Scotland Adventure 2023

Priscilla and I are embarking on our fifth cruise in as many years. We cruised the Rhine River, Panama Canal, Iceland, Norway and this year we will cruise around Scotland from west to east. We will start in Glasgow, cruise to the Isle of Mull, Isle of Skye, Isle of Lewis, Orkney Islands, Shetland Islands and conclude our cruise in Edinburgh.

Here is a map of our Scotland cruise. We will be traveling west to east.

We have used the same tour group Tauck each time. We love the all inclusive pricing. The Rhine River trip was on a river boat. All the other cruises were on Ponant small cruise ships. Our ship for the Scotland cruise is the Le Champlain. The Le Champlain is the sister ship to the Le Dumont D’Urville. We cruised Panama, Iceland and Norway on the D’Urville. The ships are identical so we will easily find our way around onboard. These small cruse ships carry only 140 - 160 passengers and are more like a mega-yacht than a cruise ship.

This is our cruise ship Le Champlain.

We will fly from Chicago to Reykjavik, Iceland and connect through to Glasgow, Scotland. The flight from Chicago to Reykjavik is six hours and the flight from Reykjavik to Glasgow is two hours. We are traveling with our family friend Mary Berkley. We were introduced to Mary by our friends Dan and Iris Carlson. Mary owned a condo in Stuart, Florida close to us.

It will be a lot of fun traveling with Mary. In this photo she is wearing a Stevie Nicks costume.

The airline recommends arriving at the airport 3.5 hours ahead of flight time. That seems a bit obsessive. No big deal for the airline if we are sitting for three hours in uncomfortable seats. I shaved a full half hour off the arrival time. As a result we were checked in and at our gate with 2.5 hours to spare. Perhaps Sunday of Labor Day weekend is a good day to fly. The good news is I have more time to work on the blog.

This is the weekend Jimmy Buffett passed away. I must post an homage to my hero. An homage is an expression of great respect and honor.

Reading departure signs in some big airport reminds me of the places I’ve been. Visions of good times that brought so much pleasure makes me want to go back again. If it suddenly ended tomorrow I could somehow adjust to the fall. Jimmy did not adjust to the fall. Sail on Jimmy. Lyrics from Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes.

Icelandair knows how to make money. The incoming flight will land at 6:40 pm and we will be airborne by 7:30 pm. You can’t make money with an aircraft on the ground.

That is a really small airplane. I am glad we are sitting up front.

Not everything goes as planned. We were not airborne until after 8:30 pm. No worries we will still have a four hour layover in Reykjavik. It is 6:30 am in Iceland but it is only 2:30 am in Chicago.

Fortunately the 24 hour airport bars also serve coffee.

Our flight had a little drama with very turbulent air for quite a while. The flight attendants rushed to the back of the plane with the oxygen tank. The beverage and meal service was excellent with a large selection of Icelandic gins and a veal entree.

Our flight to Glasgow will be only two hours. Looking at the map Glasgow is the closest large city to Reykjavik. We do not have to go through passport control to go to the UK.

Next stop Glasgow, Scotland.