Photos: the Chinese lunch place with awesome food (I want to take it home with me), The Royal Fusiliers Museum (lots of medals, uniforms, and above all else (stories), the Squinty Bridge (don't know the official name...people of Glasgow call it Squinty because it crosses the river at an angle), the tall ship the GlenLee, the Armadillo (a convention/cultural event center). They were going to have a contest to name it, but the people of Glasgow had already nicknamed it the Armadillo, so that is what it is called. By the way....the photos seem to fall wherever they want to, and I still haven't figured out how to put them in the order I want.....most uncooperative blog format.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Guess what --- the sun chose to get up before dawn (my dawn) again. I just checked the world clock, and it says the official sunrise is 4:35 and sets at 22:05; however, it gets light before that and stays light in that twilight state until at least 23:00.
We spent some time doing laundry etc. until it was time for the museums to open. Then we took off hiking back out to the Glasgow Green to go to the People’s Museum at the east end of the park. Along the way we bought some stamps and mailed some postcards. We got to the museum in time to see one of the workers escorting a family back out while he tried to explain that the museum was closed. We had read that it was closed on Mondays as we approached the door…..an oops. I asked the guard if there were any museums open in Glasgow on Mondays. He went through a list of attractions that were and went back into the museum and came back with a Glasgow museum guide. Well, that plan fell through.
We headed back to city center trying to figure out what we were going to do with the day. We decided to stop at the hobby store that Neil has been wanting to visit. Guess what—it’s closed on Mondays. On to city center…. A double decker city tour bus went by and Neil suggested at least we could ride around and see the sights that were closed. So we checked out the prices. The prices were for two days and were less than a pound more expensive for equivalent city bus tickets. So we bought our ticket and got on the top deck of the double decker for a tour.
We saw the Cathedral, another old church, the People’s Museum, the Squinty Bridge, the Armadillo, the huge crane, and the tall ship in the harbor. Since the Tall Ship was open on Mondays, we got off there and did the museum and ship exploration thing. We watched a volunteer remove the hemp from between the deck boards. He showed me the tools he would use to replace the hemp and then tar over it to keep the deck from rotting. Except for the parts of the ship that they are remodeling, we were allowed to roam pretty much where we wanted to go. We saw the galley and the small building where the sailors slept and below decks where they hauled cargo and mended sails. The ship wasn’t that big but had been around the world some eight times before World War I. The ship survived as a training vessel for the Spanish navy before being abandoned in Spain. The Scottish government and the public invested money in its restoration and continued upkeep. The ship is likely to become more popular when the new Museum of Transportation is completed nearby. The ship had lots to read, most note worthy a timeline showing events in the life of the ship, the city of Glasgow, and the World together. From the ship we reboarded the red bus looking for some lunch. We got off on Byers Road and found a Chinese restaurant. The food is different from the states. The orange chicken was really orange and more delicate than at home. The sweet and sour was with light breading and not so awfully sweet. The meal was fun.
Then back on the bus and to the Fusilers Museum, a small place, with lots of medals and uniforms. It was very similar to the Guards Museum in London. We were ushered out of the place at 4:10 instead of the posted 4:30; it seems they close ½ hour early as part of the government cut backs. We then headed back to city center. Got off at Buchanan street and did a bit of shopping, a gift for the boys, a book for Neil and a pair of Crocs (not the big ones...rather like dress shoes) for Nancy. It was raining, so we walked through the mall to stay dry. It didn’t work so we went to check on a future purchase and walked home in the rain. Once home we had some wonderful soup ala Peter, and collapsed for the evening.
16,048 steps.
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