Planes. Trains. Automobiles.

If you saw the iconic 1987 travel comedy this phrase brings back many travel related memories. Steve Martin picking up a rental car is one of my favorite scenes in the movie – and not one that I ever want to replicate!

If you have not seen it – it is worth a watch.

This phrase is an apt description of our travel over the past two days in making our way from Richland, Washington to Glasgow, Scotland.

We started our day on Friday at 5:00 a.m. with an early alarm to catch our flight from Pasco, WA to Minneapolis, MN. Noel and I enjoyed an early morning smoothie during the 15 minute drive (Automobiles #1) to the airport. After a seamless check-in, we boarded our Delta flight (Planes #1) and about 3 hours later landed in MSP for a short (!) 10-hour layover.

Noel went to the “U” for her doctoral studies in Electrical Engineering – so we did a one day car rental (Automobiles #2) to see some sights in the Twin Cities instead of spending 10 hours in the Delta Lounge. To get to the car rental place – we did take a train (Trains #1) – and our experience was a bit better than the car rental experience Steve Martin had in the movie. We headed over to the University of Minnesota campus to walk around and check out some of the changes made over the last several years. We stopped by the bookstore and bought some Golden Gopher gear to wear around (watch for this in Richland after the trip) and then walked around campus a bit. We did have time to get a picture of Noel with the Goldie the Gopher statue in front of Coffman Student Union.

Next we headed over to the Mall of America (MOA) to spend a few more hours and to grab dinner. In looking over the restaurant list at the MOA they had a Giordano’s Italian Restaurant that serves deep dish Chicago style Pizza. As a pizza fan – the deep dish pizza in Chicago is awesome as long as you are not counting calories. It takes about 45 minutes to cook – so we settled into the restaurant and enjoyed some down time before heading back to the airport.

After a short train ride (Trains #2) – we headed to the Delta Lounge for a couple of hours and then to our gate for our 10 hour flight (Planes #2) from MSP to London Heathrow.

I had booked BritRail passes to go from Heathrow Airport to Glasgow, Scotland – which consisted of a train ride on the Heathrow Express (Trains #3) to Paddington Station, a Tube Ride from Paddington to Euston (Trains #4), and a longer train ride from Euston (London) to Glasgow, Scotland (Trains #5). We had first class train seats – so we enjoyed a complimentary Gin and Tonic and a sandwich and settled in for a comfortable 5 hour train ride through the British countryside.

We arrived at our hotel in Glasgow around 10 p.m. local time (or 22:00 hours) and grabbed a shower and hit the sack.

After 2 full days in transit – we are looking forward to exploring Glasgow and Edinburgh over the next 5 days when Noel is not in her IEEE Board Meetings.

Our adventure was not quite like the movie (thankfully!) but we did enjoy all of the different modes of transportation in getting us from Washington to Scotland.

The next time you have a chance to experience Planes, Trains and Automobiles on your next trip …. take it!

Until next time ….