Road Trip to Scotland – 2

So…. eventually it did stop raining, and brighten up a bit. T and I spent the day relaxing. Previously I had planned to take the bikes with us (I bought a carrier and had it all ready to go) but last minute I felt it would be too much to take on and too much energy, and that was the right call. So instead we spend the day sitting about, eating a bit of food here and there and pottering up and down the site a few times. It’s a really nice site and I’m sure it’s amazing in the summer if you’re planning to use it as a base for a few days…although everyone else just seemed to be sat in their motorhomes or caravans…. aside from the over-zealous ride-on lawnmower guy who did the same bits of grass at least 3 times. Neat, but annoying and loud.

Taking it easy definitely did me some good as I felt okay by the end of the day. Tired (went to bed early), but OK. But didn’t get a great night’s sleep and got up at 5 again as currently appears to be my pattern.

We packed up and left site at 7. Some of the roads here are epic, and it would be amazing in the summer, if a bit ‘ooh, if that goes wrong that’s an unforgiving stone wall too close to the road’ a lot of the time.

We decided to get food on the way as the timings were tight. Had a lovely breakfast wrap which perked me up a lot and then crossed into Scotland for the second time ever for me…

Also, got coffee which is now a daily staple or else I’m just nowhere. We made it to the parking we’d booked in Glasgow in fair time…

… and had just long enough to packed, get to the station to get the tickets, find the platform and then T went to get food while I waited…

…looking in vain for the train which was supposed to be on platform 4.

It wasn’t.

There was a reason for this. I’d taken us to the wrong train station.

When booking, I’d used the site which just said “Glasgow Central” and hadn’t looked further. But the actual tickets say “Glasgow Central / Queen Street”.

The train leaves at 12:22.

The right station is an 11 minute walk away.

I screwed up. This was a massive nightmare and I had a proper meltdown. It’s a sign of how classy T is that she just let me go outside to decompress for 5 minutes (once I’d picked myself up off the floor) and we started looking at options – we could have taken a later train in the day, but T had upgraded the hotel for a really nice experience and we’d be missing out on that and arriving at 10:30 – long after the restaurant had shut.

So she phoned the hotel, who said – in short – “tough”. They knew my situation in terms of health and what had happened, but there’s no refund coming at all – not even for the £200 upgrade let alone the original room price, and couldn’t book the same room for the next night, so that was £300 wasted. Fortunately everyone else in the chain was less rigid. Train tickets can be refunded and booked for the next day, and the York camping were happy to move us a day later at no charge at all! We found a hotel nearby for a reasonable price (right next to the right train station) this time, and extended the parking for the camper for another 24 hours.

An expensive error to say the least, but not the first one I’ve made in the last few weeks. The stress is starting to show, and mistakes are being made. By me. But the half life of my anger (helped by T’s boundless supportiveness) meant that within an hour we were in the hotel room, relaxing and eating lunch. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again (hopefully more than once). She is incredible. Her resolve and ability to show love in difficult situations seems unbounded, and that helped me calm down a lot quicker than I would have done before. We’ve booked into a different hotel in Mallaig (just for the record, screw the West Highland hotel, you could have been slightly more helpful even if you were sticking to the letter of the contract, and you’re not fully booked on either effing night), and it’s all good. Plus I think the extra rest here will mean a more pleasant train journey tomorrow as it was a bit of a stretch I could have managed in better health, but no longer.

But Mallaig will have to wait an extra day, and we’ll be back a day later.

Which means one ominous thing. Eddie has to put the bins out.