We leave Scotland (Wednesday, Sept. 30)

The Scottish flag.

On Tuesday evening, after carrying everything from the car into our motel room and returning the car to the Hertz Rental Office, we emptied our suitcases, backpacks and all the miscellaneous bags we had accumulated, and started repacking. The trick, of course, was fitting all we had accumulated during the month and what we brought from home back into our suitcases and backpacks. 

Needless to say, this required some creative packing, shifting items around to see where they fit the best, keeping in mind the weight limit for the larger bags. It was a challenge, and I must admit to leaving behind several items of clothing that I thought I could do without. In the end, both Smoky and I were successful. We fell into bed hoping to sleep well enough to see us through the long trip home. 

Wednesday morning arrived. Our cousin Joel had warned us to get to the airport as early as we could, so we opted to have breakfast at the airport Tesco. We had a few food items left over that needed to be eaten before we left Scotland anyway, and this plan would get us to the airport quicker. 

At the beginning of the trip, we borrowed two pillows from the Holiday Inn, thanks to a most helpful front desk clerk, who happened to be on duty when we checked out today. She even remembered us! I can’t imagine how a request like that (to “borrow” pillows for a month) would have been viewed in the states!

The fuchsia with gorgeous pink and 

purple flowers and purple stems!

Dragging our luggage over to the airport was bittersweet. This delightful country had worked its way into our hearts during our month-long stay, and even though we were happy to be heading home, we were in many ways very sad that our holiday was coming to an end. 

Looking back, there were a number of things we really grew to appreciate about Scotland:

• Billboards with advertisements on them were few and far between. This made sightseeing so pleasant, with no distractions from the view.
• There were not many cell towers or water towers on the tops of hills.
• Roundabouts, which replace traffic lights in most places, kept traffic moving smoothly. In larger cities, there were some traffic lights, but those were mostly for pedestrians who wanted to cross a busy street. On the push of a button, the light would change, allowing the pedestrian to cross with only a short interruption to traffic flow.

  

  The roundabout, a boon to traffic!

   
• The roadways were clean with very little noticeable trash. It felt as though the land itself was well loved!
• The Scottish people and apparently its government are very ecologically conscious: 
• We found lots of recycle bins on street corners in cities, in parking areas beside trails, and in eateries.
• Most public toilets had air hand dryers.
• If you didn’t bring your own bags to stores, you paid 5 pence for each bag you needed. 
• Fast food chains were virtually non-existent. We saw two -- Starbucks and Subway -- but only occasionally. This meant that local food shops actually had a chance to succeed.
• Every store or eatery that accepted credit cards had chip card readers, and the reader itself was brought to the customer so that you could watch the transaction take place. You never lost sight of your credit card. 
• The sky was so beautiful and the air was clean and refreshing. I’m sure the cool temperatures helped, especially to people like us who are from hotter climates. We never tired of looking at the sky.
• The Scottish people are a great treasure! We met so many really friendly people. You can tell when someone is being nice because they think they should be versus being nice because that’s who they are.
• The Scotts love their dogs! And those dogs are extremely well behaved. Dogs are welcomed in most places. Often we saw water bowls left outside for the animals. In fact, we saw only one location that posted a sign saying “no dogs allowed.”

Floyd, a stately 9-year-old boxer,
at a bar with his owner.

We told ourselves before leaving for this trip that we wanted to experience all aspects of this country. If it rained every day, so be it. We would enjoy Scotland in the rain. One person we met said something like this, “There is no bad weather, just inappropriate clothing.” When our clothes didn’t meet the challenges of the weather, we bought some that did!

A beach of a lovely loch.

Being in a country where there is a loch around almost every corner was delightful. We particularly loved staying in places right on the water or overlooking a harbor. Water soothes the soul, at least that is the way if seemed to me.

Before we left, our friend Pat Cory sent us a lot of information about places she and photographer husband Tom visited in Scotland. In her notes, Pat added that we should be warned that Scottish is indeed a foreign language! To a degree, that is true. We had to really listen, especially when we were talking with someone we had just met. Some folks had a more pronounced accent than others. Even though I’m sure we missed some things because of this, overall we found it very pleasant to converse with the people we met. We learned a lot, too, for example:

• It’s not a faucet; it’s a tap.
• You don’t ask where the restroom is; you ask for the toilet.
• When you want to get to another floor in a multi-floored building, you ask how to find the lift, not the elevator.
• If your room is on the first floor of the motel, you have to take the lift, because the first floor is one floor above the ground floor. (This “floored” us more than once!)
• When you buy something in a shop, you pay at the till, not the cash register.
• Those lovely bodies of water everywhere in Scotland are almost always lochs, not lakes. There are a few exceptions, but not many!
• A Scottish cow with long hair is called a coo.

  

  A Scottish coo, up close and personal.

• A turnip is a neep (as in neeps and tatties to eat with your haggis).
• Yes, tatties are potatoes.
• Trousers are called trews or sometimes breeks.
• The Scottish word for “Cheers!” is “Slàinte!”

Back at the airport, we found that there were a lot of people going through security on Wednesday morning, September 30, but we made it through with minimal difficulty and on to the waiting area for our flight. Jackie, our US Airways angel, greeted us at the gate and helped us get exit row seats. This was a godsend! We were able to stretch out, which was so wonderful, and we were close to the toilets!

I won’t say much about being back in the states other than there were several delays. We arrived in Philadelphia a little earlier than scheduled. Once we finally got to the gate for the Knoxville flight after going through customs and airport screenings, we boarded the flight on time. The plane was small and very full. We sat on the runway for an hour and a half before finally taking off (mechanical trouble that had to be checked before we could leave), which meant that our good neighbor Debbie had to wait for us in Knoxville. All said, we arrived home safely, along with all our bags and two overflowing heads and hearts full of memories!

A rocky hillside reflected in a loch.

This had indeed been a trip of a lifetime. In spite of our age (Smoky is 72 and I’m within a few days of 69), we embarked on this adventure by ourselves, planning our itinerary, making most of our reservations, learning to drive on the left side of the road (when there actually were two lanes on the road), and listening carefully to the delicious Scottish brogue so we wouldn’t miss what was being said. We greeted shopkeepers, B&B hosts, and even strangers on the street warmly, and they returned the warmth tenfold. 

We literally forgot our age. Well, at the end of long days of hiking and sightseeing, as we fell into bed with our whole beings tired, I guess we remembered just how old we were, but during the day when we were out in that glorious countryside, exploring a glen or a ruin of a churchyard, trying a new dish in the neighborhood pub, or climbing to the top of an ancient castle overlooking a loch, we were young again and excited about all the adventures life had to offer.

We covered 1604 miles during the month of September 2015. As it turned out, September was a glorious month to be in Scotland. We counted rainy days on one hand, and even the days that started out dark and wet mostly ended up absolutely beautiful.

Our thanks to you, Scotland, for accepting us so warmly and providing us with memories and photographs that we will be enjoying all the rest of our years, no matter how many that may be.

Slàinte!