Glasgow to Belfast: Wednesday 20 July

Everyone had a hot night last night (not in the sense some of you might think...) because we'd been warned that the air-conditioning in Scottish hotels is more used to heating up than cooling down! It was still 26C at 9pm last night.

We had a two hour drive down the west coast of Scotland (passing through the small town of Alloway, birthplace of Robbie Burns), to the port of Cairnryan to sail across the Irish Sea to Belfast (a two and a quarter hour sailing). The forecast was for torrential rain and thunderstorms... with that in mind, David and I had a couple of Sea Legs tablets each...

However, the rain cleared to mist and we enjoyed a very smooth sailing, free internet, comfortable seating at a table in the cafe, and the ability to charge my iPad. Lunch for me was an Indian curry with brown rice (very nice, and one of the three GF hot dishes especially listed separately on the menu). David's read his book on his iPad. I add that an hour or two later, I realised I'd been glutened, I think perhaps by the coffee I'd had from a machine rather than a barista.

We drove into Belfast and picked up our local host - Hilda - who showed us the important sights in Belfast and something of the history behind them. We saw the parliamentary building, the housing, street art, schools, suburbs, ship building area, and more. It started drizzling again and it was hard to get photos.

Next, we were dropped at the relatively new Titanic exhibition for one and three quarter hours - the displays and interactive features were very well done. They are held in a stunning building designed to represent the Titanic and its two sister ships, with the sea or ice represented in the cladding of the building.

 

Then it was over to the hotel, finding our rooms, and out again for dinner (nothing organised this time). While we'd been in the Titanic exhibition, our Tour Director, Michelle, had googled to find somewhere nearby that might cater well for GF diets - how kind was that?!

We arranged to meet another couple (Murray and Lorraine from Lismore NSW) and crossed the road to a very old pub (The Crown) for a drink. It was an interesting place, very busy, but we managed to get into one of the cubicles for a seat. We were joined by another Australian couple who were driving themselves around the UK for seven weeks - their stories of driving around some of the narrow roads were very interesting/hair-raising and not something we would want to do. 

Then we headed to Michelle's recommended restaurant - Home Restaurant, in Wellington Place. They had an extensive GF menu and we all thoroughly enjoyed our meals.

We were finding ourselves exhausted each evening. Everyone was finding that sitting in a bus could be surprisingly exhausting!

 

Skye, Fort William, Glen Coe, Loch Lomond, Glasgow: Tuesday 19 July

I had a wonderful nine hour sleep last night. I'd discovered that my feet and ankles were incredibly swollen (probably sitting for so long on the bus yesterday), so was anxious about how they'd be today. They were down a bit, but still not great. I've never had this issue before.

We had the usual breakfast, and I headed out to grab a photo of the beautiful view across the water from the hotel. The water was like a mirror and we had a sunny, warm day ahead of around 23C (and actually 29C as we got closer to Glasgow).

As it was such a glorious day (without yesterday's rain and mist) we had a second, but brief photo-stop at Eilean Donan castle, for shots from the opposite side of this iconic castle. But first a photo-stop when we got a great photo of Michelle. And she took one of some of us!

Then on to the Commando Memorial, with great views of Ben Nevis (apparently unusual to be able to see it in the more typical weather, but luckily a fine clear day for us). We drove through the town of Fort William (Outlander memories, but I saw no sign of a fort).

The highland areas then grew particularly rugged - rocky, but with bright splashes of emerald green grass too - and there was a somber stop in the Glen Coe Valley as we heard about the slaughter there of the MacDonalds by the Campbells in the 17th century (my grandmother was a Campbell). 

   

We had an excellent lunch stop at a place called Tyndrum, and ate at the Green Welly cafe. They had a fantastic setup to quickly cater for bus loads of tourists. There were heaps of GF choices, including sandwiches, bread rolls, and toasties. I enjoyed a big bowl of Cullen Skink soup (I SO love that soup!) with a roll. I also bought a lovely Heatherbell necklace; interesting jewellery made from heather that has been crushed under great pressure.

The scenery changed dramatically as we drove around the beautiful Loch Lomond, eventually stopping at a lovely area where Kevin (our driver) and Michelle set up a Scottish picnic for us. There was shortbread (GF for me) cakes that looked like mallowpuffs, raspberries, strawberries, a soft drink called Irn-Bru (iron brew, that outsells Coca Cola in Scotland), whisky and drambuie. I passed up on the drinks - I didn't like the look of the ingredients of the soft drink with quinine and (I think) ferrous caltrate - and the others were not GF.

Then we were back in the lowland areas of Scotland and getting closer to Glasgow. Traffic into Glasgow was slow, and we had a brief tour around some of the (few) city sights - George Square (named after George III but with no statue of him), and St Mungo's Cathedral (founder and patron saint of Glasgow).

After a short break at the hotel (Hallmark Glasgow) 28 of the group were taken to dinner at the Red Onion. Here I had my best meal of the trip thus far. Michelle very kindly approached me before we left, and said she'd been aware that I was only getting fruit salad or icecream for dessert everywhere, while the others had lovely desserts, and she said she'd asked this chef if he could do better and 'lift the bar'. I was very grateful. As it turned out, there was no need, and you will see a copy of the GF menu and what I ate on Facebook. My meal was absolutely amazing, but also shows how easy it really should be to simply make a meal GF.