In order to help keep our ageing brains up to date with all things work related, (!) Russell and I are attending a conference in a Glasgow, Scotland.
Given that Qatar now fly out of Adelaide and had some good 'introductory specials' some months ago, we booked on the new A350 that leaves at 2225 for Doha, thence on to Edinburgh.
Quick review on Qatar… the A350 front end is spacious and airy, no overhead lockers in the centre create a really open feeling and seats are configured in a 1 2 1 style, not great for couples unless you want the centre aspect. I had the window and Russell was across the aisle, slightly angled toward centre. To be honest, his book is his best friend whilst he is in the air anyway so it was fine. Overall, very nice ( great pyjamas… there's another story there) but overall not a better experience than Emirates/Qantas we thought. Disappointingly, this flight attracts less points for FF members than the Emirates option so that will probably sway us in the future.
After a short layover in Doha – the new airport a big improvement on the one we had seen in 2006 but still had queues too long for Russell to nab a shower – we were off on the roughly 7 hour leg to Edinburgh.
Edinburgh airport seems to be undergoing some major renovations but in spite of that we were actually through customs and immigration in record time, too soon in fact for the Avis counter who didn't have our car ready because we were (20 minutes) early.
Armed with GPS and iPad connected ( pre bought SIM card through 'travel gear' in Oz) we set off toward no real destination but with a few points of interest in mind.
The main 'must see' for today was the iconic “Kelpies” sculpture.
The Kelpies represent the lineage of the heavy horse of Scottish industry and economy, pulling the wagons, ploughs, barges and coalships that shaped the geographical layout of the Falkirk area. They were completed in 2014 and well worth our considerable backtracking when we realised we had missed the turn off!
That box ticked, we were back in MI 6 ( our little Mercedes A class's number plate) and heading north west toward the Argyll region.
Patches of blue sky had us wondering if we were really in Scotland and we had many photo opportunities en route to our final destination of Inveraray.
Just on dusk we were welcomed into our accommodation by the delightful Howard and decided to follow his recommendation for dinner at the George Hotel. The George did not disappoint – a hearty burger (delivered by our waitress from Sydney, Australia) finished our first day in Scotland quite nicely.
The whisky choices were also wide and varied but Russell didn't quite feel up to tackling that on the first night.
Tucked in bed with a cup of tea and a Tim Tam at 9pm, we thought we'd done quite well!