The time
for our big adventure had come! We were
headed off on a big trip to Scotland and Ireland with our first stop in Edinburgh
Scotland. Of course, traveling overseas
from Knoxville Tennessee involves multiple airports and airplanes…
We
started out with a flight on American Eagle from Knoxville to Charlotte North
Carolina, with a fairly tight connection in Charlotte. Upon arrival in Charlotte we discovered that
the gate for our next flight was about as far from our arrival gate as was
possible. Then we were off on our next
leg of our journey…Charlotte to New York’s JFK Airport.
During my
working life, I’d flown into almost every major airport in the USA at least
once…but I’d never been to JFK before.
It also dawned on me that my first flight on an airplane had taken place
about 60 years before this trip. It had
been on a Lake Central Airlines DC-3 from Detroit Michigan to Buffalo New York
via Erie Pennsylvania…
Of course,
once again our arrival gate was a long way from our departure gate. The good news was that we had plenty of time
for our connection…
I know
that this photo of a TAM airliner has nothing directly to do with our trip…other
than I like spotting airlines I’d never seen before. TAM…actually LATAM following a recent merger…is
based in Sao Paulo Brazil and with its 160+ aircraft serves 68 destinations
primarily in South America, North America and Europe.
With time
to spare at JFK International Airport, we decided to find a spot to have a
snack and relax. Vino Volo, a wine bar, looked
like a solid option.
I’ve since
learned that Vino Volo is a chain of 33 wine bars across the USA and
Canada. The atmosphere is much more
relaxed than most other airport food and adult beverage venues…
This is
my happy wife…happy to be on this trip to Scotland and Ireland! At JFK, our journey started to become ‘real’!
Here is
yours truly relaxing with a nice glass of Pinot Grigio. ($9.00) Laurie had a
glass as well…
The
highlight of our break at Vino Volo was visiting with these two young
ladies. Ariana and Meagan, who work for
a major New York based bank, were off on a vacation to Germany. Meagan had previously visited Ireland and she
gave us a couple of tips. Ariana has
traveled overseas quite a bit, to places like Morocco, Ecuador, Colombia and
Hong Kong as well as a number of places in Europe. They were lots of fun to talk with!
For our
snack, we chose the Charcuterie Board.
At $23.00 we both thought that it was a bit pricy for what we got…
However, it was tasty and it did fill our need for something to tide us over
until we received our meal on the flight to Scotland.
FYI… Vino
Volo’s website can be found at https://www.vinovolo.com/.
This was
the flight board at our gate at JFK… Reality was setting in! We departed on time.
This was
our American Airlines Boeing 757 aircraft at the gate… The flight was smooth
and uneventful, but we were grateful that we’d had that snack at Vino
Volo.
The meal
we were served on the flight was at best poor… The movie was hard to see on the
screens hanging from the ceiling of the plane and it was shown twice during the
flight rather than showing 2 different movies.
FYI…the movie was “Pirates of the Caribbean – Dead Men Tell No Tales”. Thanks to my AA Gold Card, we did have enough
leg room for moderate comfort.
Other
than the wording on the signs, this could be any big airport anywhere…but we
were indeed in Edinburgh’s airport.
After
picking up our luggage and hitting the ATM for a few hundred dollars equivalent
in British Pounds, we began our seemingly endless trek to the car rental
building…and then from there to the distant location where our SUV was located.
Thanks to
my frequent flyer mileage, we had ‘free’ airline tickets for our trip. But then there was the car rental… If you
rent a car in Edinburgh and you want to avoid having to use a stick shift while
you’re driving on the left side of the road and if you need a vehicle big
enough to hold 4 passengers with 2 weeks + luggage, your wallet will feel the
pain! The weekly rate is high enough but
then add in the Roadside Assistance Protection, Additional Driver Fee, the “Premium
Location Fee” and the 20% Value Added Tax and your head starts spinning!
We loaded
our luggage into our SUV and then trekked back to the arrival terminal to greet
Laurie’s very happy sister Bonnie and her husband Bill when they came in on
their flight from St. Louis Missouri…via Washington Dulles and Dublin
Ireland. Our Scotland adventure was about to begin in earnest!
The
Edinburgh air traffic control tower was striking enough that I just had to take
this photo…
Edinburgh
is indeed an international airport. You
can fly from here to several destinations in the USA as well as to Canada,
Mexico, the Middle East and just about anywhere in Europe.
This
striking Edinburgh sign is located between the auto rental facility and the
departures section of the main terminal.
The
greater Edinburgh area has a population of about 1,340,000 and the city has
been the capital of Scotland since at least the 15th century. The city is the seat of the Scottish Parliament
as well as the seat of the monarchy in Scotland. Edinburgh has long been known as a major
center of education, especially in the fields of medicine, law, literature, the
sciences and engineering. It is also the
second largest financial center in the United Kingdom. The city’s historical and cultural
attractions bring in over a million visitors from outside the United Kingdom
every year.
This Hyundai
Santa Fe was our faithful ‘steed’ for our Scottish adventure. This was the first diesel powered vehicle
that I’ve ever driven and once I got used to it ‘shutting down’ when stopped in
traffic, I enjoyed driving it…even on the left side of the road.
The price
of diesel fuel during our trip was about 1.199 British Pounds per Liter or
$4.54 US per gallon…
Despite
the fact that Edinburgh is such an attraction, after all its Old Town and New
Town together are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, we were too tired to
cope with the traffic, parking and the crowds so we opted to head directly to
our hotel in Glenrothes in Fife across the Firth of Forth north of the city. Our focus for the trip were the back roads and out of the way towns and villages...
Much more
to follow…
Just
click on any of the photos to enlarge them.
Thanks for
stopping by for a visit!
Take
Care, Big Daddy Dave
Glad the flight went well and looking forward to seeing the rest of the trip.
ReplyDeleteGood flight is always a good thing! We've been all around Europe, but not to Scotland or Ireland and I'd love to visit both so looking forward to your future posts about the trip!
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful to be able to see Scotland, Dave! Lovely photos, and I look forward to seeing more! :)
ReplyDeleteAwesome post, friend Dave ... have fun ... just hope you don't get blown to pieces by da hurricane approaching Ireland, England and parts of Scotland ... Love, cat.
ReplyDelete