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irescot · 7 years

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Edinburgh - Thursday

Today's title is a bit of a misnomer because we spent most of our time either in Glasgow or getting there or getting back. If you remember, we were meeting with Fr. Eamon.

Carol had arranged for a taxi to pick us up at 8:45 because the taxi dispatcher wanted to make sure she took into account rush hour. When we got there we had to print out our tickets, and had a bit of a problem until Carol realized that she hadn't paid for the tickets, Sharon had provided her credit card. Once that was sorted, everything went very smoothly and the machine printed out the tickets.

We had bought return (we say round-trip) tickets and also "any time" tickets, meaning we could take any train to get there and any train to return. We did that because we were not sure what time we would be finished with our visit with Fr. Eamon. But we had agreed to take the 10:15 train from Waverley Station to Glasgow Queen's Street Station. Glasgow also has a Central Station.

An interesting thing is that they didn't post the platform until 7 minutes before the train was scheduled to depart. Most of the platforms are in one area, but there are several platforms that require a bit of walking; I don't know what those people would do.

The station is named after one of Sir Walter Scott's novels, and throughout the station they have posted quotes from Scott's work.

We noticed a pigeon boldly walking about, not afraid of people. Is someone came close, it just calmly moved away. When I took his picture, he seemed to stop and pose.

Carol and I had to use the facilities, and much to our surprise, we had to have 30p in exact change. A woman saw us looking at our change and took pity on me and gave me the extra 10p I needed. I was so flabbergasted at having to pay for the loo, that I didn't even thank the woman, nor did I ask her if she had another 10p for Carol. Carol graciously said she'd would use the train's facilities. By the time I was on my way out, I had recovered use of my meager faculties and so I went to a Burger King and asked for change; I must have looked so pitiful that the manager, after telling me that he wasn't supposed to do this, did give me change. I was then able to give the needed change to Carol. Phew!

Finally the platform was announced and off we went to go through the turnstiles. What you do is insert your ticket in a slot in the front of the machine; the machine reads it and authenticates it, and then spits it back out the top. You grab it and the little gates open up and let you pass. I had no problem getting through, but Carol and Sharon had to have help, we don't know why.

The train arrived and we got in, found a seat for four and we were off. The ride takes about 50 minutes, and sure enough, we got there in just that time. The way to exit from the platform to the main part of the station is the same way we entered. That is, you put your ticket into the front slot, but this time it keeps it and you can go through. It's an interesting system.

Out on the main foyer we stood around for a little while; it was where we had agreed to meet with Fr. Eamon and after a couple of minutes there he was. Carol and I didn't know him, but Sharon did so she spotted him right away. Introductions were made all around, and we left the station and went around the corner, where he queued up to get on a Glasgow Hop-On Hop-Off bus. We were doing the full circuit for a total of 1 hour and 20 minutes. So the four us got on the second bus because it had live commentary rather than just an audio guide, and from experience in Edinburgh, we felt the live commentary was much more interesting and timely.

The buses leave from and return to George Square, a very lovely plaza. Hanging from poles around the square were advertisings for The World Badminton Championship, taking place from August 21-27. Wonder who will win.

The tour guide was a lively, artsy guy who obviously loved to sing as we were serenaded several times throghout the tour, and it was clear he had a lot of knowledge about the various sites, and also about the night life and entertainment available in the city. He was also not afraid to give his opinion about various issues.

I was seated by the left windows of the bus, so there were several locations I couldn't take pictures of because they were on the right side, and the bus itself got in the way of the picture. But I did manage to capture most locations. Okay, here we go.

Saint Mungo lived from 528 to 614 and he is the patron saint and founder of Glasgow. There are a lot of murals in Glasgow and Sam Bates (called Smug) is one of the best know ones. He painted a portrait of Saint Mungo as a contemporary person that is very beautiful.

Glasgow Cathedral is the oldest building in Glasgow, having been built in 1197, which makes it a medieval structure.

There is a Royal Doulton fountain at the People's Palace in Glasgow Green that has a life size sculpture of Queen Victoria, but she was so petite (in her youth) that it hardly seems to be life size. It was unveiled in 1888 to commemorate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee.

