Scotland July 21 - Glasgow

Glasgow Tour Bus ***

We decided for this trip to try out a tour bus that made circuits around some tourist spots and allowed you to hop off and hop on wherever you like. They also had a track that played throughout the ride giving you tidbits of information about the part of the city we were in. I liked this feature, but later on in the day (when we were just using it as a glorified taxi back to our parking garage) we had a live operator on an intercom and that was much nicer and had a bit more personality as well.
We rode the tour bus around the city once then jumped off to wander the streets.

Ruthven Lane *

There was a set of vintage shops that we stopped at that were pretty cool. There was a craft fair going on and we bounced around all the different shops, taking a bit longer in a costume shop where we tried on all manner of strange period clothing. Frankly though, the prices were a bit inflated.

Cafe Nardini ***

We stopped off at a little place on the corner that looked like an old-fashioned ice cream parlour to have our first proper bite to eat. We both enjoyed our food thoroughly, but were once again confounded by the process of ordering and receiving food. That or I was impatient from being jet-lagged.
Janet Dreamcrusher happened to like the waitress’ hair, and since something about extended periods of exhaustion make me immune to shame, I was the foreign ambassador who asked for it. I think we made her day though, because she was gracious enough about it as I asked the Dreamcrusher about the angle she wanted.

Necropolis ***

The Necropolis in Scotland is also referred to as the “Merchant’s City” or the “City of the Dead”. It is a hillock upon which several of the ‘merchant kings’ of Glasgow were buried often astride of monuments of themselves dedicated by their surviving relatives/friends/children. It'll take a fair amount of time to walk the grounds, especially if you like taking pictures like us. The views from the top of this huge graveyard are breathtaking and wonderful, definitely something to stop at and take a walk through. After all, how often can you say that you tread over the graves of the 1%?

St. Mungo’s Cathedral **

The Cathedral beside the Necropolis is beautiful and also the site of once of the coolest things I read on our trip, a little quote from Rober Louis Stevenson - “I never weary of great churches. It is my favorite kind of mountain scenery. Mankind was never so happily inspired as when it made a cathedral.” Inside is the tomb of St. Mungo and several incredible tombstones and crests that decorate the ceilings and walls. Cathedrals and churches always have some mystical feeling to them, and St. Mungos supplements it with an epic feeling of vastness.

High Street **

High street is bustling and easy to get to, has plenty of places to grab a bite and shop, and the major mall and car park are right there close to the center of town. It’s an easy place to drop off the car for the tour buses or just putz around and explore some high end clothing stores or just people watch.

Clanadonia - Tribal Music Dudes **

We happened upon a drum and pipe band performing in the street and had a seat. As with most drum circle kind of bands they really are meant to be seen live, and watching them and their infectious playing was a lot of fun. They played very upbeat music and the guys look like they genuinely enjoy what they do, so give them a listen if you get the chance.

Hanoi Bike Shop ***

What can be said about Hanoi bike shop besides “wow”? Nestled around a corner in an unassuming bohemian section of the city, our Frommer’s guide had highlighted it as delicious but we hadn’t really planned dinner out. We went there more on a whim than anything else, and after moving off the balcony due to cold temperature and winds made our order.
I got a sweet potato curry and a jasmine rice while the Dreamcrusher ordered pho. Before our food came in we were given an oil that we were warned was extremely hot and could be used to up the ante on our meal. I’m used to people being a little delicate when it comes to describing heat but something about their manner made me second guess myself and I only dropped a teaspoon into my curry when it arrived, for science.
Thank. God.
Just a teaspoon was a much bigger kick than I expected, and if I had gone with my first impulse to slosh half the cup in I’d probably have died on the bikeshop floor clutching my throat and begging for water.

Botanical II **

We shot back over to the botanical gardens to burn off the last of our energy and checked out the local vegetation in the upper gardens and played around on a children’s playplace. Unfortunately the plays and such weren’t running on Sundays so we missed out on that, but had they been that’s where we would have parked it in the grass and trees.

Scotland July 20th - Glasgow

Scotland!

“Wait Chris, didn’t you just go to a land of some sort right near there?”
“Why yes, I went to Ireland last year.”
“Well, what made you go to Scotland?”
“I just had to try flying over a small expanse of ocean in a plane powered by fan blades!”

It was myself and Janet Dreamcrusher off on another adventure in a celtic nation. Oh yes, the trip to Scotland was a whole different beast from my trip last year.

Aer Lingus x2 ***

I don’t know if we were doing something wrong or just being too cheap, but we ended up with a layover in both directions. I’m not sure if it would have been easier to fly into London and drive up to the land of the Tartans, but we just swallowed our pride and took the two layovers in stride. After all if we stopped over in Dublin then we’d have ample time to pick up some Jameson Truffle chocolate bars (this line of thinking will be important later).
Our first flight is straight to Dublin airport from JFK at 5:30p Friday night. The flight is simple enough, but try to patiently board a second plane at 6am in a foreign country without losing your mind and get back to me. If you think that’s too easy, try taking a bus to the plane which is about the size of… a bus with wings and two giant fans glued on.

 

I mean, what you really want when you’re in a hollow metal tube six miles into the atmosphere is two giant explosion tubes to propel you across the earth using invisible fire

Getting into Scotland we faced our next hurdle: this year we decided to pick up the car immediately.

Alamo **

As if switching planes after not sleeping for a full night wasn’t bad enough, we also had to wait on line for our car rental as children slept crashed out on the waiting benches. They looked how I felt, but much more at peace with it. Everyone was helpful though, so there was that.

Glasgow - Where is our hotel? *

We learned from Ireland that the signpostings for the major cities from the motorways would be pretty dynamic and fit our needs fairly well, unfortunately the cities in Scotland weren’t laid out as simple as Ireland. We probably spent a good hour in the area of our hotel while being unable to find it, going so far as to ask around 6 people. We made slow progress until someone grabbed a “Glasgow A-Z” book that pointed out the general area of the city we were supposed to be in. Another half hour of searching got us there - a half hour fraught with wrong turns and tizzies, but after we got it once we never made a wrong turn again.

We had a rocky intro - it was around 12 and we were looking to see if we could get in early. It was then that we were told that our check-in time was an hour later then it was on the website (3pm). That would have been okay except we’d been awake for 18 hours and were pretty exhausted. We went back into town to search for things to do in the meantime.

Botanical Gardens ***

The Botanical Gardens run multiple plays during the summer weekend in the greenhouses, which many people were taking advantage of and having a good laugh at a Shakespearean comedy. Unfortunately we agreed if we’d sat down for a moment we would pass out and wake up looking like well-dressed and under-equipped backpackers, so we decided to continue a garden tour.

Walking through the gardens we were able to swing around to the lower paths which led us along a river walk with outdoor body-weight workout
equipment. It was fun for a lark and made me wonder if that sort of thing appears anywhere in America. After getting through a rousing circuit we continued on to a well-deserved rest at our hotel room.

The Belhaven ***

Despite the introduction, we made it back around 3p and got to our room on the second floor. It was awesome! Huge vaulted ceiling and a view of the streets to die for. We had what we referred to as the ‘Balcony Room’ because we were situated over the entrance of the hotel which had a small overhang. The room was beautiful and was nicely located to give us a quick trip into the parts of the city we liked.

The breakfast was nice and easy without any huge surprises, which made for an easy introduction. The last thing you need getting into a foreign country is an early-morning introduction to some foul foods you'd never even consider eating at home like blood pudding or something... :)

We often grabbed our morning fruit to go as a mid-day pick me up, which made for a nice snack as we made our way around the city. All in all once you find it the Belhaven is great coming and going.