I wanted to go to Rome… see a bit of Italy… bit I guess I was too lazy plus it was Christmas and I was told that getting around on the 25th would be an issue… nothing would be open, nothing would be moving so it might not be a good idea to be outside… Plus the costs of traveling around this time were kinda high so I dropped the idea… and waited for something to happen…

The Plan B was take the road to Paris… Neha is there… she could have helped plan it, and the move on to Brussels, where Ravi is… and come back… but again… Visa required me to go to London and get the visa… did not have the time to do that… plus for some reason, Paris did not really sound like the most exciting thing I could do… had reasons… anyway…

So Abhishek calls one day and says that he has the week of Christmas off, and what could we do? I said… lets go to Glasgow or did he say that? Don’t remember exactly, but the plan was made and he took care of the coach bookings from London to Glasgow and back… We were not sure of where we could stay rather would stay, because staying with James’ (Abhishek’s boss) parents was an option, but we were not sure… about a week before we were to travel.. he talked to James and we knew that we were staying at his parents’ place on the 24th…

So the plan was now… Reach Glasgow on the 24th morning… rent a car, roam around… see places… stay over in Balloch with James’s parents and move up north on 25th morning to come back to Glasgow by 26th evening and take the coach back to London that night… perrfect… it took some effort to find a place to stay on the 25th night, but I managed to find a decent place called the Hotel Ballachulish near Fort William towards the west coast of Scotland…

The Saturday before I was leaving I asked Soumitro if he wanted to join too, he and his wife were keen on joining and got their bookings done too, and were to join us in Glasgow on the 25th morning…

Reaching Glasgow was ok… we took the Megabus, which is really mega… a double decker bus packed to capacity… I think there were many people going to Glasgow and thats why there were two double deckers going to Glasgow that night…

Slept most of the my way through.. woke up in Glasgow around 0730 hrs… finding a bus to the airport was a no brainer, bus number 500 from the Buchanan Bus stand will take you to the Glasgow airport in about 20 minutes and its a 10 minute service… so we reach the airport, collect the papers of the car from the airport, freshen up and take the car 🙂 this is where the NICE part starts… it was a nice navy blue VolksWagon Polo… I think a 1600 cc some 100 odd bhp car which it felt like by the sound of it, and I just got too happy when I heard the music system.. it was bloody goooood… I knew it would have a CD player and had cut a cd for the trip like always, and it turned out to be the best thing…

James had given us his SATNAV, which made driving around very very very easy… so I knew in how many yards I had to take a turn and Julie, or Chammo like we called her kept speaking all the time about which roundabout, which exit, when is the left turn, when is the right etc etc all the time… It was a li’il strange to start with, but I got used to her speaking alright in a while…

Reached Mr. and Mrs. Campbell’s house in about 30 minutes only to meet two of the most loving and charming people I have met in the UK so far rather why only UK, in a very long time… I guess parents are always nice and warm EVERYWHERE in the world…

It was nice house, with a breathtaking view in the front..

We had breakfast and then after a while we left to explore the area on our own… Abhishek had been to Lomond Shores, and thats where we went too… walking around the area and kept clicking… Sun Uncle seemed to be having a good mood and came out of hiding too for a couple of hours before it got dark around 1500 hrs or so…

Pictures, walking and talking, and we were back home by 1630 odd hours after a small drive up into the country on roads away from the main roads… it was nice… worth every second we spent… and having the car seemed like the best thing we did on this trip…

The evening was spent at home, talking to them, hearing them tell stories, and more talking followed by some dinner and more talking… Finally call it a day around 2300 hrs… Oh and I had asked them to get us Santa Caps… they could not find them in the market but got us some very very nice Christmas Hats instead 🙂

Also had some white wine, and could not help but remember the new year’s eve at Deepak’s place in Chennai two years ago when I just took a sip from the glass and could not take another… this Christmas eve, however I had to finish that glass of wine… Did not want to do anything that would look rude… Afterall they had been so very nice to me and Abhishek… so managed it somehow 🙂

Soumitro called me @ 0630 hrs in the morning the next day and told me that he had reached Glasgow and there was NOTHING open.. no buses, no shops… this was expected, however I was hoping that the bus service to the airport would be on…nope it was not.. so as planned I was to pick them up and then drive up north… Got up, got ready… had some amazing breakfast and rushed to the airport to pick them up.. they had managed to take a taxi and reach the airport…

Picked them up from a near empty airport.. could not believe that International Airports could look like that.. I did not see more than 30 people at the entire airport that morning.. including the four of us…

And our drive to Fort William started… I decided to go via OBAN to Fort William instead of the direct way and enjoy the drive… so we kept stopping where we felt like and parking was allowed and kept breathing in the place…

I could not have asked for more… A lovely car to drive, just the right kind of music with amazing quality, wonderful roads and breathtaking views… Just how I like it… this is what takes me away from everything and I reach my Solace.. the state which I love and a lot of other things stop mattering or bothering me…

Below is the Route that I took… Oban was our first major pit stop, needless to say everything except one pub was closed here too… and we had not managed any food or coffee in the entire day so far… however there was food in the car and we did have some food in the car.. it was like Picnic… total funn…

[googlemaps https://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&saddr=Glasgow&daddr=Oban,+UK&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=29.440076,82.265625&ie=UTF8&om=1&s=AARTsJoV21UeBGkXcZhZa6rdQVL6vTxRCQ&ll=56.15414,-4.864955&spn=1.070819,2.334595&z=8&output=embed” frameborder=”0″ height=”350″ scrolling=”no” width=”425″>
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So from Oban we moved to Ballachulish and reached there in about an hour only to reach the BEST hotel that I have stayed so far… beautiful place, very well kept and had that typical Age to it… loved it…

Had tea, just relaxed, went out for a walk, came back when it started raining… Abhishek’s hat was stolen by wind and he had run a good 100 mtrs before he could manage his hands back on it 😀 that episode was fun for sure…

The evening was spend in the lounge over a few drinks, dinner followed by some live music… Live music is always nice, irrespective of you understanding the lyrics or not…

The hotel decided for some reason to not charge us for the dinner, call it a Christmas Gift from them, and that saved us about 40 pounds each… that was a lovely gesture from the Manager on duty there… Thank you Ma’am !!!

Went off to sleep only at 0100 hrs and woke up around 0800… got ready and checked out of the hotel around 1100 hrs.. not before taking a walk and a few pictures outside and even managing to slipping on the stairs with wet leaves on them and hurting my back 🙂 I saved the camera though, and I am happy for it 😛

The Route today was Ballachulish to Fort William to Glasgow… It kept raining the entire day on 26th, though that did not stop me from going inside this place called Inverlochy Castle and take a few pictures.. there were only a few walls standing there now, but it was beautiful nevertheless…

Drove back to Glasgow via a different route that day..

Stopped at a few places and reached well in time for the bus…

Decided to kill some time and saw “I am Legend” in Cineworld in Glasgow.., don’t ask me about the movie.. its ridiculous… waste of time !!! this is when I was not well and started feeling the fever…

Abhishek managed to find a vending machine and got us some hot chocolate when most of the shops around we already closed for the day and that really helped beat the cold before we took the bus and got back to London…

I drove for about 300 miles in these two days and I could not have asked for more… Loved every second of it, rather should say every mile of it… Its pretty obvious from the picture isn’t it?

🙂