Stardate: 25 April 2019 - Gallivanting to Glasgow

Today we sauntered down to Edinburgh Waverley train station and bought tickets to Glasgow for the day.  There was quite a queue behind us as we reached the ticket window when suddenly an elderly American woman barged past those waiting and yelled through the glass partition to a man wearing high-vis and carrying a dustpan and broom: "We seem to have a prarblem with our tickets."  I'm not sure what she thought he could do about it, given his job was station cleanliness, but she was ordered to join the queue and wait her turn. Good.

Anyway, it was a most pleasant journey, lasting about 45 minutes with about 5 stops en route. The Brits do trains brilliantly.  Being such a short trip, we were startled when over the PA, a guy named  Steve announced that he was our "hospitality host" and that he would shortly be coming through with his trolley of tea, coffee, soft drinks and biscuits.  Can you imagine this on one of the longer Sydney suburban services?!  The scenery between Edinburgh and Glasgow was pleasing and mostly rural.

Glasgow itself was a bit of a surprise - I had expected it to be grim and flinty but the parts we saw seemed prosperous.  Mind you, most of what we saw was from a sight-seeing bus so obviously the tour was not going to focus on council housing in the Gorbals.

This is student residences at Glasgow University.  It's a lovely campus, and apart from this beauty there were many Victorian buildings with circular turrets that seem so alien and mysterious to a colonial.

Off-topic for just a mo - we know some of our photos are shite, with blurry edges.  This one for example.  Despite much fiddling with the camera we cain't fix it.  I blame Scott Morrison.

I had always thought that Rabbie Burns was Scotland's national folk hero but he seems to play second fiddle to Sir Walter Scott, who's commemorated with statues throughout both Edinburgh and Glasgow.  Here's Wally standing tall in George Square, Glasgow.

For lunch we went to Ed's Diner in St Enoch shopping centre. I think the manager and staff were trying to recreate Arnold's Malt Shop in Happy Days. Not hugely well but still better than a poke in the eye.

And finally before I hand over to Sir Walter Scottypants, I must commend a tasty little drop we've discovered on our travels:  Clearsprings Sauvignon Blanc from South Africa's Western Cape.  Delicious and only 6 quid a bottle. Bottoms up!

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Yet again, I think the tourist sightseeing bus was quite a success.  When you arrive somewhere and don't have any firm idea about where you want to go and what you want to see, it's a top idea. Anne thought today's tour guide could have taken lessons from Heidi in Edinburgh yesterday, but she did set a pretty high standard.  Our bloke today was quite charming in his own way, even if some subtitles from the Glaswegian would have been quite helpful at times.  It was clear he loved his city and that's probably the most important thing.

Another structure on the campus of the University.  I suppose you're going to ask what it is, but it was a bit hard taking photos from the bus while trying to comprehend the Glaswegian commentary.  Anyway, it's pretty impressive huh?

The university campus was my favourite part of the city I think - just glorious.

This is the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, just outside the campus.  And a bit of the bus in the bottom right. It's hard to know what to feature when there's such wonderful architecture everywhere you look.

As an example, here's a sundry example of another Glasgow building.  Not one of special provenance, but it does show a typical streetscape.  I'm sure if you're a local you think nothing of it, but for us antipodeans (particularly Canberrans), it's pretty damn impressive.

We really liked Glasgow, but then again we've liked everywhere we've been, even Colchester (up to a point).  Tomorrow we're back in and around Edinburgh.  We've had a couple of spots of rain this arvo, so if it continues tomorrow it'll be a challenge for us.  Fortunately we've lined up some suitable indoor attractions to visit.