This was the day for all the travel problems to crop up all at once...on less sleep than the day before. We needed to contact the car rental company and pray they had a car for us somewhere in Glasgow. That's great in theory.
In practice, the £20 prepaid sim card I bought at the airport two days ago was empty! That didn't last long. Everybody told me it would be much cheaper to get a local card. Guess not! So, I couldn't make a call.
You can call a number and "top up" the card. They don't take american credit cards. You can call their customer service cell phone code (no land line number provided). Call costs money! No money on sim card...
The fabulous desk clerk tracked down a real number for the customer service. My only option is to hunt down a cell phone store and buy a voucher that I can then use to top up the card.
Geesh! Luckily there was a mobile phone store nearby. Bought a voucher. Topped up the card. Called the car rental. They had a car (thank god - otherwise, the rest of our plans would be shot). Caught a cab, picked up the car. They even upgraded us to a Mercedes. Nice car, but like most British cars, very small.
Aaaand, we're on our way. Drive on the right side of the car. Check. Drive on the left side of the road. Check. Orient yourself to the inside of the lane, ie the right side. Not so check. I almost took out a few parked cars and a fence... I kept thinking there was more car to my right than there actually was. That is one thing I didn't anticipate. Then on the A85 and out of Glasgow...
Onto the narrowest, windiest road full of oncoming lorries screaming at me. AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!! Talk about trial by fire. I felt bad for the line of cars behind me as I made my way around hairpin turns with a stream of oncoming traffic on one side and a stone wall on the other, with no shoulder. In a Mercedes. I was terrified, I'd take out the entire left side of the car on a stone wall. Good thing we got the insurance...
And remember...no sleep.
It was only a few hours to our first stop of the night, but I felt like I had been driving for days. After a while, the road opened up a little and I started to get the hang of it.
Then we came around the corner and got the first glimpse of Eilean Donan Castle. Breathtaking. Like something out of a movie. Which it was. I have seen it a hundred times in Highlander and countless other films and tv shows. To see it in real life was sort of surreal...(don't forget the no sleep...)
The bed and breakfast we were staying at actually had a view of the castle.
Not much sunset for the spectacular award winning photograph I was hoping for, but I got some nice shots. Will try again for sunrise, but this IS Scotland. Before leaving Glasgow, I found a chemist for some sleeping pills so I was guaranteed a good nights sleep at last.
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