Magic in the Mountains

The day has finally arrived- we are departing for our honeymoon to Scotland! We drove down to Charlotte, NC where our trail friend, Heidi, let us park in her driveway. She even drove us to the airport, bless her. We got there with plenty of time to get through security (took less than 45 minutes to get checked in and pass through security). We got lunch from a burrito place in the airport and ate by our gate. Our flight left on time around 4:30pm to JFK where we had a short layover. The flight to JFK was quick and uneventful which was good.

Once at JFK we walked around a bit before having a few overpriced drinks at an airport bar to kill time (we’re talking $80 for three beers and one neat pour of whisky). Our flight to Edinburg left around 9pm and flew through the night. We got served dinner on the plane which was surprisingly good. We both watched School of Rock before trying to sleep. It was pretty miserable because we were both uncomfortable, I don’t think either of is slept very much. I finally gave up on sleep after a few hours and watched Leap Year before they served us breakfast and began preparing to land.

We landed in Edinburgh at 10am on May 1st and went to claim my pack. We had put all our clothes and small things in Cade’s pack for him to carry on the plane, and we put the stuff we knew we couldn’t carry on (stakes, poles, knives, etc.) in my checked pack. Once we had all our luggage we ventured out to catch a train further into the city. We got off the train to get coffee and walked through a mall before trying to figure out what train we needed to take to Milngaive.

We got on a train but when the ticket collector came by to check out tickets, he got a little huffy and told is we were on the wrong train and couldn’t use the same ticket from earlier. Once he realized we had no idea what we were doing on public transit, he told us he’d let it slide as long as we got off at the next stop. Thankfully there was wifi at the train station so we were able to check Google maps to figure out what train to get on.

The ride was about two hours in total, but it went by quick and felt like a nice way to site see. The ticket collector this train was super nice and said he’s done the WHW three times and was excited for us. We only had to change trains once and were in Milngaive in no time.

The train stop was basically at the trailhead but we headed in the opposite direction, we’ll see the trail tomorrow. We stopped at Jaw Breaker brewery for a couple beers before making our way to our hotel about a mile away. The Premier Inn was the nicest cheap hotel either of us have ever stayed in! It had everything we needed plus a super nice shower with a rainfall shower head. We took a quick nap because we were both exhausted before going out to find dinner.

Thankfully there was a restaurant right next to the hotel so we didn’t have to go far. The Burnbrae felt fancy but we were welcome and starving. We had mushrooms and cheese for an appetizer and Cade got a steak and I had a stake and ale pie with “mash and peas”. We split a fancy lemonade and gin cocktail and had a lovely dinner. We ended our night by watching trashy Scottish dating shows in the hotel room. Big day tomorrow!