After I had a short rest in the hostel, Mark and I walked to the Scottish Parliament. We obtained free tickets to the public gallery and watched as ministers discussed a motion related to eye care examinations. We visited all the accessible floors and looked at the artwork. We went to the gift shop and I was interested in two books about Gaelic and Gaelic revitalization, but did not buy them because I feared I was already pushing the limit on my airline weight allowance. These were the first books during the second week of our trip that I without hesitation voluntarily withheld from buying. I did order them directly from Edinburgh University Press when we got to Glasgow.
We walked the entire length of the Royal Mile next, which started right outside the parliament building and the Palace of Holyroodhouse and extended to Edinburgh Castle. Aside from some very old and narrow buildings I was not impressed with all the tacky souvenir shops (described in one travel book as “tartan tat”) and pubs. I can’t imagine anyone but tourists walking the Royal Mile:
Outside the Writers’ Museum:
One of the highlights of Edinburgh was the visit to the Royal Yacht Britannia. The audio guide was most helpful and I found that when cued to start playing the next audio snippet I often wouldn’t know or find what the voice was describing, so I usually had to replay each clip once I knew what to look for. I wouldn’t have enjoyed the visit if I couldn’t do that.
The bell at the outdoor verandah deck at the stern:
Her Majesty’s boudoir. She slept in a very narrow single bed. Her room had an adjoining door to the left past her desk to the bedroom of the Duke of Edinburgh:
The state dining room:
The state drawing room:
Listening to the audio commentary in the laundry room:
We are standing next to a statue of Ellis “Norrie” Norrell, the Britannia’s longest serving Royal Yachtsman who served her for 34 years from January 1954 to September 1988:
Inside the Edinburgh visitors centre. I had asked the staff member, who kindly offered to take our picture together, to make sure she got all of Shetland into the frame. St. Kilda didn’t make it, however, although it was on the map:
The start of our climb to Arthur’s Seat, 250 m high:
The Firth of Forth in the background:
At the summit:
Edinburgh at Mark’s feet with Inchkeith island in the background:
Edinburgh Castle in the distance:
Hexagonal office complex on Holyrood Park Road:
Interesting bike racks where Horse Wynd curves into Queen’s Drive:
Since I was still recovering from whatever stomach bug I had in Inverness, by the time we got to Edinburgh I didn’t feel like eating anything. I did manage to eat a single cheese sandwich our first night. However by Friday, September 27 I was feeling fine and ready to go out for dinner. We went to Jolly Restaurant, which was a short walk from our hostel. We split a pizza and since the food was so good, decided to go back the next night. I had the seafood spaghetti, which was generously loaded with all kinds of seafood:
SPAGHETTI ALL PESCATORA
£14.80
Spaghetti with olive oil, garlic, white wine, king prawns, mussels, calamari, cockles and langoustine (with or without tomato – please request)
On the way to Glasgow:
Unlike the Inverness and Edinburgh hostels, the Glasgow Youth Hostel was a long walk from the Glasgow Central train station. We had directions that said it was a 45-minute walk, yet just like when we were in Kirkwall we got lost trying to find it. And this time it was in broad daylight. Again, the lack of street signs left us not knowing where to go. We walked along Argyle Street which we easily found, then after we crossed under the M8 bridge we thought we were still on Argyle, naturally, but later discovered we were walking along the A814. We did not know that Argyle was now a block north of us. We knew we had to make a right onto Elderslie Street, which intersects Argyle, but Elderslie does not go as far south as the A814. So we kept walking in vain trying to find it. After a while we knew that we had to eventually turn right sometime, even if it wasn’t along Elderslie, so when we did, what was the first street we encountered but Argyle itself. What? Weren’t we on Argyle all this time? We continued walking west not aware that Elderslie was long behind us. In retrospect we should have automatically backtracked. Mark asked for directions in a pub and we did turn around but didn’t see Elderslie. We knew we had to head north anyway, so we did and came upon Kelvingrove Park. That was a good sign as our directions told us that we had a very short walk through the park. However, our walk turned into anything but short as we found ourselves deeper among trees and pathways, so we had to backtrack. We walked east along a paved park path and stopped at a Hindu temple. The temple was at the intersection with Clifton Street, which we knew we had to turn onto. We stopped at a split flight of steps and Mark went off to look around to see if we might be in the right area or whether there was a ramp or road we could take instead. The steps in front of us were daunting, but not as colossal as the Park Gardens Steps he had just seen. The Clifton steps leading up to Woodlands Terrace were nothing in comparison. Once we made it up the steps we turned left, and fortunately saw a sign that pointed the way to the hostel. What should have been a 45-minute walk took us close to two hours. We could not check into our room yet but were able to leave our luggage and then left to explore the city.
We walked along Sauchiehall Street and passed a remarkable art deco former hotel, the Beresford. It has now been converted into an apartment building:
Mark on Buchanan Street:
I am on Buchanan Street with Dundas Lane on the left and Nelson Mandela Square, with St. George’s Tron Church of Scotland on the right:
Outside the Willow Tea Rooms at 97 Buchanan Street:
We enjoyed getting around via the Glasgow subway, which had a station, Kelvinbridge, not that far from the hostel. The trains resembled long sausages which didn’t allow for much headroom. There can’t be much room to manoeuvre down the length of the train if you’ve got bags or suitcases at your feet. The central platforms were much narrower than the ones in Toronto however as you can see in the photo below, there were also some stations that had platforms along each side:
We are at a station with a single shared and very narrow central platform:
Mind your head, indeed.
We walked around the city on Monday afternoon (September 30). Mark is in George Square:
We signed up for a city walk and it was raining by the time it began. Here is our guide, Hope, in front of the Glasgow City Chambers. She was an anti-monarchist who often let slip a four-letter word during her commentaries:
We couldn’t go to Glasgow without exploring the bridges that span the River Clyde. I am on the Gorbals Street Bridge with Clyde Street behind me:
Mark is on the same bridge but standing on the other side, in front of the City Union Bridge:
South Portland Street Suspension Bridge:
On our final night in Glasgow, and our final night in Scotland, we ate at café Antipasti on Sauchiehall. We were amused to see during this trip that by the middle of September the shops are all ready for Christmas. At café Antipasti each table had a small display sign advertising its special Christmas dinner and The Royal Highland Hotel in Inverness was advertising its own Christmas events. Department stores had their seasonal areas all decked out and we enjoyed looking at the trees and decorations. I love to decorate my tree with an abundance of lights and I remarked just how clunky it would look if I decorated a tree in Great Britain as I do in Canada. I would have a ghastly pile of enormous UK plugs that I’d need to disguise somewhere. I have no problem hiding all the extension cords and plugs under my tree skirt, yet those UK plugs are gigantic in comparison to ours and they’d certainly create a rather lumpy tree skirt if I had to hide them there. Grocery stores as well had row upon row of Christmas chocolates.