Ireland trip day eleven

Ireland trip day eleven, Tuesday 6/8/10

We got up early today in order to get to Belfast City Airport and fly off to Scotland. Specifically we were flying Ryanair to Glasgow. We were actually going to fly to Prestwick International Airport and then ride a train 45 minutes into the big city. Then we were going to spend the day shopping and touring in Scotland. That's not exactly what happened. As with any adventure with Keren and Michael, you have to be ready to roll with the punches.

So when we woke up this morning with a little rain we were undeterred in our plans. It always rains in Northern Ireland, right? Well, when we got to the airport, trudged through the rain, faced the dreaded security line, and got to THE gate (only one)we knew something was wrong. There were way too many people in the airport for that one little gate. Then we looked at the flight status board and realized we were really in trouble. There were no flights leaving or coming. For our flight status it said "wait in lobby and shop". Seriously? That's not a good sign. Our flight time came and went and the most information that we got was "check the board again at 11:00am". We starting getting worried that we weren't going to make it because after all we were only going for one night. We didn't want to fly over there just to turn around and come back. Finally we hear something positive for our flight. "For Ryanair flight to Prestwick International Airport please proceed to the gate area. We have moved your flight to the Belfast International Airport and we are arranging for a coach (bus) to take you over." WHAT!!!??? That's right. They moved our flight over a little bit of rain. I now had serious concerns over any European city to get me safely anywhere. So we exit through the gate and actually exit the building. There is NO ONE telling us where to go or what to do. There are a lot of people just hanging out waiting on the bus. Finally we ask someone with a walkie talkie and she tells us that they are shipping us over to the other airport and then we will have to go through security all over again.

To make a long morning and story a little shorter, we finally got to the airport. Michael got patted down in security. We made it on the plane for our 25 minute flight to Scotland and then took the 45 minute train ride into town. Finally in the town of Glasgow, the rain and the late time put a damper on our plans but we had fun anyway. We trudged up and down the streets, looked at all the Kilt shops, and had some excellent food. I couldn't bring myself to eat the haggis after all the cutie sheep I saw but we did manage to sample a little Scottish Whiskey. In a taste test between Scottish and Irish Whiskey, Michael liked the former better and I liked the latter. One thing I noticed about Scotland was that they really really like golf. We must have seen 6 courses in about 15 minutes. Crazy!

We went to bed early because we had to wake up early to catch another flight back to Ireland. What a whirlwind!

So I am off now. Have a blessed evening and thanks for reading my blog.