Scotland - Glasgow day one

Wednesday, July 29
Slept in – we crashed big time, and we welcomed the slower pace. Austin is either fighting a cold, or allergies.

Marietta is very close to George Square, so we made our way to the tourist information center and found out some information on trains and passes and such. We decided to do the hop on hop off tour, which was only 22 pounds for the family, and you could use it for two days. All of the state owned museums are free in Glasgow, so you can hop on and off and spend some time in each of the museums. Since it was already 3pm and everything closes at 5, we decided to at least stop at the oldest house in Glasgow for a self tour. There is a cathedral across the street, but we didn’t go in it.

With time for one more stop, we made our way out to the People’s Palace, which is really just a museum on Scottish life. It has a nice botanical green house, and to be in the warm temperature was enough to lift anyone’s spirits! They chased us out of there at 4:45, so we took the bus back to Marietta’s, stopping at Tesco for supplies – food! Mike made pizza for the kids for dinner.

In the apartment, we could hear a bag piper coming from somewhere, so Mike and I went out to investigate (the kids wanted to hang and watch tv and be on the computer), and we found him playing for guests arriving at the BBC Hall which is right next to Marietta’s building. That was pretty cool to see, and I was bummed that the kids weren’t with us to see it – especially Emma because she wanted to see if there was a place you could try bagpipes.

I took an HD video of it, but of course it’s the one time I didn’t have either of the other cameras with me. All the guests (it looked like a conference of some sort) were walking up and having their picture taken next to him. He was wearing blue Tartan. Mike and I continued for a short walk around to get oriented, mostly on the way to the Central station to get information about trains to Inverness. They don’t have those schedules there, go figure.

On the way back, Mike found a fish and chip hole in the wall (literally) and we had our first authentic fish and chips – it was good! By the time we got back to the apartment, Marietta was home form work – turns out we missed her by one minute when we left! Just hung out that night with Marietta, making plans and letting the kids call home (she has free international calling and invited us to use it – I talked to Mary, Emma to Brynna and Erika).

The sun sets so late here, it was 10:30 and literally still light out, which makes it even harder to get the kids and ourselves to bed. Marietta’s flat is on the top (4th ) floor, and has great views and wonderful late day sun. The space is amazing! Many picture taking opportunities up there.