Glasgow

It probably would have been a good idea to head for home at this point. We had, after all, been gone almost a month, but I had been reading about Glasgow and I wanted to see it for myself.

After a day spent in Edinburgh doing laundry and catching up on news, we boarded a train for what was supposed to be a journey of about 1-1/2 hours. Once onboard, we realized that the train was a local instead of an express. The conductor told us we could change to an express at the next station, but we weren't in a hurry so we decided to stay put. Unfortunately, after about an hour, the train suddenly came to a stop. We sat for another hour while vague announcements were made about the possiblity of the train carrying on until finally all hope was abandoned and we were told we would have to get off and find another way to reach our destinations. We had no idea where we were or how far we were from Glasgow or what options there were from that place to complete our journey. There was some talk of a bus that might appear to carry us the rest of the way, but most people doubted its existence so they began calling taxis and Ubers. We doggedly hung around for about another hour while the clouds grow darker and the temperature dropped. Then moments before we were about to order our own Uber, just as the rain began to fall in earnest, a bus actually did appear to take the few remaining passengers the rest of the way to the city.

I loved the hotel we had booked. It was right in Glasgow Central Railway Station and was once one of the city's most prestigious hotels. It had high ceilings and wide hallways and there always seemed to be people dressed for weddings and other special occasions on the lower floors.

If you read accounts of Glasgow on the internet, it sounds like an artistic mecca. There does seem to be a lot going on there, but it's not a polished sort of city. The word that comes to my mind is "gritty", or maybe down-to-earth.

It's a city where people like to put traffic cones on the heads of statues.

One day we wandered over to George Square which is full of statues and monuments and surrounded by impressive-looking municipal buildings.

The square is also full of pigeons which enjoy sitting on the statues' heads with predictable results.

One of the most enjoyable things we did during our stay was to attend a performance of the quirky Sharmanka Kinetic Theatre. Housed in a small space in the rear of the second floor of an unimposing building, creations known as kinemats (kinetic art sculptures) go through their movements as music plays. It was certainly a unique experience.

After a couple of days in Glasgow, we flew back to Dublin, where we spent a couple more days, and then finally headed home. This had been our longest trip so far. So many hotel rooms! So many showers to figure out!

If we would have traveled around Ireland and Scotland on our own, we would have done it differently, but we did the best we could. As one of our fellow travelers on the Scottish tour said, "I tried renting a car and driving around the countryside on my own, but all I saw were other cars and trucks driving at me. I couldn't relax and enjoy myself at all."

We did relax and enjoy ourselves, and we met some interesting people on the way.