Well, we made it. Sometime early on Saturday, after an overnight flight from Detroit Metro, we hit ground zero, Glasgow Scotland. We were blurry eyed as you might expect, but we dare not lay down least the jet lag monster devour us into a deep and irrecoverable slumber.
We did manage to arrive on one of those rare sunny days in Glasgow and people were coming out of the woodwork to enjoy the rays. The park was filled with sun worshiping Glaswegians and I along with my beautiful fiancé, Dawn, her daughter and son-in-law, and her son went storming though the city streets with the look of wonder and confusion on our faces, punch drunk from lack of sleep.
We spent Saturday wandering around the area from Partick down to the Botanical Gardens to become acquainted with our new home base. Enjoying the sun we headed to the park where we walked along the river near the University of Glasgow and admired the copious statuary that honors everyone from Joseph Lister to a stirring tribute to the solders that bravely fought in the second Boer War.
We made it back to the apartment in Partick where Dawn’s daughter Truly and son-in-law, Shaun live, where we feasted on a delicious lunch. By this time we were starting to succumb to jet lag. Dawn’s son Julian was the first to go down staking out a place on Truly and Shaun’s couch. We grabbed a taxi back to our room on the grounds of the University of Glasgow and promptly fell asleep.
The next day we caught up (after I got us lost) with Truly, Shaun, and Julian near the Botanical Gardens on Great Western hwy. We took a taxi to Glasgow central station and took a train, then boarded a ferry for a day on the Isle of Bute. The Island off the western coast of Scotland was a popular Victorian era tourist destination. The big attraction is the Mount Stuart House, the estate home of the third Marquee of Bute and one of the worlds most impressive neo-gothic mansions in the world. It is certainly the most magnificent home we have ever stood in. The Marquee was sort of the Bill Gates of his day making his fortune exploiting Welsh coal deposits. His ancestors lived in a castle which is still partially standing on the island. And it has a moat, I kid you not a castle with a moat.
After returning from the island adventure we did a bit more wandering around Glasgow’s west end. We wondered down the charming cobble stone back streets on the look out for pubs with free wireless. We decided that all blogging will be done from pubs while drinking. Right now we are enjoying a German wheat called Weihenstephan and my charming paramour is relishing a raspberry Belgian called Leifmanns Frazboisen at a quaint watering hole and restaurant called Brel. We are giving two enthusiastic thumbs up to the mussel pot.
So that brings us to now… drinking, wanting to drink a wee bit more but I’m typing. So we’ll end it here and go to the pictures and … you know … ta for now!!!!!
Rick and Dawn
Down the charming alleys of Glasgow on a sunny day.
This was a church, now a den on iniquity!!! (a bar)
Old bridge, new graffiti brother and sister having fun!!!
Boer war monument, not to be confused with a pig or boredom.
The fun, fun, fun ferry ride to the isle of Bute
The charming village of Rothesay
It’s the Mount Stuart House arboretum
Fish!!!!!
Liberal tree-huggers
The Neo-Gothic Mount Stuart House
A castle … with a real live moat!!!!!!
The “Fish!!!” picture is my favorite.