Monday has arrived, bringing with it a new trip. Today we are travelling to Scotland, there to spend four nights in the beautiful historic city of Glasgow. We have been there before, of course, and so we will be renewing our acquaintance with St Mungo’s “Dear Green Place”.
The first bad news was that our train has been cancelled. We have to find an alternative. We boarded a number 30 bus to Euston Station (our original point of departure) to see what is available.
We reached Euston Station and sought information. Our travel card normally allows us to travel only after 9:30 but because our train has been cancelled, we are allowed to take the 9:10 – bonus!
We walked down to the front of the train and entered the second carriage. Here we found two seats that were not reserved. We are supposed to reach Glasgow at 14:02, a long journey.
Photo by Tigger
Photo by Tigger
About midway through the journey, Tigger visited the buffet car and bought us lunch.
Photo by Tigger
The train was late arriving at Glasgow (despite having been early at intermediate stops) but we are finally there.
Glasgow Central Station is familiar to us. Today it was crowded.
We went out into the street. It was raining and the temperature was around 15°C – quite a change from London.
We took a taxi as the hotel is not that close to the station,
Photo by Tigger
This is possibly the worst hotel room we have ever had. It is tiny, has no furniture apart from the bed and just a hook for clothes. The bed is too small for me to stretch out full length. There are no shelves, apart from the window sill. We have to spend four nights in this inadequate room.
The room is not s place to hang out in so we went out, looking for an early supper aka comfort food, We passed St Aloysius’ Church and…
…a Bank of Scotland building.
We walked along the famous Sauchiehall Street.
We looked at, and in, some shops, including this one where Tigger bought fridge magnets. (Our fridge is gradually disappearing behind a carapace of magnets.)
Photo by Tigger
We looked around to find somewhere to have a meal. Although it was still early in the day, a lot of places were closed (some permanently) or would open only later in the evening. We eventually plumped for Tuk Tuk which offers Indian “street food”.
Photo by Tigger
They had just opened for the evening session and we were the only customers. We chose a selection of dishes to share.
Photo by Tigger
We also had a jug of salty lassi to wash it down. (Lassi, being a yogurt drink, helps take the sting out of spicy food.)
Famous architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh designed the groundbreaking Willow Tea Rooms in 1903. Those tea rooms no longer exist in their original form but the building was bought by The Willow Tea Rooms Trust which sought to restore the tea rooms and run them in the spirit of the original. See here for more details of the tea rooms and their history.
The typical musical instrument of Scotland is, or are, the bagpipes. The National Piping Centre was built in 1872 and continues to support and promote the playing if the bagpipes. For a history of the Scottish bagpipes see this page.
After a little walk in the rain, we preferred to return to our room, cramped and unattractive though it be. Perhaps the weather will be better tomorrow (though the weather forecast is not optimistic on that point) and we can go out and about.
SilverTiger 3 