Exploring the 'lands' of Scotland, Ireland and Iceland

To commemorate my 60th year, I wanted to go on another adventure. I had hiked the Chilkoot Trail when I was 50 and another "hike seemed the right choice. However, I don't think I will wait 10 years between hikes!

My good friend and proven traveling companion, Rhonda Sleighter (Juneau), and I chose to hike the West Highland Way in Scotland http:www.west-highland-way.co.uk/home.asp which is a 96-mile route beginning in Milngavie and ending in Ft. William.

We departed Seattle on Iceland Air for Glasgow after having Rhonda's traditional "Beginning of Vacation" Bloody Mary.Travel time to Glasgow was almost 12 hours. We changed planes in Reykjavik, Iceland and again in Manchester, England. the time difference between Seattle, WA and Glasgow is eight hours with Scotland being ahead of the U.S. Even though we landed at 1:40pm, it still felt like 5:40am to us!

We took a taxi from the airport to our B & B, Amadeus Guest House and waited for our hostess to check us in. We were directed to a neighborhood restaurant for dinner. The food was delicious but we were tired. After re-packing suitcases and organizing backpacks we headed to bed and looked forward to the first day of our walk. We did question the sanity as to why we thought a12-mile walk would be a good thing the day after arriving in Scotland, but felt we could handle it.