Glasgow……Let’s investigate Glasgow on foot—the plan for the day. After a leisurely start to the morning, we started out with a map (provided by Pete) and walked to the Tourist Information Center in George Square. We found a number of pamphlets telling us about things to do in Glasgow. Their big thing was selling tours. We aren’t really into tour busses, so we decided to investigate the Buchanan and Sauchiehall Street pedestrian mall which is filled with high end stores. We found a half price bookstore and spent some time checking out the books. They had some Napoleonic naval novels that don’t show up in the states but didn’t get them since we learned a lesson about buying books first. Then we found a jewelry store that was selling diamond chip stuff and at least Nancy had a good time checking out the merchandise. We also found in the window of a store called the Gadget store which had the greatest kitchen knife holder that I have ever, ever seen…..It was a statue of a person running. The knife blades were, of course, stuck through the person. A local woman and I had a discussion about whether it would act like a voodoo doll if you put a picture on it. Ok, so you probably had to be there and actually see it to see the humor.
We went to a store selling teas, one that made kilts for the gentleman, checked out the cashmere scarves and capes……lovely, lovely things. We also looked at so many store windows that I lost track.
The area is filled all kinds of stores from the Apple store where there was a line to get the new I-4 phone to stores selling tea to all kinds of clothing stores. It even has a multistory shopping mall with the big Hamley's Toy Store….the same as the five story one in London. We walked all the way down to the River Clyde.
We found a pedestrian bridge across the river and walked across it to say we did. We came back across and saw the most amazing tag on a wall that we have ever seen. The tiger on the wall was one of the best pieces of graffiti that I have ever seen.
We continued our walk back up Buchanan Street to the Sainsbury where we stopped and picked up some groceries. Shopping in a central city grocery store is most interesting. It is really quite different from the US…even putting aside the brand differences. We have been in markets that have a fish market with the fish lying on ice, but not behind counters. The fruits and vegetables are in plastic crates or baskets that are not necessarily refrigerated. Milk is sold in pints and quarts….I haven’t seen gallon or even liters. The prices posted include the 17.5% VAT (value added tax) which is really rather nice because you know what the actual cost is. The VAT, by the way, is set to go up to 20%....rather makes the 7% tax in Iowa seem unreasonably reasonable. The checkers all have a tall soft chair and sit to check your groceries.
Nancy is doing pretty well with the different dialects of the UK. However, she did meet a young man (the checker) in the grocery whose sister had been to Utah, and he wanted to know how close that was to Iowa. His Scottish accent was so strong that we had a wee bit of difficulty understanding each other. There is never a question that we are from the states.
Back to Pete and Jess’s for the evening.
It was a great deal of fun comparing the goods in Scotland to the goods in the US.
The sunset about 10:45.
Steps: 17,432
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