Sunday, July 13, 2014

Saturday, July 12th

Today was mostly a travel day - getting from Belfast, Ireland to Scotland - so this will be a rather short blog entry, but with a pleasing surprise at the end.

We breakfasted at the hotel in Belfast and then took a taxi to the docks. Our plan was to take the ferry (only 29 pounds) over to Cairnryan, Scotland and then figure out how to find the train station from there. We figured God would get us where we need to go. Turns out there is no train station in Cairnryan, the nearest is in Ayr. But fortunately, the ferry company sells "Sail and Rail" tickets that is a ferry/bus to train/train combo ticket. We already had our rail passes, so we just needed the bus to the train and that worked out perfectly.

The only other ferry I'd ever been on was that day we were driving to the Cliffs of Moher, so I was expecting something like that, but this ferry was BIG - it had several restaurants, was at least 8 decks, there were entire tour buses on it! And the ride was smooth, really didn't even notice we were moving unless I looked out the window. The ferry ride was about 2 1/2 hours and then we were in Scotland! We got on our bus and took the 30 or so minute ride in to Ayr. On the way, we saw what I would consider to be stereotypical quaint English villages and countryside - and of course all of my experience in this topic is from TV.

In Ayr, we were deposited at the rail station - after a humorous interaction with the ticket counter people, we found our train and boarded it to Glasgow. I should point out that it was at this time that I realized that it was Glasgow and not Glascow... I apologize to my Scottish ancestors. This also explained to me why the weather app on my phone did not recognize the city I was typing into it. I should point out that there are MANY Glascows in the US.

The train to Glasgow was almost empty and very nice. We ate the "crispy digestive biscuits" that were in Holly and Tom's hotel room the previous night (my room had shortbread biscuits) as a wee snack and took advantage of the semi-working wifi on the train.

At the Glasgow Central station, we hopped off to wee, eat, and find our connecting train to Gourock - in that order. There was a "Beer Hotel" in the station where we knocked off the first two. Tom had his first taste of haggis and we all tried Beer Rarebit for the first time - again, when in Rome. After dinner, we found our train to Gourock. Why? you ask... Well, remember my dream of spending a night in a castle? Well, tonight is the night! We had reserved the master bedroom at Castle Levan - a restored castle, turned B&B. At Gourock, we caught at taxi to the Castle and spoke a little with the driver - Tom discovered that while yes, they are technically speaking English, it might as well be a foreign language what with the accent and the speed at which they spew forth. On the drive to the castle, I had fears of it being some rundown rat trap, but it's really rather nice, and the bed that Holly and I slept on had silk sheets - so just a note for my letter to Santa, from here on in it's silk sheets - can't recommend them more highly. I bet the cats would like them too.

It rained the entire day and even though we'd ridden most of the day, we were ready to spread out and relax, so after a short tour of the castle by the "Lady" of the manor, we adjourned to our room and got into our pjs, watched Ghostbusters on TV then it was bed time, for Rose at least.

Of all the possible modes of transportation, we covered taxi, ferry, bus, train, taxi, and foot today. Tomorrow, on to Glasgow!

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