Day 13 - Glasgow

Our tour of Scotland is coming to a close. We are waiting for our friends Jim & Sharon and their friends Mark and Marie to join us for our walking trip in the Lake District in northern England.

Mid-morning, we set out on a walking tour of downtown Glasgow based on the recommendations of our Lonely Planet Guide. It was an interesting walk starting at the top of Buchanan St, a pedestrian mall.

We stopped at this fabulous clothing store that was decorated with antique sewing machines. At least 1,000 of them hanging in the windows.

From there we passed through a gateway into Merchant City and toured the Gallery of Modern Art. Weird art but a nice old building.

Next was George Square filled with statues and flanked by the City Chambers.

An impressive city hall built in 1888. Stunning finishes inside of mosaic tiles, marble and granite.

We stuck our head inside the Corinthian Club, an upscale bar and nightclub.

Passing by Hutcheson's Hall we had a look at some of the old warehoused of the Tobacco Lords.

The area around Merchant Square was filled with food vendors as part of a local festival.

We walked up the hill to visit the Glasgow Cathedral. An impressive Gothic structure.

From here, we climbed further to the necropolis, resting spot for the wealthy of the 19th century full of Victorian tombs.

The last stop was Provand's Lordship, the oldest house in Glasgow dating back to 1471.

By the time we got back to the hotel, Jim & Sharon had arrived from Vermont but not all of their luggage. We took them on a quick walk about the neighbourhood and stopped at a cafe for a a light lunch and a drink.

By supper time, Mark and Marie had arrived from San Francisco and we headed out out for supper.

The new arrivals were tired from their travels and after a night-cap at the hotel bar to celebrate the arrival of Jim's luggage, we called it quits for the evening and I finished up today's blog.

This will be the last post of this blog. Tomorrow morning, we will be catching the train to St. Bees in Northern England to begin our walk on the Coast to Coast Trail. I'm not sure how our internet connection will be but I will attempt to keep a daily narrative of our hike.

You can check out the posts at:

http://coasttocoastuk.blogspot.co.uk

Thanks for following our Scotland adventure.

Day 12 - Edinburgh to Glasgow

We are now carless so it was a bit of a walk to haul our luggage a km or so to the train station for the trip to Glasgow. The inventor of the wheeled duffle bag needs some special thanks! At least it wasn't raining or we would have got to experience one of those cute UK cabs.

It was a breeze purchasing our tickets but found it a little confusing finding our platform (same signage guys that mark the parking spaces).

We hopped on a pretty empty train and had an enjoyable and comfortable ride to Glasgow complete with wifi. For a little commuter train, I was surprised at how fast it moved. I turned on a GPS app on my phone and found we were cruising at 160 kph.

We arrived at the Queen St Train Station in Glasgow an hour and a quarter later and rolled our luggage three short blocks up the street to our Glasgow hotel in the heart of the city. It was only noon but they had a room ready for us to check in.

We had only a coffee and snack for breakfast so we headed down the street to find some lunch.  From there we started to wander the downtown. I don't think I have ever seen so many people walking around with their heads down looking at their phones. Continually bumping into people. Looking for Pokemon? I too had my phone out but only to find our way around and take pictures (forgot to grab my camera when we left the hotel so not that great a quality).

Lots of Victorian buildings.

Also some new shopping malls and a subway.

And some street murals...

We found this interesting public gallery called the Lighthouse.

It is the Scottish Centre for Design and Architecture. the building used to house the daily newspaper, the Herald. There were some interesting displays. The first one we saw was a history of science fiction including novels and movies and their influence on society.

Another interesting exhibit was an initiative to convert abandoned croft houses in the Highlands into low cost energy efficient housing.

Climbing the spiral staircase took us to the tower and a nice viewpoint of the downtown.

We returned to our hotel to relax and then out to the pub next door for a light supper and a drink.

Early to bed tonight to get rested up for the next adventure.

Day 11 - Edinburgh

We were up at a reasonable time and Chris was able to get another load of laundry started before we started out for our walking tour of Edinburgh. Probably the most useless appliance is the combination washer/dryer which is apparently popular in Europe. Small capacity and about a 3 hour cycle time per load!

We wanted to start our tour by climbing up to Edinburgh Castle then working our way downhill along the Royal Mile. Hey, how do you like the Scottish Thistles in the foreground!

The Lonely Planet Guide mentioned a hiking path up the cliff so we decided to give it a try. We were almost at the top when we encountered a barrier and a notice that the path was closed. Why wouldn't you put the notice at the bottom??? Probably the same people that sign the parking areas.

We finally reached the castle and it was BUSY! We haven't encountered crowds like this in our time in Scotland and it is not Festival time until a week from now. It would be unbearable then.

Luckily we had our Heritage Scotland passes and avoided to queue to buy tickets and proceed into the castle. From the battery, there were some good overviews of the city.

We joined a walking tour shortly after entering and got a good overview of what to see.

This is the exterior of the War Memorial. Every Scott who has died in service in the last 300 years is listed in books within the memorial (no photography allowed)

The Great Hall... swords and armour.....

The little green patch is the pet cemetery... resting place of the Regimental mascots.

Mons Meg, a huge medieval gun....

By about 1130, the crowds were really getting too much for us so we decided to leave. I just can't tolerate some Oriental tourists. They are so damn pushy and rude. I did manage to nail a couple with a judicious Gordie Howe elbow. Not our most favourite castle experience.

The preparations are in place for the Tattoo starting next weekend.

We headed down the Royal Mile to take in the sights.

There were lots of street people and buskers, all looking for a handout.

Lots of small alley ways called "Close" leading to courtyards just off the main street.

Here is where you can get fish.

Not sure what you get here?

We found this "free" walking tour and joined in. The fellow was really entertaining and provided a humours history lesson of some of Edinburgh's famous inhabitants, including the inventor of the merkin.

Some more streetscapes of the walk down the Royal Mile.

At the bottom of the street are the new modern Scottish Parliament Buildings. Unfortunately they were closed as this was Sunday.

Across the street is the Palace of Holyroodhouse.

It was getting late and we decided not to do the tour so we headed back to our apartment. We walked down a side street that had some sanctioned graffiti on some construction hoarding. Nothing like what we saw in Melbourne but a few interesting graphic designs.

About 7 miles on my sore knee was just about enough so we walked back to the apartment to do more laundry before supper.

We had supper at a Jamie Oliver restaurant a block away from the apartment. A nice meal and we returned as the sun was setting to watch a bit of TV and finish drying the laundry.