This is not how we thought our trip would begin. So here we go. Our trip started ominously enough as we were delayed by half an hour before we even left Winnipeg. That should have been our first clue. When we arrived in Toronto, our connecting flight to Glasgow was leaving in less than 20 minutes. We ran like crazy (it was a bazillion miles away) to the next gate but when we got there, they said we had to chose to fly with or without our luggage since it wouldn't make the switch over. So we missed our flight to Glasgow and were given a flight to London with a connection to Glasgow. However, this meant we would miss our connection to Lerwick out of Glasgow. So after a very short night (2 hours), we arrived in London where I tried to contact our travel agent's emergency number. No luck. We had the option of taking a train to Edinburgh from Glasgow and then flying later in the day to Lerwick but it was time to board our Glasgow flight from Terminal 5 and we didn't want to take a chance on not getting our luggage in Glasgow. We were assured by the helpful lady behind the reservation desk that our one, no two, backpacks were with us. Then we had to board a connecting train to Terminal 5 about 5 miles away. We got there in time but were delayed on the runway for over an hour and when we got to Glasgow, Elaine's backpack was missing. So after a long visit with the lost baggage people (who must have the toughest job in the world), we found out that it hadn't even left Toronto yet. So the 'helpful' lady had lied. We were so dead tired by this point so we sucked it up and took the last available room at the airport hotel (no energy to look for a nearby Airbnb) for over two hundred dollars, booked our new flights to Lerwick (with rebooking fees), called our Airbnb hosts and the car rental agency in Lerwick to push back our arrival by 24 hours, and then boarded a bus for downtown Glasgow to get a SIM card since nobody at the airport had any left. Our Vodafone person fought our phone forever but even though it was unlocked, it wouldn't work. We called Winkler MTS on our cell phone (wonder what the roaming charges will be) but that didn't help either. We ended up buying a throwaway phone but now we don't have Maps and other stuff. We'll have to work this out after we return to civilization in a few weeks. So...... we walked downtown Glasgow (old and grimy), had some overpriced fast food (restaurants will kill you in the UK), and went back to our hotel for an early night. Since my new phone wasn't working properly (and our Skype has gone wonky), I used the hotel front desk phone to call MasterCard about coverage as well as Uniglobe Emergency (no answer after being stuck in the loop). Luckily Fiona at the front desk helped calm me down and eventually I went upstairs to go to sleep. What a long 'day'! Hope we're done with the 'adventure' part of our trip. We're looking forward to boring. Elaine is really looking forward to being reunited with her own clothes. Hopefully they will catch up to her when we get to Lerwick.
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