Today was the day we had to return our car (by 1PM in Glasgow) so there was no dawdling this morning. After breakfast we looked one last time at Ben Nevis in the early morning sunlight and headed west on the winding, scenic but white knuckle road, the A82, past Loch Leven and Glencoe, Loch Tulla and Bridge of Orchy, onto the A85 past Loch Lubhair and Loch Lomond until picking up the pace finally into Glasgow on the M8. We returned the Juke with no problem, having logged over 2600 miles since picking it up in Dover 30 days ago. It proved to be a reliable car, good on petrol and peppy, lots of room for us and our luggage and, most importantly, comfortable. From here its on foot, Uber and bus, until we rent another car in Dublin in a weeks time. Tomorrow we explore Glasgow, Scotland's biggest city on the River Clyde.
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| somewhere between Ben Nevis and Glasgow |
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| our Airbnb, downtown Glasgow |
Another rather cool and overcast day greeted us as we headed out down Sauchiehall Street - pronounced Sucky - to Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum on the banks of the River Kelvin. From The Glasgow Boys group of painters gallery (the most significant modern European style of their time), Scotland's wildlife exhibition, French and Dutch Art to an excellent display of Scotland's First People this was probably the most well organized and selection of artifacts I have ever seen in one museum. And it was huge, covering three floors of a beautifully designed red sandstone building in the Spanish Baroque style that even had a WW2 Spitfire hanging from the top rafters above Sir Roger, the elephant. I even got to see genuine Turner, Constable and Lowry paintings all in one special corner! By the time we walked down to the waterfront the sun was coming out of the clouds and warming us nicely. Tied up on the River Clyde by the Riverside Museum was Glasgow's own tall ship the Glenlee, last of the old Windjammers still afloat in a British port and one of only five great Clyde-built sailing ships left in the world. We went aboard this old merchant ship that was first launched in 1896 and underwent three other name changes and three nationalities until her return to the Clyde in 1992 as nothing more than a mastless hulk. She was lovingly restored over the course of six years to her original 19th century splendour and we were able to explore every deck of this three master and learn about it's storied history, it's masters and the human drama of the young apprentices who sailed in her. The Riverside Museum we explored next was fascinating and we could have spent the whole day walking about the exhibits - more model ships than I have ever seen under one roof, locomotives, trams, vintage cars, and horse drawn-drawn carriages, the majority built in Glasgow. A superb reconstruction of a 1938 Glasgow Street made us feel like we had been transported back into time. All in all we were left with a very good impression of Glasgow: it was a fitting and good feeling as we were sadly saying goodbye to Scotland. But before walking back to our Airbnb there was one more stop at the Clydeside Distillery for a taste of three excellent single malt whiskies. This distillery is the second new distillery to open in Glasgow in over a 100 years, right on the docks where custom and taxes used to be monitored. Wonderful stuff indeed but it will be Irish whisky tomorrow when we take the ferry across to Belfast! GWS
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| another Turner! |
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| Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow |
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| Glenlee, Glasgow |
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| Riverside Museum, Glasgow |
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| Clydeside Distillery |
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| Art Deco, Glasgow |
