Glasgow, Scotland

 Today’s excitement was a short train trip west to the little town of Balloch on Loch Lomond. 

The train was almost empty leaving Glasgow station…..

And then a gaggle of schoolchildren boarded a few stops later…

Generally well behaved but made our hour on the train less relaxing for sure!!

Arrived at Balloch to grey skies.  First really “private boater” marina we’ve really seen.  This is on a river feeding Loch Lomand.

The main purpose of the trip was to tour the large park there with castle ruins .  

Of course there was a lot of conflicting information online about the castle. It apparently is closed for long-term renovations and doesn’t look like it’ll be opening anytime soon.  But wonderfully maintain grounds.

I plan to hike the 3.5 mile loop Winney Hill to a spectacular overlook for the billing. It was a lovely walk through well-maintained forest path.

But the overlook I also wanted to see of Loch Lomand Was closed because they were doing a bunch of tree trimming. Very disappointing! But the walk was still invigorating.

Some misty views back into Town and small views of Loch Lomand.

For those of you humming the tune of the song, thanks to my sis-in-law I know know the song’s origin: Loch Lomond" tells the story of two Scottish soldiers who were so imprisoned. One of them was to be executed, while the other was to be set free. According to Celtic legend if someone dies in a foreign land, his spirit will travel to his homeland by "the low road" - the route for the souls of the dead.

After about 4 miles of hiking, we were back on the manicured park grounds.

Trail took us to the shore of the Loch  

I don’t think I’ve really mentioned it, but there are gorgeous rhododendrons everywhere! Mostly they are the light lavender ones that we see at home, mixed with some pink and white ones. But these beautiful purple ones really stand out!

There is a lovely wild garden as well, and whoever the groundskeeper is makes having lush vegetation look easy!

Back over the bridge to the train station, we made a fairly early day of it. Still 20,000 steps in, and a lot of them were uphill!

Back on the train to Glasgow, there were a few murals on buildings. In for early night, will be traveling now towards home.

Glasgow, Scotland

 We woke to our first “all day rain” event.  Amazing that we’ve been here almost 4 weeks and we’ve had some spectacularly unusual good weather    

Today we decided to get an all-day subway pass and use the subway like a “hop-on-hop-off” tour bus. I had made a list of a bunch of things I’d like to see along with which subway exit to take. 

This is just a cool building along the way…. The first couple of stops were real busts.  The Contemporary Art Museum wasn’t open for an hour. So we just turned around in the rain and walked back to the subway.  

And the Mitchell Library was really just a big library in a cool old building. 

I’d read that it was a good place to see the old architecture. 

Yeah, a little bit to see, but mainly just a library. Oh well, back to the subway. 

I should mention, most of these landmarks/buildings on the list were at least 1/2 mile from the subway station so quite a bit of walking. In the rain. 

Next stop, St. Mary the Virgin cathedral.  My data said “open and welcoming to all”.  But the reality was that all the doors were locked.  Bummer. 

Another rainy but pleasant walk back to the subway. 

Next up was to see some little side-street havens- Ashton, Cressesll and Ruthven Lanes. 

They’re set up for nightlife for sure. Looks like they would be fun but we’re not really up for night partying, haha. 

Another beautiful but locked church. 

Walking back to the station we crossed this road. We both looked at each other and laughed about the pronunciation if you have a lisp😀

Rain was hit and miss. Some breaks were welcome. 

Next stop, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

Beautiful building and pipe organ. 

Very nice and diverse museum. This section with stuffed animals was filled with discussion panels about how they are displaying specimens taken 100 years ago since they already have them. They were apologizing I guess, saying they no longer condone such practices. 

We lucked out to see a pipe organ concert. 

The organist was very good. 

Was fun that they included a video feed of his feet and hands!!

We were a bit hungry from all the running around…stoped at a little shop and got some veggie Pakora balls. Not sure exactly what they’re made from but they hit the spot. Weird Fanta lemon soda. Good but very sweet. Like fizzy lemonade on steroids. 

I had read about the city murals. There are loads of them around the city.  Very nice. 

Even though I was getting a bit tired of all the activity, I really wanted to see the Glasgow cathedral. 

It did not disappoint. 

Even the basement/crypts were interesting. 

Beautiful exterior but the tower was enclosed in scaffolding so wasn’t visible. 

Last thing for my tired feet was to walk up the hill to the necropolis…just a fancy graveyard for rich people in the 1800’s. 

It was large and cool.  Obviously these people had money to spare. 

The mile walk back to the room yielded several more mural sightings.