janisj

And they do sell paracetamol + codeine w/o a prescription. You just need to talk to the Chemist. Limit one box/32 tablets. I buy some every trip.

jane1144

I had the plain paracetamol left over from the last trip. That was all I needed as I was just trying to reduce a fever.

thursdaysd

Just enjoyed reading through this. Sounds like a great trip, aside from the foot problem. I deeply sympathize - I have limped through a few trips myself.

Have you read Dorothy Sayers' "Five Red Herrings"? It is set in Kirkudbright.

jane1144

"Have you read Dorothy Sayers' "Five Red Herrings"? It is set in Kirkudbright."

No I haven't...thank you for that. I'll look for it.

jane1144

DAY 29, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28th

Our last day in Scotland!

We woke up early...you know how it is when you keep checking that your alarm hasn't already gone off. We figured we might as well get going back to Glasgow. We had our breakfast, tidied up the apartment and left at 8:15.

Our drive was quite scenic and about half of it was on the motorway which is much easier. We got into Glasgow which was, of course, when the GPS decided to go crazy. We finally ended up in the right general area and got parked.

We went to the brand new, first in the UK, Tim Horton's. You could hardly get in the place. We were having lunch, but we ordered breakfast sandwiches with sausage. They are different. The egg is the same, but it was served on a brioche type bun and the sausage was an English breakfast sausage cut in half lengthways. The coffee seemed the same as home. People here are very excited about Tim's and I imagine there will be a few more soon.

We spent the afternoon walking up Buchanan Street which seems like Glasgow's answer to Edinburgh's Royal Mile, only with fewer souvenir shops and more department stores. The sun came out, now that we are leaving!

Eventually, we were shopped out, and decided to make our way out to the airport, which isn't very far. We took back our trusty Fiat 500 which I was pretty happy with.

We checked in to our hotel, a Holiday Inn Express. Finally we have a TV which is big enough to see. (everywhere else we have had TVs that are smaller than our kitchen TV.)

We got our boarding passes printed and are just having a glass of wine before dinner.

We fly out tomorrow morning at 8:30 and should be home for dinner if we're lucky.

jane1144

DAY 30, THURSDAY, JUNE 29th

We were up at 5:45 to get ready to check in at the airport at 6:30. When I was going through security, they made me take my shoes off, get scanned in a machine, and then get a pat down. DH sauntered on through. I'm not sure what that was all about.

We were a half hour late leaving, as someone who had checked baggage didn't turn up at the gate, so they had to take his luggage off the plane. The rest of the flight was uneventful until we got over Greenland. The captain came on and said we were about to see something unusual. Apparently, it is rare to actually see Greenland as the weather is generally terrible. We were able to see the icefields and mountains clearly. We saw the glaciers, many ice bergs and thousands of growlers ( very small bergs). They looked like a patch of white dust on the water. It was a beautiful sight.

We landed back in Toronto in light rain. We gathered all our stuff and headed to immigration where you now scan your own passport and customs form. Eventually, a copy of our form came back out, with the number 20 printed on it. Turns out we were randomly picked for a baggage search. By then I was getting paranoid!

It took us two hours to drive home through a lot of traffic.
Boy, are we tired.

We had a fabulous holiday, but it was time to come home and sleep in our own bed. It's all over but the laundry!!

Thanks for coming along on our trip with us. Hope you enjoyed it

annhig

jane - it's my DH that they always pull for some sort of check, not me. No idea why - must be his face!

Glad you had such a great time - the view of Greenland was a going home bonus - and got home safely eventually.

Any plans to come back???

jane1144

"Any plans to come back???" The Pipe Band is coming back next summer and our friends are encouraging us to make the trip as well. Who knows??!!!

irishface

thanks for sharing your journey with us. I have loved every minute!

jane1144

"thanks for sharing your journey with us. I have loved every minute!"

How nice of you to say. Thank you irishface.

vickiebypass

Jane - very enjoyable reading along with you, especially since I just returned from 2 weeks in Northumbria and the Borders. I was lucky to have sunny and warm weather but you might have had the "truer" experience with wind and rain at times.

jane1144

<<Jane - very enjoyable reading along with you, especially since I just returned from 2 weeks in Northumbria and the Borders. I was lucky to have sunny and warm weather but you might have had the "truer" experience with wind and rain at times.>>

Thanks vickiebypass. We were certainly experienced at doing everything dressed in Gortex! I always expect rain in Scotland and consider a sunny day as a bonus, but this was the most consistent bad weather we had experienced there...also our first trip in June.

We love the borders but didn't really schedule time there this trip as we visited last time. Everyone always rushes to the Highlands, but I think that the south has lots to offer, including beautiful scenery.