My gluten-free Trip To The Uk!

[HAK1031]

Hi all! I just got back from England and Scotland a week ago, and wanted to share my experiences.

On the plane: we flew united airlines, I called about a week ahead to request my meal and it was excellent both ways! labeled and wrapped to minimize cc risk, they served me chicken with marinara sauce, plain wild rice, mashed potatoes, salad with lemon, raisins, and jellybeans for dessert. For breakfast on the way there, everyone else got banana bread with fruit, they gave me a (wrapped) rice caked and fruit instead. I also got roast vegetables on the way home. No gluten issues at all, the food suppliers for the airline were obviously very knowledgeable.

In our (various) hotels: All of the hotel chefs (we stayed in quite a few) were familiar with the celiac protocol, and happy to make accomadationa and suggestions. In general, I got things like plain chicken/fish, plain vegetables, boiled potatoes, salad, etc. A bit boring, but I can deal. We also had continental breakfasts in our hotel, and I just had cereal (my own) and yogurt. The hotels were:The Kensington Close (London, and as a bonus it's right near a huge whole foods!), Hilton (Bath),Best Western (Chester), The Melvin House (Edinburgh), and Novotel (Glasgow).

Any time we went out as a group, our guide was helpful in calling the restaraunts ahead of time to make them aware, and they were accomadating in general. Usually I got some varaition of what everyone else was eating, ie same meat no sauce, burger no bun

The rest of the time we were responsible for our own food, and I just ordered like I always do. BUt in general, waiters knew what gluten was and had a general idea of what I could have and what I couldn't. No serious glutenings, just a minor CC incident in a museum cafe (soup was labeled gluten-free, but there were croutons and bread everywhere).

Of course, I had my supply of rice cakes and PB and granola bars at the ready just in case! The time when they came in handy most was actually at the airport, when pretty much all you could get were premade sandwiches. I bought a bag of chips and an apple and supplemented with my own food at all the various airports.