One
of the many advantages to home exchange is the chance to become
friends with the people you swap homes with. In 2015 Don and I
exchanged homes with a couple from England. They were coming to
Minnesota for a friend's wedding. In the “what a small world” or
“six degrees of separation” category we discovered that the bride
to be was twin-sister to the friend of our daughter! Our daughter
and her husband met Ian and Jacqui at the Minneapolis airport and
showed them around our city for a day and discovered they had much in
common. We all became Facebook friends and have kept in touch, and
after our daughter and son-in-law moved to Montana they were visited
by Ian and Jacqui who were there for skiing, and now we are in that
couple's lovely home on the Isle of Skye in Scotland,
where they moved to in 2017.
So,
we flew Aer Lingus to Dublin, spent quite a bit of time in the Dublin
airport, and then it was just a short flight to Glasgow. We caught
the express bus right at the airport and were able to get off just a
few blocks from our hotel, success! It's the Z Hotel, recommended by
Ian, and it is in an excellent location and between 5 and 7 pm they
set out a little cheese buffet with fruit, bread, crackers and jam,
and you can have one free glass of wine to go with the free cheese
buffet, but the room is one of the smallest we've ever been in. The
“closet” is just 4 pegs on the wall and the bathroom is in
one corner of the room, and the walls are all glass, but luckily the glass is
frosted most of the way up the walls or it would be really awkward.
We
checked in at 4:30, slung our bags in our room, freshened up and went
back to the small lobby for our free wine and and a little cheese. We
then went on the lookout for a real meal and to take pictures of
Glasgow.
The
next morning we walked the two blocks to the train station with all
of our luggage and were off on the 5 hour trip to Mallaig. This train
ride, from Glasgow to Mallaig, especially the part from Fort William
on, is some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. You go past
mountains, lakes, and the famous viaduct that many will recognize
from the Harry Potter films. I'll have to post them later, Don took all of those pictures with his cell-phone and I don't have access to them.
Once
in Mallaig it was just another very short walk to the Ferry terminal.
The ferry ride is only about 30-45 minutes from Mallaig to Armadale
on Skye, with great scenery on both sides of the ferry.
Jacqui was
waiting for us at Armadale and it was so exciting to finally meet in
person! We've been friends for four years through the home exchange,
Facebook, and email, but face to face is always best, in my opinion.
It's a 90 minute drive from Armadale to Jacqui and Ian's home and the
scenery was just so stunning almost the whole way but I was so busy
catching up with Jacqui that I hardly saw any of it, I was also sort
of amazed at the single track roads on the island and the driving
skills needed to navigate them. Don was much more attentive to the
scenery as he was sitting in the back seat of the car.
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