Back again, drinking at the Partick Tavern enjoying a few pints, blogging, and bringing you pictures from the past two days (we were pretty wiped out last night and decided to just drink).
We began that exhausting day on a tour of Glasgow’s city center, and arrived by subway thus the title of tonights blog. Seriously, instead of the terse command by an irritated man of “Doors are closing” so common on U.S. subways, you get a very feminine nurturing “Please mind the gap whilst alighting from the train”. So polite, so very “civilized”. We spent the day frolicking though the city center, visiting the shops, chatting up the proprietors, and soaking up the hustle and bustle of the city.
We visited Dawn’s daughter Truly at work at the prestigious Lighthouse in the Glasgow city center. The Lighthouse is an exhibition center for architecture and design design and is also home to the Six Cities Design festival which is the largest festival in the world highlighting all manner of Scottish design. We traipsed around the exhibitions, climbed up the tower, and took part in one where it invited people to design their own souvenirs that reflected the character of the city of Glasgow. We joined people from all over the world who where there creating their own sculptures (see our creations below).
After that we spent the rest of the day walking around the city (and walking and walking) and joined Truly and Shaun for dinner at a local vegetarian restaurant called Grass Roots. On the way Shaun gave us a quick tour of his school, the University of Glasgow, with it’s 16th century buildings and oh so Gothic European atmosphere. It was just like being at Hogwart’s. Eventually we made it to a small pub with no internet access, where we rested our aching feet, and frankly we were too tired to give a shit. But not too tired to drink!!!!
The next morning we awoke bright and early (ok more like late morning) we grabbed Julian and caught the train the Edinburgh. If you’re looking for an experience that is a bit more tourist-ty. Edinburgh is the place for you. Granted the architecture is more spectacular’ it’d the political capital of Scotland, and hosts many of Scotland’s top attractions like the Edinburgh castle. But it also hosts a souvenir shop ratio of stuff to buy made in china that Glasgow simply cannot compete with. But make no mistake it is a must do one any trip to Scotland which is exactly why we were there.
The castle is worth the price of admission (9 pounds) for the history, the spectacular view of Edinburgh and the narration by kilted tour guides. We spent most of the day there taking in the various structures on the compound from the oldest which was a 12th century chapel dedicated to Saint Margaret to some of the more recent additions made by Queen Victoria to make the castle more impressive and sell more post cards.
We also took a tour of some of the underground catacomb’s found underneath the city which boosts a colorful, if not terrifying, history of murder, mayhem and death. The stories of ghosts, death, and torture where entertaining. We were treated to a nip of whiskey in the “Instruments of pain” shopping mall while we all picked out our favorite.
Which pretty much brings us up to date as we sit here, sipping Guinness and bringing you these pictures. Tomorrow we are planning on Shakespeare in the park so until then … Enjoy!!!!
Rick and Dawn
On the train with the “Young Master” Julian
