purple orchid, a holly bush that mine will never look like, a cute street in Glasgow
Friday, June 25, 2010
Sunrise is quite early in Glasgow…..it was light when I woke up at 4:00 because of the people who were yelling at each other on the street six stories below. They were unhappy with each other….obviously. Went back to sleep. We had a nice breakfast of muffins, egg, fruit. The plan today was to see some places in town and try public transport. We walked down to the bus station to check out the bus system in Glasgow.
Off we set with our trusty map and advice from Pete about where we should and should not go. Our first stop was the Central Bus Station where our intention was to buy a pass as we had done in England. Well, that didn’t work out because we didn’t have extra passport photos…oops. So we got a map, advice from the information desk and headed to the bus to buy day passes. We got to the bus, talked to the young bus driver, who said we needed exact change, so off we went again….mission accomplished and back to the bus. He asked where we wanted to go…his Scottish dialect was quite thick and our flat Midwest dialect made communicating an interesting activity, but we got it accomplished. He understood where we wanted to go, and we understood where to go…we thought. With the bus map, we tried to follow along with where we were…didn’t do to badly. However, we thought we had another stop to go when the driver opened the door to his little cubicle and motioned that it was time for us to get off. We thanked him, got off, and turned left. He opened his door again, stopped us, and gave us specific directions to the Botanic Center…..a nice young man.
The twenty minute walk led us down Byers Road along all kinds of shops. Fortunately, the city of Glasgow has deemed it important to post sign maps showing where you are and where things are…..very helpful.
We reached our destination…The Botanic Center. We found the visitor’s center to get a map. We found the weeping ash tree planted in 1841. It’s not as big as you might think. We found a wonderful green house built in the Victorian manner….beautiful. Inside we found more varieties of begonias than I have ever seen. There was a tropical plant area, palm trees of all varieties, Impatiens from New Guinea, with the biggest blooms that I have ever seen. The cactus and succulent room was filled with all types of wonderful plants, including several small pencil cactus. One of my favorite rooms was the orchid room…..so many varieties of orchids….gorgeous. I was even reminded that vanilla comes from a member of the orchid family. We then made our way to the Wild Rose garden. The garden was filled with the traditional original forms of the roses….those that had not been hybridized…..the smells were unbelievable. The canes on the roses in the UK are huge compared to the roses at the old house….I think the difference is in the winters.
Off to lunch…..to make me happy….Neil agreed to eat at a Crepe café. We ordered a Hawaiian Ham crepe, an apple with cream crepe, and a pot of tea. We sat at a table in front of the café and had lunch. Because we did not use the “take away” option we paid more. It was great….I enjoyed It a great deal. It was a good lunch the main dish crepe was very good, but the dessert was nothing special---more apple, more cinnamon, in proportion to crepe was needed. We then decided on a route to the Kelvingrove Park/Museum and Art gallery. We chose to go part way down Byers Road and then cut through Glasgow University to the park. It was a lovely walk except for the elevation, steeply uphill and then steeply downhill. We should have chosen a route that followed the River Kelvin---fewer hills. The museum was eclectic. We saw art and architecture from Glasgow artists including the revered Charles MacIntosh. MacIntosh’s work has certain similarities to Wright. We saw exhibits about religious bigotry in Glascow-- the green (Catholic) vs. the orange (Protestant), moving to Glasgow as an immigrant from the Indian subcontinent, and violence against women in Glasgow. They had a wonderful natural history exhibit with the fastest, slowest, most poisonous, and so one with each category they had a stuffed specimen of the critter. They also had Egypt, some Dutch and Italian paintings, and a Spitfire hanging in one wing. A wild and crazy collection. When we got tired enough we found a bus stop and rode back downtown. From there we called Pete and arranged to meet at George Square. Jess arrived and all four of us headed to a pub for a wee drink. Pete and I had an Italian Lager and the ladies had a German beer.
Once Back at the flat we had dinner—chicken and potatoes and salad—then watched some soccer and looked for lodgings and train tickets for future journeys outside of Glasgow. Then in to bed time preparations and sleep—it was almost 11:00 and it’s still twilight.
22,071 steps, a new record today.
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