Back Home

After a bit of stress from getting a notification that our flight home was cancelled minutes after posting last night's blog, we made it back home. Unsure why, but American Airlines cancelled our flight and then rebooked us onto another flight at the exact same time our original one was. We also ended up with a row of three seats to ourselves which gave us a bit more leg room during the 8hr flight.

While I am sad the trip is over, it is also good to be back in our own home with comforts we missed while on the trip. Such has consistently having AC (not all hotels have it), having a bathroom bigger then a coat closet, and back to driving on the right side of the road.

There are also some things I'll miss and wish we had here in the states, like grocery store "meal-deals" - you pick a main, side, and drink usually for £3.95-£5.95. My go-to combo was a salad or wrap + chips + smoothie. We used this a few times for quick, cheap meals throughout the trip as it was even cheaper then something like McDonalds (approx. £8-9). The expanse of the public transportation was also very nice. Whether we were getting around the city or traveling between the cities it was very convenient.

One thing I've already gotten asked is, would we go back? In short, yes. They each had their own reasons for being enjoyable. London felt huge and had so much to see, while we got the highlights there's so much more to see and interesting history to learn. Edinburgh, while busier then normal while were there, was a bit slower and less overwhelmingly huge to explore and learn about. And finally Portree/Isle of Skye was a super cute small town and beautiful island. While driving was a more difficult with single track roads and passing places to deal with, the sights were beautiful.

We will hopefully have the opportunity to do another trip like this in the future, though when and what the destination(s) will be are still to be decided. This trip took a huge amount of learning and planning as it was the first time out of the country for both of us and my first time flying. Some of the other countries we've bounced around potentially going to involve us at least familiarizing ourselves with the basics of another language, which would be a fun challenge in itself.

To wrap up this final post here's some random observations and stats that I hadn't had a spot to include in any previous posts:

Some interesting, random observations we noticed:

• There was only wooden disposable utensils, never plastic

• A lot more effort put into recycling, we even had some food court style meals where the tray, food container, cups, utensils, straw, etc were all recyclable to make it even easier

• When at the store you are either not given a bag at all, sometimes a small paper bag for souvenirs, or you have to pay around 30 pence for a plastic bag. Thankfully we brought some re-usable bags with us

• People signal while going in and out of traffic circles

• There's traffic circles on highways....sometimes with multiple sets of traffic lights IN the traffic circle

• So many old buildings! Either buildings still in use, or old, cool looking ruins

• Necessary cash use is pretty rare, and many places are actually card only

• I'm sure there's a rhyme or reason - but it feels like sheep on Isle of Skye are just everywhere, and I wonder how farmers know where all their sheep are

Some fun stats from our trip:

• Total steps walked: 153,740

• Total miles walked: 71.94

• Most walking done on May 22nd (9.03 miles, 19,334 steps)

• Total flights of stairs climbed: 377

• Total miles traveled by car: ~665

• Total miles traveled by train: 660

• Total miles traveled by plane: 8,000

• Hotels/cities stayed at: 3 (London, Edinburgh, Portree)

• Major landmarks visited: 31

• Nights spent in the UK: 10

• Sunny days: 8 vs Cloudy/Rainy days: 2

• Only item lost was my sunglasses, which I must’ve not picked up from the bin when going through security at the airport the day we left for our trip

• We did not check any luggage on either flight, we each had a carry-on + a backpack that counted as the personal item allowed by airlines