Scotland- Day 16: Going Home - June 29, 2019

There is nothing like getting up at 6 am only to see a message on your phone that your flight is delayed 70 minutes. However, they still tell you to arrive on time, in case they can leave earlier. And yet, they never do.
So, my husband K and I packed up and headed down the elevator to check out and have breakfast at 7. The concierge took our luggage, so that we wouldn't have to deal with it in the restaurant. I decided that the buffet would be quicker than ordering my usual porridge. Plus, it had the advantage of letting me have one more chocolate croissant. I also got a tattie scone (tattie means potato here) and Scottish back bacon. Great last meal!

K had had the desk order the cab last night and it arrived at 7:20, ten minutes early. When we reached Glasgow Airport just ten minutes later, the cabbie said that the coupon we'd saved from the trip in wouldn't work. That was disappointing. So, we paid the Ł 25 fare and went in.

 We were finished with the check-in line in 35 minutes. At 8:08, we began the security line. Both my carry-on and the bag of souvenirs got extra screening. I asked why and it turned out to be the clotted cream fudge, of all things, and my CPAP cord.
We finished at 8:26 and the path then forced us through the duty free area. They do not let you go to the gate until it is open. They don't even post the gate number. Rather, everyone sits in a large main are waiting for their gate numbers to pop up. When we sat down at 8:40, I saw two guys drinking beer at one of the food places!
I also saw this clever Krispy Kreme stand and I still don't understand why that company is even there.

At 10:05, we finally saw that we were to go to Gate 33 for flight VS017. On our way there, we saw the couple from South Carolina on their way home, two. The walk to the gate took long enough that we were immediately in line to board. I did get a couple of photos out the window, though. The fencing looks like snow fencing. It could be, I suppose.

We were in seats 44G and F at 10:25.  After cleaning the seats and trays with hand sanitizer, as usual, we had an extra long time to watch others board. It turned out that a young passenger felt ill and she and her parents left the plane. We had to wait, while they got their luggage off, as well.
Finally, at 11:08, the plane pushed back from the gate. We took off at 11: 23, and because we did not have window seats, we could not get one last look of Scotland.
I settled in to watch Stan and Ollie, which was as good as I'd heard. Lunch was served at 12:44 and I had the chicken. It was a pretty good meal.

I did some needlework, while watching the movies. My next one was First Man, which was excellent. Around 4, they brought a really unusual snack around- a popsicle! I can't remember the last time I had one.

My next movie selection was yet another that I'd wanted to see, but hadn't gotten to, Bohemian Rhapsody.  What a terrific movie! It made me look up Freddie Mercury at home to see how much of it was true. A fair amount of it, as Brian May from the band had a hand in it. Fun fact: he's an astrophysicist.
At 6:10, we had "tea", this being Virgin Atlantic, a British company after all. I did not have hot tea, but I did enjoy the packaging and the food.

At 2:26 EDT, we landed at Orlando International Airport. We reached the gate in just 11 minutes. Shockingly, we were off the plane just 8 minutes after that. I'm not used to getting through the line so fast.
Speaking of lines, when the guy directing people at immigration saw me with my phone open to the Mobile Pass app, he sent us to a special line. So glad I'd taken the time to fill in the info on the plane and hit send as soon as we had a signal. We even beat the crew through the line. We got through the customs check at 2:52.
It took a  longer for the luggage to come through. We didn't get ours until almost 3:15, and there was a lot of luggage just waiting for the non-Americans to get to it.
At 3:29, we were waiting for a friend to pick us up. He arrived at 3:33. A traffic accident caused a slow down, but he had us home at 4:20.
We were exhausted, because our bodies thought it was bedtime, of course. My phone says that I walked 1.7 miles in 5,251 steps. I don't feel like I walked that much today, though.
What a fantastic trip we had! What a great way to get an early start on celebrating 36 years of marriage!
Oh, and my next trip is just 9 days away!