Give me SOMETHING!

We got our myguideBritain travel package today, and I was disappointed to find that they still have not provided us with street addresses for 4 out of our 7 accommodations. Some of the directions are pretty straight forward - but most are not. One place simply says Bruce Gardens - but that place has more than one B&B in it so how are we to know which one it is?

I emailed the person I'm working with at myguideBritain and told them that if they can't give me street numbers - that's fine. But I need some longitude & latitude coordinates or something. I'm not going to go tramping across half of Scotland looking for one B&B. Sure, that'd be a story to tell and I'd see some cool stuff but in the process I'll be wasting time I could be spending seeing places I've been dreaming about for ages.

Kumquats!

Now that we've decided we're going with myguideBritain for the travel reservations and we decided to fly Aer Lingus - I called Aer Lingus today to get a final quote on the flights so I knew how much we need to save before we could make the flight reservations and therefore make the travel reservations. Well apparently Aer Lingus has not "loaded" their LAX times yet and so I'm to call back in two weeks.

ARGH! I just want to make the plans so I know what's going on and I know we're getting the best deal we can by booking as soon as possible. Now we've got to wait another two weeks - and hopefully then Aer Lingus will have their LAX times in order. I suppose I should just stop my bitching. Beggers can't be choosers - now can we? I did go onto Aer Lingus' site and put in some dates for March - and have estimated our final price for the flights to be around $1,600. Wow that's a lot. It also sucks monkey butt that we'll be paying over $400 for the fuel surcharge & taxes. I thought that's what the tickets were paying for - fuel. Why are we now paying a surcharge?!

I've also decided, without speaking to Paul, not to get that British Heritage Pass (the pass that allowed us free access into individual sites). I've realized there is a lot of stuff we can't see that's on their list and a lot of stuff we WANT to see that's NOT on their list. Not worth the $15 a day when we wont be doing stuff every day. I promised Paul that if we went for two weeks we'd relax and do some non-site-seeing days too. I figure we'll be resting in Glasgow, Portree, Inverness, Aberdeen & Edinburgh because we'll be there for more than one day. Our other two stops will be purely for site-seeing enjoyment!

I've chosen some stuff I want to see, I'll post it soon!

While We're Young, Scotland 2008

I think this is it! I found this site called myguideBritain where you tell them where you want to go and they plan it for you - and as far as I can tell - for free! So, I emailed them and told them Paul & I were going to Scotland and that we wanted to go see the castles & stuff (meaning, no golfing and more than just whiskey tours) and then someone sent me a plan and told me how much it would cost! I went onto Yahoo! Maps and mapped our suggested hotels/B&B locations and the above is what you get. We'll basically be circling the island. I know that some of you out there might think it's silly that I needed someone to say, "make a circle" - but it was very daunting and now I feel like I have a starting point. The plan/cost they gave us was just for hotels/B&B and a car for the trip - but that kind of makes me happy because now Paul & I can just see what is around each area and plan that way.

If anyone is interested or maybe want to make some suggestions or anything - I've opened a "Trip Planner" from Yahoo! - here's the link to our trip so far: While We're Young, Scotland 2008. It shows where and what days we'll be there and also what places we're planning on staying. Most of the hotels/B&B we are thinking about weren't registered with Yahoo! so I have yet to put in addresses for them.

Some questions I'm going to throw out there though, anyone who can answer please do so!

1. Has anyone heard of a airline called Aer Lingus? Airfare was not included in the quote that the travel planners gave us, so I was price hunting for one way tickets (because we're starting in Glasgow & ending in Edinburgh - I thought to just use two separate airports) and they quoted me less than half of every other airline! I don't know what to think because apparently they ONLY fly to and from Ireland/UK so I think that's maybe why they're so cheap but then I'm still concerned.
2. Is it hard to drive on the left side of the road? Do they park on the left side too or do they cross the street to park? 'Cause I'm a bit scared and we'll be driving for the whole trip. The plus side is that they've quoted us for a VW Golf which I'm actually pretty familiar with. They've also included insurance in the price of the rental - thank the good Lord.
3. I know I can find out this kind of stuff from a tourist book (which Paul & I will likely be picking up tonight!) but - do they have different electrical plugs in Scotland? Will I know how to pump gas? Do I need a special license to drive? Is everything I want to see going to be closed because its close to the off season? Will they get angry at me for being so happy with their accents?