Thursday, July 30, 2009

Our weather has cooperated more in Scotland than anyplace, and other than a short burst of rain this morning (thankfully I snagged two of Marietta’s umbrellas) the day was cool, but dry.

We got on the hop on tour at stop #7, right at George’s square, where we had left off yesterday. We took the bus out to stop #13, the tall ship. There was hardly anyone there. It’s only 1 of 4 left in operation in the world. It’s been around the world 4 times. The kids had a “mouse hunt” game while on board, to which they got a piece of white chocolate at the end if they had the right number of mice.

Next stop: #16 – Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum Your typical museum with stuffed animals and rocks, but with art also. There was a Salvador Dali (Christ on the cross) and a VanGoh, among others. I was most impressed with the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, his wife Margaret MacDonald, and her sister Frances MacDonalds' work, which instantly reminded me of Frank Lloyd Wright’s work – art nouveau. They predate Wright by a little, but the work is beautiful, and I like it just a touch better.

Transport Museum – you don’t get to climb on any, but you can see all types of old cars, trams, and trolleys. Got chased out of there just before closing time.

Headed back towards home – Mike was tired and not feeling great – his back is hurting – so he took the kids back to Marietta’s to find out about golfing and I went over to the info center (gifts). Mike had made a wonderful dinner of chicken and bacon flavored tortellini, beef and white wine tortellini with a tomato sauce, backed spiced chicken breast, and green peas. It was heaven! Marietta had a work dinner, so wasn’t there to enjoy it. She didn’t get home until very late – almost 10, but we were able to spend some time chatting and she gave us many wonderful suggestions on what to do for our day trips.