The People's Palace contains historical artifacts and various media to tell the story of Glasgow and its people from 1750 to the end of the 20th C.

There is an obelisk that is a tribute to Lord Nelson.

Stan Laurel started a career at age 16 doing a performance at the Britannia Panopticon Theatre and everything he did went wrong, but he had the audience rolling on the aisles, so he decided to do it intentionally, and went to America where he met a partner to do it with.

We passed The Scotia, the oldest bar in Scotland, and reputed to be haunted by a multitude of ghosts, some of which appear to applaud some performers.

The Style Mile is the high-end shopping area in Glasgow, with all the exclusive (read expensive) stores being represented.

We passed a statue of the Duke of Wellington in front of GAMO, the Gallery of Modern Art. If you look closely you'll see that both the Duke and the horse he rode in on both have a traffic cone on their heads. Apparently some university types did this and the council took them off, then the uni guys did it again, and the council...etc. After a while the council saw the error of its ways and let it stand.

This was not on the tour but we passed a building I really loved, the Union Stree Co-op, so here it is.

The tour guide told us that while Gaelic is spelled the same by the Irish and the Scots, the Irish pronounce it GAY-lic, whereas the Scots pronounce it GAL-ic. The Irish also refer to Gaelic as just Irish, whereas the Scots do not call it Scottish.

The river Clyde runs through Glasgow; it's a tidal estuary, which means that the water reverses direction with the tide. There is an 11 ft difference between the level at high and low tides. There used to be 50 steam ferries that plied the Clyde (I'm a poet and didn't know it). There used to be no bridges because there were 17 shipbuilders on the Clyde, who employed around 17,000 people, and the ships that were built could not have been sailed to their destination if there were bridges to impede passage. Now there is only one shipbuilder left.

Now there is one very modern bridge over the Clyde (I believe there may be other bridges), that is officially called the Clyde Arc, but is called by locals by the name "squinty bridge," referring apparently to the fact that the bridge is at an angle.

The Glasgow Tower is a free-standing tower on the south bank of the River Clyde, and it holds a Guinness World Record for the tallest tower in the world which can rotate 360 degrees. It has been closed for more than 80% of its life. It reopened in 2014. It is part of the Glasgow Science Center.

A quote from our guide, Peter: "the only difference between summer and winter in Glasgow is the temperature of the rain."

The Hydro is a concert venue. The Armadillo (formerly called the Clyde Auditorium) is also a concert venue and vaguely looks like the Sydney Opera House. There's a third one called the SEC Centre.

Not on the tour was a multicolored building that looked interesting. However, they were just renovating the building, but I still liked the look.

Also on the Clyde was the Glen Lee, the last sailing ship built in the Clyde shipyards, in 1895. Glasgow rescued it from its being used as a training ship by Spain's navy, and refurbished it and brought it to this location as an attraction that showed what was being done in the old Clyde shipyards.

There is a spot where to rivers meet, it's easy to see in my photos because I have a pole that bisects the picture. They are the Clyde and the Kelvin.

Again, not on the tour, I saw the façade of a building that just looked so interesting. I had to shoot it through the right window, so I only got a piece of it.

The Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum was made to look like the church of Santiago de Compostela, the end of the old Pilgrimage Trail in Spain. It's absolutely beautiful, like so many of the buildings on this tour, and one of the more surprising things about Glasgow.

We passed a bridge over a stream that had nice sculptures on each end and I couldn't resist.

Another amazing building the University of Glasgow that looks gorgeous from all sides.

The Kelvingrove Museum again, and a strange green mascot or something. Followed by another view of Glasgow Uni.

Not on the tour a lovely clock tower in the middle of nothing.

The word Sauchy (pronounced "sucky") is in this bar's name and is also part of the street name.

The Royal Conservatory of Scotland. A poster for A Streetcar Named Desire. Pretty flowers.

Pictures of Fr. Eamon and us. Oh, I forgot to mention that Fr. Eamon took us all out to lunch after the tour bus, to this place, which had great food. And he insisted on treating us, even though we had wanted to pay for it. He'll get copies of these pictures.

And finally, back to St George Square, the Glasgow Train Station, and the mural of Saint Munro.

That's it. I'm sorry you can't see the pictures yet, but I promise I'm working on them.

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