Today I contacted Cingular in order to turn on International Roaming on my cellphone as well as Denis’. This way, when we want to call home from Scotland in two weeks and waste money hearing them gab about princesses or Bob the Builder, we can do so $1.29 per minute.
Have I mentioned lately how EXCITED I am about our trip?
Also nervous about:
1) Driving on the other side of the road
2) Reading maps while driving on the other side of the road
3) Getting lost while reading maps while driving on the other side of the road.
You see where I’m going with this? By Day Five we should be pros at getting to/from the timeshare, but that first hour-long drive from the airport to the timeshare? PURE DRAMA.
And even more unbelievable, I have yet to come up with an itinerary for the trip. We are truly going totally unprepared and with no idea as to what we’ll do other than a handful of things like a day in Stirling, a day in Glasgow and a day in Edinburgh.
Driving on the left side of the road is easy…just put the driver’s body near the yellow line. For me the most “thoughtful” maneuver was the right turn–turn into the LEFT lane, not the right lane. Roundabouts are an adventure, too, but just go carefully for the first few and it gets easier.
Walking was another adventure. Look BOTH ways, you’ll be surprised how many times you are startled by someone coming from the right!
I’ll check to see what books on Scotland/Uk I have that I can bring with me. You can take them along and plan your iternerary on the plane when you’ll actually have enough quiet to THINK. 🙂
Can’t you get maps for your GPS unit to use instead of old school maps?
This is exactly why I have never been to Europe…LOL.
Jen – yes, Dad sent me maps for Scotland to be loaded on my PDA. Just haven’t done it yet. Still, it makes me leary to think that the maps may not be updated enough and we get lost on some non-paved road in the middle of a field with no houses in sight a la Don & Mike when they went to Ireland back in the 1990s.
Not to worry about “being lost on some non-paved road in the middle of a field with no houses in sight…” which is hysterical because that is exactly what I was concerned about when we were in England driving all over the place with no map. Dad’s PDA worked like a champ and gave us voice directions for every turn we needed to take to get to where we were going, even in the most remote locations of East Anglia, Devon, Cornwall or Yorkshire. You’ll be fine.
So, we should not expect to see Team Jaynee and Denis on the next Amazing Race? Or maybe a Jaynee in the back seat screaming about not being able to read the map? 😉
Bev – I would LOVE to go on TAR. Alas, Denis can’t swim, so he won’t be my partner anytime soon.