One glance out the window of our stateroom and we could see that we were all set to explore this day in Glasgow. The weather was so much better. The night had been as well and with a little more rest and adrenaline pumping to see Glasgow, we sest off after breakfast for our excursion that would take us into the city.
The bus ride was quite comfortable and I thoroughly enjoyed watching the beatiful and tranquil Scottish countryside. This was the reason I had wanted to come and it was all I had imagined.
Our excursion was really nothing more than a fifty minute bus ride to the city with the promise of four hours for us to explore on our own then the bus ride back home. It was a perfect fit for us as we like exploring on our own.
I turned on the data roaming on my phone so that I could use the GPS My City app for our self guided walk. We have AT&T international on our phones and when we have data roaming on, we are charged $12/day to use it. We just have to remember to only use it on land. The charge is a lot higher if we use it on the cruise ship (don't ask how I know).
First up on the list was the Glasgow Cathedral. It is a medieval church dating back to the 12th century and was probably the farthest from our drop off point so we headed there. We had some concern about being able to get in since it was Sunday and there was the possibilitly it would be closed for tourism because of services.
About a twenty minute walk later, we saw people going in very dressed in Sunday best. There was even a group of military in dress uniform. Perhaps there was a special service. A gracious lady at the door was asking people if they were here for the service and informing the tourists that the cathedral would be closed until one for touring.
As we passed by the door, I paused and at least got one shot of the magnificent interior and some stained glass windows. At least she didn't chase me away as I paused to take it quickly.
Glasgow has a lot of murals painted on buildings and I found the one of the man holding a little bird to be sweet. I don't know how they manage to paint those and have them be so like a small museum portrait or painting.
One of the interesting spots on our list to visit was a lighthouse. We were both puzzled over how or why a lighthouse would be in the middle of a landlocked city. It is a city landmark that once housed the offices of the Glasgow Herald newspaper and dates back to 1895.
Princes Square was another place we found quite fascinating. As we were walking to the destination which we thought was a green square in the city, we discovered this really large ornately decorated building. After taking a picture of it, I looked at my walk guide and discovered it was actually called Princes Square. The description invited us to explore inside.
The inside of Princes Square was actually an indoor mall with shops and restaurants but the architectural appointments were quite lovely. A lot of carved wood on the spiral stairs, a big atrium with a glass ceiling, tiled floors and lots of green plants. It reminded me a little of the Cleveland Arcade, not quite as big but very impressive.
St. Enoch Square was another fascinating building actually. It dates back to 1870 and was orginally a church and has come all the way to being a coffee cafe. The area around it abounded with people shopping and out for the good weather day. The crowds had increased and so had the musicians including one who was a one man rock band with blaring speakers. No bagpipers though.
With a little over an hour left, we decided we'd better find somewhere to have lunch. Normally we would find all sorts of outdoor cafes but they seemed lacking in the area we were exploring. Not only that but most of the places we found were some type of Asian--Japanese, Thai, etc. and some we didn't recognize. Others had a menu with very unfamiliar looking dishes or way too much to eat for lunch. We finally saw what was called Stack and Still. Intriguing. We went in.
The stack was any kind of pancake you could imagine. I'm not sure if the still refered to all the toppings you could get (including chicken) but they claimed there were over 900 different ways you could have your pancakes.
I had a single stack, Bob had a double. He had chocolate chips, I had grilled peaches and we shared the maple syrup. The coffee was good, or so Bob said as I drank my tea. We were both starving for good brewed coffee. Hard to come by on the ship or on land. The plan is to bring some instant Nescafe packets the next cruise to be sure that #1 we get decaf at night and #2 that we can have "brewed" coffee instead of espresso. Americano gets very boring after a while, as does cappucino and latte, believe it or not.
Our bus met us right on time and we rode back to Greencock, early enough that we could have done a short walk there but too tired to try. Besides we had a specialty restaurant date for dinner to get ready for, Asian. Glad we passed on that at lunch.
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