Day 5: Glasgow

I’ve been staying up late every night to write these reports, and since yesterday was mostly a travel day, I decided to skip and have an early night. We’re staying in the basement of a lovely restored Victorian townhouse. The bedroom is the most spacious we’ve had yet. We had a long, restful night, and I’m very glad we have days where there’s nothing scheduled. It’s necessary to keep the energy and enthusiasm alive!

Yesterday morning, after grabbing a chai to go, we boarded a bus from Inverness to Glasgow. I had paid extra for the “panorama” seating - the first two seats on the left side. We had the front and side windows to look through, and plenty of leg room. It was actually nicer than the train, I thought. The journey was about four hours, with one bus change. There was beautiful Scottish countryside to view most of the way. Glasgow is a bigger city than Inverness, and not nearly as charming. I chose to stay here as a base for other activities; the city itself is not really my cup of tea. After finding our lodging, we set out to see some things our host recommended. They were excellent choices!

An organ recital was happening at the Kelvingrove art museum at 3 pm that we wanted to take in, but we hadn’t really eaten all day, so we tried to quickly grab some pizza. Except it wasn’t so quick; it had to be made from start to finish. Then it was too hot to eat for a while, so we headed over to the Kelvingrove and ate in the courtyard. Cliff wondered why I include details on what we eat here, and I told him I thought people would be interested in that. (Tell me if you’re not.) Anyway, the pizza was ok for something to keep us going, but definitely not outstanding. The Kelvingrove was on my list of things to visit if we had a chance, and the building is quite stunning.

The organ recital was beautiful! We watched and listened for a while, then Cliff and I went our separate ways. I was interested in the paintings, and he wanted to see the Spitfire, then he got interested in all the historical objects. I was actually ready to leave before he was!

Our host had recommended walking up to the university for city views and going to the glasshouses at the Botanic Gardens. The architecture of the university was phenomenal. We enjoyed the gardens as well, but I was getting tired and ready for downtime.

We wanted to have some decent food, so we stopped at a restaurant called Bread Meats Bread on our way back to our Airbnb. Cliff had a hamburger, and I got only a hot dog because my main desire was sticky toffee pudding. But these people take pride in food presentation, and even the hot dog was served in a gourmet style. The bun was almost like a pretzel roll - chewy with a crunchy outer layer. The only topping was mustard, which suited me 100% perfectly, as it’s my opinion that’s the best condiment. I’ll stop describing it now and let you judge for yourself by the picture.

The sticky toffee pudding was warm, served with ice cream and plenty of gooey sauce. It’s the second time I’ve had it on this trip, and it confirmed my goal to order it every chance I get. Cliff loves it too, which is perfect because one serving is plenty to share.

I’m publishing this right before we head out for the day, so there wasn’t much time for editing. Apologies to my writer friends. We plan to visit Stirling today, and I’ll report on that tonight if I’m not too tired.