Roadtrip to Scotland

Some of my family took a road trip from England to Scotland for about 4 days. My brother-in-law, Tyler drove an SUV which included his daughter Ivey, my Dad and his wife Rose, and myself. My sister, Cindy, drove a van, carrying the rest of her kids, Mason, Calla, Hunter, and also my brother, Scott. Using mobile phones, GPS and old school maps we managed to caravan most of the time, getting lost only some, seeing most of what we wanted, and returning with all 10 people - which was perhaps the greatest success.

Most of our time was spent driving through the remarkable landscapes of Northern England and Southern Scotland. The rest of the time was spent eating, sleeping, and preparing to eat, sleep, and drive. Getting 10 people into 2 cars at the same time can be a challenging sociodynamic obstacle.

We stayed in Manchester, England our first night. We arrived late, and the kids slept while everyone else ordered food in the lobby and talked about religion and politics. There was a pool at our hotel, which the kids enjoyed in the morning before we started driving again. We stopped for lunch at a random restaurant on the way to Glasgow, Scotland, where we sat for two hours waiting for our food. We had planned to get to Glasgow in good time, so we didn't anticipate such a long stop. It may be a cultural difference for some people to want to spend longer at lunch, but we all felt like getting to Scotland.

We didn't see much of Glasgow. We arrived into town only to find that our hotel hadn't been booked. We used a third party booking company, and there was a miscommunication that resulted in a lost reservation. The hotel was full, and finding a hotel with vacancies took a couple hours, since it was a holiday weekend. We eventually found a place about an hour east of Glasgow, 1/2 way to Edinburgh. Since we planned to see Edinburgh next, it made sense to just continue on.

We followed directions on the GPS, and it dropped us off in several quaint towns that would have been wonderful places to tour, but it was getting late, and people were tired, so we kept driving in search of our hotel. Tyler and I were convinced that we could find it with road signs, so we led the caravan nearly all the way to the hotel, when all of sudden my dad jumped out of the car as we were stopped at a traffic light. We assumed his jimmy legs got the best of him as he was ran toward a sign for a guesthouse, but all he said before he left the car was "let me out". We couldn't stay in the road when the light turned green, and with nowhere to pull over, we kept driving until we saw a gas station. The van followed us as we drove back to find my dad. Then the van with GPS led us down a windy side road through some fields, and back to the same road just beyond the gas station, and there we found our hotel. After carrying sleepy kids to a room with beds and blankets on the floor, a few of us hung out in one of the rooms. We used an adapter to connect a laptop to the TV screen, so we could watch Arrested Development episodes.

The hotel had a wide selection of hot breakfast options including porridge (oatmeal), fish, potatoes, eggs, and sausage - until the power went out - then it was just sausage, and a buffet of cereal, fruit, and yogurt. The drive to Campbell Castle was beautiful, filled with grazing sheep on grassy hillsides. We stopped at a market for meat, cheese, and bread, to avoid a long wait at a restaurant. The castle looked ancient, and was undergoing some renovations. It's set on a hill, with a vast view overlooking a small town. Our family is as much Scottish as we are a mixture of other European heritage, but some of us felt a unique connection with Campbell Castle.

We made a quick tour of Edinburgh, visited a large museum and ate fish and chips and meat pies in an outdoor plaza. We then drove to a bed and breakfast south of Edinburgh, owned by a local family that gave us a taste of southern Scottish culture. In the morning we were served a large breakfast, and the kids happily fed milk to lambs in a stable nearby.

We headed to Alnwick, England to see a castle where part of Harry Potter was filmed. Our time was short, so we planned to see more the next day. We did some shopping at Morrison's market in Alnwick, and I discovered that they make excellent cookies. We bought a few packages and some milk. We drove to our hotel in New Castle, calling to confirm our reservation. The kids went to sleep, and the rest of us ate dessert in the lobby and played games.

Scott knew a friend that lived in New Castle, so I joined them for chinese food later, and walked around New Castle. Scott and I booked a hostel for us, then met up with the rest of the family in the morning. We got an early start for the Harry Potter castle, and toured the manicured gardens for a few hours. There was a lot to see, including several water fountains, a hedge maze, and poisonous plants collection. A few of the kids participated in broom stick training, which was entertaining for everyone else to watch. We ate a few more servings of fish and chips before we drove back to Tyler and Cindy's house. By that time I could tell that my body had reached it's limit of fried food for the month.