Getting to Glasgow

My original birthday trip was supposed to be to Iceland. Through the ins and outs of how things go, it wasn't.

Instead, Glasgow, Scotland! With about 48 hours to plan!

I didn't have much in the way of expectations. I wanted to eat a chip butty, a deep fried mars bar, and that was about it. If I could get in contact with my cousins out there, even better!

As always, we start things off with a video.

And we're off! For a little more money  -  I think it was $5 - I got Plus seats all the way there.
This meant that me in my yoga pants and general trashiness got to board the plane faster and into better service than the business men who were in my gate area and complaining that they had to board in Zone 3 because they didn't have their gold status yet. See you later, business men!

Plus is what WestJet calls the service they used to have standard. Free meals, smiling faces. Still no seatback TVs but we can't win them all.

The seats to London were like Lay-Z-Boys. They're the old Quantas planes so it was pretty awesome. Good food, an amenity kit, blankets and good service. Still no seat back TVs but they gave out tablets to those of us in Plus. Every other international airline calls this "economy" (except the lay-z-boy part).

London Gatwick is a perfectly cromulent airport. It's dated. It smells a bit. You can't get airside until a couple of hours before your flight which sucks if you've got six hours to kill and no confidence to leave the place (and no cash to take the bus anywhere because you're not smart enough to think of that sort of thing). There's a lack of seating and a lack of things to do landside. The two terminals are a km or so apart.

Once you're landside in the South terminal, things improve a bit - there's more seating, more shopping, more eating. Great! There's no gate announcements. The airport is very quiet. You only know your gate if you watch the board. The board will tell you what time to expect your gate and then when it comes up, you've got another half to 3/4 of a kilometre to book it in a very short amount of time. They don't mess around here; your gate is listed and you are boarding. Done. Once in the gate areas there is nothing to do or eat or anywhere to sit. Not good or bad, perfectly cromulent.

Up until this point, I did not have any through ticket to Glasgow. Whoops. I didn't plan very well and that's on me. My goal was to get to a BA desk in Pearson and buy a ticket but that didn't exist. I found the one in Gatwick and paid about $200 for a round trip ticket. Thank you, decent Cabbotage laws.

The thing with UK airports is that you walk. Period. Everywhere. There are few moving sidewalks and nothing is close. It is easy to hit your step count in a two hour layover just trying to get from baggage to terminal to gate to terminal. This is true of Heathrow, Gatwick, and Glasgow.

It's not exactly early at this point, so I get on a bus and get in to the city, then to my airbnb.

Next: Glasgow!!