Day 0 and Day 1 were mainly made up of airplanes and airports, plus picking up our rental car and then 4.5 hours of driving, BUT we did manage to make a trip to something amazing that I've wanted to see for over 20 (!!) years.
But first let's talk about airport lessons. Dear future Paul and Cris, read this entry before your next big trip. You guys, if you're going to be stuck in a layover somewhere for 7 hours, please pretty please just pay the extra $50.00 to get access to an airport lounge (according to their dreamy descriptions, they have couches and sleep pods).
We thought that sounded too steep of a price, and we also assumed that we would be able to find a comfortable place to pass out for the next 7 hours. LAUGH, what innocent dreamers we were. By the time we had given up on finding anything more comfortable than a metal chair in a crowded area, it felt like it was too late to actually make that expensive lounge worthwhile.
We basically didn't sleep (because it's very difficult to sleep in an upright metal chair) and I've honestly never been that tired in my life. I was so tired that I felt nauseous and woozy. Paul was equally exhausted. FYI: Dublin's airport is NOT comfortable (unless you want to pay for those pricey lounges...).
By the time we got on our final airplane from Dublin to Manchester, we fell asleep the moment we sat down in the chairs. That's right, we thought that airplane seats were comfortable enough for sleeping! Once we landed, we worked really hard to stay awake (with caffeine and cold air) because we had a 4.5 hour drive ahead of us before we could pass out for the night.
We had landed in Manchester, England instead of Scotland because all of the Scottish airports were crazy expensive. The nice part about landing in Manchester and adding 8 hours of driving to our trip was that we got to make my 20-year dream come true: visiting Hadrian's Wall. 😍
Yep, we added that to our list immediately. This magnificent wall (I could seriously talk to you about it FOREVER, if you want more info...😉) was built in the 100s A.D. when Emperor Hadrian of the Roman Empire decided he wanted a boundary to slow down expansion. It goes all the way across the land from sea to sea (about 80 miles!) and there were originally guard towers every half a mile. SO much work to keep those crazy Picts out of the way.
We chose an airbnb near Hadrian's Wall, so it wasn't out of the way to stop by there before passing out for the night. I might have wept a few tears (a combo of exhaustion and elation, I'm sure), because I honestly never thought I would see it in person. We don't ever plan on visiting England, and it was too far south to originally add to our Scotland trip. So thank you, Manchester airport, for being the cheapest option.
I was impressed with how good of shape the wall was in. It went off in the distance for a quite a long ways. We stopped at the Birdoswald Roman Fort section of the Hadrian's Wall. The Roman fort ruins were closed for the night, but we walked past them and WOW that was a HUGE fort.
After I got to spend some amazing time with my beloved Hadrian's Wall, we left for our airbnb. It was in the middle of nowhere, and in order to get there, we had to drive down some narrow roads in the middle of fields. At one point, there was a few miles of adorable traffic jam in the form of nursing calves and mama cows and nursing lambs and mama sheep. They were all over the road at sunset, casually nursing and completely ignoring us.
Our first Airbnb, not another house in sight.
It was a great first sign that Scotland is going to give us that Wildness that we were hoping for. I don't really remember the airbnb. We pretty much crashed and woke up at 8am the next day to start out for Scotland.
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