, a store, and even a nail salon. We decided to sit in the “quiet” section of the ferry as we were in line behind a cranky child in the boarding line and decided it might be a good idea to avoid unnecessary noise on-board if at all possible. We were pleasantly surprised to find out the ferry also had free wi-fi, which meant Erin could work on some of the work she is still doing for CMU and James could also check his e-mail and review U.S. sports scores. The ferry's departure was extremely smooth, and James didn't realize the ferry had left until we were underway for at least 10 minutes.
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| Our seats in the "quiet zone" on the ferry. |
Overall, the ferry was a pleasant 2-hour ride, albeit a bit bumpy at times. This was probably due to the miserable weather, and we had a clear reason for the ship's swaying. The views outside the boat as we approached Scotland were simply amazing – picturesque village towns, beautiful, lush green fields covering the horizon, and mountains shrouded in fog. Despite the rain, we tried to take a few photographs to remember our passage.
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| The beautiful view of Scotland as the ferry headed inland. |
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| The wake behind the ferry - it was actually quite pretty. |
Once we reached land in Scotland, we had to locate the train station to complete the second portion of our journey. Erin had pre-paid for the train tickets online and had printed out the receipt with the time and directions listed as well. Luckily, the train station was directly outside the ferry terminal and the train was already waiting for us on the track. We weren't sure if we could just board, or if we had to do anything specific beforehand. We asked some other people who were at the train station and they said we could just board the train. So, we did. About 10 minutes before the train's departure, we re-read the train itinerary (as there was a transfer we would have to make). It was a good thing we did, because on the printed receipt it said that the receipt was not a ticket and that you had to take the receipt to the ticket booth in order to get the tickets. James immediately ran off the train, and was back in just a few minutes with the tickets. We were both thankful that Erin had read the fine print.
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| James at the train station in Stranraer, Scotland. |
The train ride from Stranraer, Scotland to Ayr, Scotland was about an hour long. It wasn't anything special in terms of train rides, but it was still fun to be taking a train in another country. As luck would have it, the very screaming infant we had tried to avoid on the ferry took up residence immediately in front of us on the train. James escaped into his iPod, with a timely viewing of
Trainspotting (both for the title and the location); Erin was not so lucky. While rain-dulled, the views from the train were, like most of our trip thus far, quite dramatic, and exotic insofar as our eyes are simply not accustomed to these shades of green. The varied terrain is also a change - the raw number of hills and mountains here makes it very obvious that we are not in Saginaw any longer. All-in-all, the train probably took as long as the ferry; after adding in the time it took to switch trains, we were traveling another two hours to reach Glasgow.
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| The adorable, but fussy, child that sat in front of us on the train. |
We arrived in Glasgow (we thought) about an hour early, since we had grabbed the first train we saw. We bundled up against the rain, after Erin stopped to use the pay-per-flush (or something like that - 30 pence-per-use) railroad facilities. We've been used to consistent "mists" each day on our travel, but Glasgow's rain came down with a vengeance. We headed out of the terminal with confidence, and made it a good 10 minutes before Erin rechecked the map and the Enterprise print-out in a KFC lobby, waiting a moment before exclaiming with surprise that we had been heading down the wrong street (to Osborne, not Oswald) to the wrong address. Once re-acclimated, we found the rental agency with a full 10 minutes to spare before they closed. We picked up our gray, automatic Corsa, and headed off to Erin's relatives.
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| Our rental car. The driver sits on the right side of the vehicle, unlike the US. |
Or would have, if we could have made a right turn. We drove at least fifteen minutes before we found anything resembling a right turn, but once on our way (and aside from Erin's frantic pleas for James to stay on the road and not the shoulder), we finally made our way to Greenfaulds, south of Cumberland. There, we met up with Erin's extended cousins: Natalie, Natalie's mom Linda, and Linda's mom Mary, our gracious host. We spent some quality family time with Natalie and Linda's children, before excusing ourselves for a late-night Tesco run (a giant supermarket here), where we indulged in some Cadbury chocolate and James's first purchase of Scotland's "national" soda - Irun-Brew. While Erin claimed she felt as though she was still on U.S. time, she was out before her head hit the pillow, and James followed soon after.
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| Mary's townhouse in Glasgow. It is two stories and has a yard in the back. |
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| Mary, Erin, Natalie, and Brooke (Natalie's daughter). |
