{"id":7932,"date":"2023-09-10T06:23:48","date_gmt":"2023-09-10T10:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/williamcromar.com\/cromarbaile\/?p=7932"},"modified":"2023-12-27T13:59:12","modified_gmt":"2023-12-27T18:59:12","slug":"day-0-1-13-14-june-2023-our-journey-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/williamcromar.com\/cromarbaile\/2023\/09\/10\/day-0-1-13-14-june-2023-our-journey-begins\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 0\/1 \u2013 13 & 14 June 2023: Our Journey Begins!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Second in a series of guest posts by Paige Cromar Davis<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Off to Scotland!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The first leg of our journey to Scotland was a Delta flight from Cincinnati to New York\u2019s dreaded JFK airport. We had decided ahead of time to pack light to avoid baggage claim or lost luggage issues on the outbound flights. With TSA PreCheck<\/a>, security was a breeze (I highly recommend it for domestic US flights). The layover was fairly short which had me concerned since we had to take a lengthy bus ride to the international terminal and pass through another security checkpoint. In spite of that, we made it our gate and boarded on time with neck pillows, eye masks, and noise-cancelling headphones at hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The flight was to depart at 10:00 pm, arriving in Edinburgh at 10:00 am \u2013 seven hours in the air\u2014so we had plenty of time to sleep. It seemed as if we were going to taxi all the way to Scotland after we pulled away from the gate, and after a long wait on the tarmac we were finally wheels up at 11:00. I slept pretty well using the Calm app with white noise; however, Greg was unable to get comfortable and did not sleep well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A Short Night<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I awoke to the smell of breakfast service as we were nearing the UK. My watch said 4 am still being in airplane mode, and we had another 1 1\/2 hours before expected landing at 10:30. Tailwinds had helped make up half of the departure delay, but that aroma had cut my night\u2019s sleep short. Not knowing when we might eat again, I had the ham, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich and a scalding beverage that slightly resembled coffee. For a premium, one could have ordered Starbucks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Welcome to the UK Border<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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I could barely contain my excitement as we debarked and entered Passport Control at the UK Border. I snuck a photo of Greg to commemorate the moment in spite of signage forbidding cell phones or camera use in the queues. (photo above) Some may think this is silly, but I delighted in hearing the Scottish accents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without the need to claim bags, we found our way to the rental car queues having reserved a compact SUV (is that an oxymoron?) at Budget. Greg spent several weeks ahead of the trip watching YouTube videos on driving in the UK and was rather anxious at the prospect. The agent provided him a rubber bracelet: \u201cDRIVE ON THE LEFT!\u201d I remarked, \u201cNothing screams tourist like a rubber bracelet that says drive on the left.\u201d The windshield had large stickers on the lower corners with the same caution. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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