I have always wanted to travel and see the world. I am curious about other people and places. I want to experience new food and discuss different ideas. I want to see things from the past and learn about the future. One of my favorite quotes is by Mark Twain, he says, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” Traveling the world has been a dream that I had been able to fulfill in my previous forty-three years on this Earth. I had traveled around the United States a little bit, and I had been over the border in Canada and Mexico (before passports were required). But, last May I finally got my passport and panned a trip for my oldest daughter and I to go to Europe. She was graduating high school and leaving for college, so this was a great opportunity to have some girl time before she left home to start her adult life. I want to remember all the great times we had so the next few posts will detail some of the things we saw and did.
We ended up planning a fourteen day trip that started in Washington DC. Our first flight took us to Toronto, Canada where we had a twelve-hour layover. Most people would hate that, but we loved the idea of leaving the airport and getting to see the sights in Toronto. A couple of highlights include:
- CN Tower, it takes just under a minute to ride the elevator up to the observation area which is 1,136 feet in the air.
- St. Lawrence Market, this is where we got some delicious food for lunch.
- Distillery District, they had a lot of really cool art to look at as well as shopping.
After a fun day in Toronto we headed back to the airport and boarded our flight to Glasgow, Scotland. It was an evening flight so we slept most of the way. We arrived in Scotland very early in the morning and couldn’t check into out hotel room yet, but they let us leave our bags so we could go exploring. It was decided that since Edinburgh was just a short train trip away we would go there for the day. Some of our favorite things were:
- Having high tea in Edinburgh Castle
- Scott Monument (Sir Walter Scott)
- St Giles’ Cathedral
- Tried haggis, which is described by Wikipedia as a savoury pudding containing sheep’s pluck (heart, liver, and lungs); minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, traditionally encased in the animal’s stomach though now often in an artificial casing instead.
That night we went to bed early to help us adjust to the time difference that our bodies were feeling. After catching up on our sleep, we got up bright and early the next morning so we could hit the streets of Glasgow. We spent the whole day wandering all over the city, seeing everything we could. Here are some of the high points from our day:
- Glasgow University
- Glasgow Cathedral
- The Necropolis
- Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
Sadly, we had only planned on staying in Scotland for one night, so after a long and crazy day we packed our bags and headed back to the airport to catch a flight to London, England.