| Skye | |||
| St. Andrews | Edinburgh |
Glasgow Scotland June 14-15, 2003
| Saturday morning we checked out of the Hotel, took the tube
(last time) to Kings Cross and got on the train North to Glasgow.
James liked leaving from Kings Cross, but we left from platform 4 so
didn't have a chance to see if platform 9 3/4 would show up when Harry
Potter's train pulled in.
The trip was nice and comfortable, snack service direct to our seats and at least 1st class wasn't very crowded. |
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Our train ended in Edinburgh, so we moved over to a Scotrail that took us to Queen's Street in Glasgow. It's a much smaller train, and the 1st class compartment only had 6 seats (well, it is Scottish, so "careful" with their money), but a very smooth 1/2 hour trip. |
| The trip passed through the lowlands of Scotland. As
you can see, nice green rolling hills, with not much else visible.
We took a taxi from the station and it's a good thing because even with a map, it was not easy to get from the station to the hotel. |
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Glasgow is a "new" city, most of the architecture is Victorian
(lots of the red sandstone you see in the background). Places have
been renovated, so you get contrasts as shown to the left with very modern
buildings placed between old Sandstone.
Saturday evening we found a very neat restaurant labeled "Elliott's" and got dinner there. Since we were still eating on US times, we got their early diner specials, so even saved some money in addition to a very nice dinner. |
| Sunday morning we did laundry, then connected with our tour group at 1:00. We got a Glasgow city tour included, but most of the party wasn't there yet, so we had a nice small group (only 9) for the first day. Part of the tour was the transport museum, so I had fun looking at old trains. This picture actually is of the art museum just in front of the transport museum, but it looks much more interesting than the "real" thing. |  |
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Right across the street from the Transport Museum is the
University. As you can see from the picture on the right, it has
some very interesting architecture. We did not see any more than the
edges to the campus, but it would probably be worth some time walking
through.
After the transport Museum, they took us to the Burrell exhibition. Mr. Burrell had contributed a large collection of artifacts in his will with the criterion that an appropriate building be built to house them. Unlike many collectors, he didn't have very many paintings, but quite a collection of pottery and stained glass. We had a short, but interesting visit there. |
| To finish off the day, they took us to the Pollock house
(see to the right) and fed us "high tea". Assorted
sandwiches, pastry and other desserts.
Only problem of course is now nobody wanted dinner. So we finally went to a TGI Friday's and got something light to finish up the evening (Tea was at 4:30, so it didn't really hold). |
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After dinner we walked around the central area of town seeing from the ground what we'd whizzed by on the bus. The picture at the left is a picture of "the middle class bridge", built as a walking bridge and the lower classes weren't allowed to use it. |
| Skye | |||
| St. Andrews | Edinburgh |
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