Day One of Our European Adventure, and Not the Best Start!

Four fifteen in the morning and we are wide awake. And it is quite pitiful that we do not start our next adventure until 0915. Five hours before we board a bus that will take us to the Ft. Walton airport where we will fly to Atlanta before heading over to Europe for our very first time. An April newsletter put out by our travel agent advertised an 11-day “Whirlwind Tour of Ireland and Scotland.” After discussing the options and further checking, we decide that this is something we might enjoy, even though it was a ‘guided’ tour and something we would normally shy away from. To make it up and content ourselves with a true adventure, we would extend our vacation by flying to Munich, Germany, renting a car, driving to southern Germany and stay at a military resort for almost a week, then drive to Montreaux, Switzerland to do a 3-day pre-cruise tour before boarding a river cruise ship in Basel, Switzerland, and cruising the Rhine River to Amsterdam, Holland. This should give us a good “first taste” of Europe and something from which we could launch future visits.

We drink a pot of coffee, read our books, and go through the checklist for shutting our Florida house down for a month while we’re away. Leaving the Gulf coastal south where our homes are for a month at the height of hurricane season required extra precautionary planning.

Buckeye duct tape id's our bag

We moved practically everything that might flood to higher ground, and prepared both houses like we had never done before, even with a storm bearing down on us. Capt. Larry coined a new word for this process and described it as “hurricanizing” the houses. The time to leave finally came, and we proceeded to Eglin AFB where we would leave our car for the duration of the trip. This would save us over $500 in airport parking fees. We arrived and loaded our bags onto a bus that would take us to the airport. We also met the other 12 members of our touring party for the first time, because our travel plans had prevented us from attending local pre-tour group meetings. Our initial impression was that it seemed like a good group of people to tour with. We arrived at the airport where we met our former travel agent, who did our Alaska and Antarctica last year, at the Delta ticket counter.

We arrived in Atlanta and had a two hour layover. After some airport lunch, we were finally able to board our plane. It’s 15 minutes past the departure time, we’re sitting at the gate, when the captain announces that there’s a stuck fuel valve on one of the fuel tanks and it will take another 20 minutes to transfer the fuel around the various tanks. This sounds like something worth waiting for, but it takes 40 minutes before the engines start. All set to go. Nope! The engines shut down and the captain announces “when it rains, it pours,” and one of the ground crew’s hat was sucked into the air conditioning cowling, and it would be necessary to have the inspectors sort this out. Another 30 minutes pass and everyone is discussing that Delta has the worst on-time performance of all of the major carriers. Finally the engines restart after another 40 minutes. The air conditioners are kicked on and we smell smoke in the cabin which is likely from the baseball cap they couldn’t recover. These are not the most reassuring events to occur before a transatlantic flight! We are finally airborne and on our way to Amsterdam- a 9-hour flight, and damn this economy class.

We arrive in Amsterdam. We were supposed to have a one and one-half hour layover before our flight to Glasgow, Scotland, but that has been cut to 30 minutes, because of the delays in Atlanta. We disembark the plane to utter chaos. We are met by one Delta agent to assist in the gate information for the connecting flights and we are over 300 passengers. We spot members from our group heading down the concourse and figure they know where they are going, only to find that they are looking at the flight information screens, and no one can find our connecting flight. Instead, they just keep heading off in a general direction. Finally, someone finds our gate and we all bustle in that direction. Naturally, it is one of the furthest gates from our arriving gate (remember, we were supposed to have 90 minutes before Captain Ahab had his difficulties). We arrive at the gate with 10 minutes before departure, only to find a 30 minute line for security. In Europe, security is conducted at each individual gate, which seems to not be a very efficient process.

Downtown Glasgow

There is no general security area as in the U.S., and this really slows and compromises the security process. Jane went through the metal detector with all of her jewelry on, and spent 15 minutes trying to come clean. Capt. Larry’s knee replacements led to a pat down with snot-laden tissues causing temporary alarm. But, finally, we’re seated on the plane.

 A short flight takes us to Glasgow, Scotland.

Provend's Lordship

Provend's Lordship plaque

We disembark, pass through Scottish passport and immigration, and proceed to baggage claim to get our one bag. We patiently watch the conveyor until it becomes obvious that there are no more bags to be delivered. $#/%&*Delta. Ten of the 14 persons in our group are without bags. We find the baggage claims desk and file our claim, and are told that the bags would be sent on a subsequent flight. Exiting the terminal we find ourselves in rain and about 200 yards from our bus. Jane has an umbrella, but by the time she is able to find it we are at the bus. We meet our bus driver, Trevor, who tours us through downtown Glasgow as he takes us to the Glasgow Thistle Hotel, where we will spend the night. We are only at the hotel for a very short time when our city tour of Glasgow begins. We board the bus and head to Provand’s Lordship, Glasgow’s oldest house built in 1471.

Glasgow Cathedral

Gardens at Provend's Lordship

The house was originally part of a hospital and has been extensively restored and furnished. Across the street from Provend’s Lordship lay the Glasgow Cathedral which was an exquisite church. All of these structures lie around George Square which hosts the City Chambers. We spot some street lights that have some interesting symbols.

Cathedral sanctuary

We are told that these symbols represent the Glasgow coat of arms and represent: The tree that never grew- the tree in the coat of arms is a now sturdy oak tree, but it started out as a branch of a hazel tree. The legend says that St Mungo was in charge of a holy fire in St. Serf's Monastery and fell asleep. Some boys who were envious of his favored position with St. Serf put out the fire. But St. Mungo broke off some frozen branches from a hazel tree and, by praying over them, caused them to burst into flames: The bird that never flew- this commemorates a wild robin which was tamed by St. Serf and which was accidentally killed. St. Mungo was blamed for the death but he is said to have taken the dead bird, prayed over it and it was restored to life: The fish that never swam- the coat of arms always shows the fish with a ring held in its mouth.

Cathedral nave

Glasgow coat of arms

This is because a King of Strathclyde had given his wife a ring as a present. But the Queen gave it to a knight who promptly lost it. Some versions of the story say that the King took the ring while the knight was asleep and threw it in the river. The King then demanded to see the ring - threatening death to the Queen if she could not do so.
The knight confessed to St. Mungo who sent a monk to catch a fish in the river Clyde. When this was brought back (presumably catching salmon in the Clyde in those days was a lot easier then!) St. Mungo cut open the fish and found the ring. When the Bishop of Glasgow was designing his own seal around 1271, he used the illustration of a salmon with a ring in its mouth and this has come down in today's coat of arms: The bell that never rang- (honest, we’re just reporting this and aren’t making it up!) in 1450, John Stewart, the first Lord Provost of Glasgow, left an endowment so that a "St. Mungo's Bell" could be made and tolled throughout the city so that the citizens would pray for his soul.

Guide Mary Lynda and Capt. Larry compare caps

The bell was still ringing out in 1578, as there is an entry in the City Treasurer's accounts two shillings (10p) "for one tong to St. Mungowis Bell."

Tub is a mile deep!

We returned to our hotel room to decipher the intricacies of British plumbing facilities and 220 v. power supply. We go to our Scottish dinner for the evening and are thrilled there are no exotic Scottish dishes on the menu, and learn that our bus driver, Trevor, has delivered our latent bags while we were dining.

Water closet and towel dryer

We finish our meal and crash in our bed after an extremely long day.