Hop-on Hop-off

May 4th

Today was all about Glasgow. A friend of mine that was in the country not to long ago told me to skip it, its just a big city. I agree that it is certainly a big city, but it is not JUST a big city, it's still Scotland and it's filled with history. Here the history just happens to be mingled with the modern and mixed with the mundane. Still, we wanted to at least take a quick tour of some of the highlights and there is no better way to do that than with a Hop-on Hop-off tour bus. 

It was another unusually sunny day so we were looking forward to being able to see the city. A lot of the architecture was amazing and the contrast between the ancient ornate construction and the modern sleek, yet usually boring, architecture could never be more realized.

We left the apartment at 11:30 and went out in search of Breakfast. We ended up back at the Blue Lagoon. Our favorite server, Yvonne, told us she opened the place for breakfast so we thought we’d try it. It was pretty much just the traditional Scottish breakfast. And again, no refills on coffee. And the coffee was twice the cost of a soft drink. It just doesn’t seem to be the drink of choice for breakfast here.

Jason did have a typical Scottish breakfast but the rest of us opted for burgers, just to try something different. The chicken burgers turned out to be just little round patties that were certainly underwhelming and nothing to write home about, although I guess that's what I'm doing right now. lol

Rob got a 10 oz beef burger which was piled high with double beef patties, onion rings and a double helping of heart disease dripping down the sides. When preparing the burgers, we were asked if we wanted salad. They were referring to the vegetables on the burger. Apparently, the burgers aren’t unhealthy enough so most people leave off the fixings.

On the way to Queens Square to catch the Hop-on Hop-off bus we heard bagpipers warming up in the distance. Rob started whining and whimpering as he searched desperately for them. We were headed in the opposite direction. Rob was getting weepy. In Edinburgh we all told him again; you’ll definitely see them (we hope).

We had the best seats on the top deck of the bus so we had some great views of the city skyline and the artwork at the top of the buildings. One thing that we hadn’t accounted for the temperature of the wind. The temperature itself was not bad and we were dressed accordingly, but when the wind started in the temperatures felt way lower and the wind was so strong that it often made it too hard to take pictures or even to look out for very long. Rob was the trooper and kept shooting away but the rest of us pretty much stayed bundled up and soon Bryan and I had to retreat to the lower level where it was enclosed. 

Again we struggled with the language. The tour had a live narration going by the bus driver. Most of the time it was unintelligible and we’d catch a word or two but rarely enough to put a whole story together. 

A typical conversation would go something like this:

Jason: Did he say that building was built in 1756? 

Me: I though he said it was rebuilt in 1526. 

Bryan: Was he talking about a building?

Rob: Was someone talking?

We completed the entire route of the bus and ended back up at the starting point. Halfway through the route the bus went right in front of out apartment complex. So we stayed on for another run and got off at the stop near our place. We exited across from a restaurant we had wanted to try so that is where we had our evening meal.

The restaurant was actual several restaurants all together in one place. Cranside Kitchen is housed in the historic Rotunda North, a red-bricked roundhouse and former harbor tunnel overlooking the Clyde River. Luckily we got there when we did, just after 4:00, as they were 100% booked for the night from 5:00 on. 

After dinner we made the short walk bac to our apartment. We were leaving the next morning for Edinburgh and had some packing and last minute preparations to do. Looking out the window of our flat and across the river there were several stores, one of which was a local movie theater. We have always enjoyed going to movies in different countries as the theater experience is not the same everywhere. We looked at the schedule, found there was a movie we were interested in and we decided to do it. Well, all but Rob, he wasn’t interested so he stayed at the flat and intended to get to bed early for his beauty sleep. Of course if that really worked he'd have to stay in bed till at least September.

The theater was relatively new looking with the large, plush, leather, reclining seats. Luckily the theater was advertising an “Adult for child price tickets” today. So we were fortunate to get in for the cheaper very low price of… $25 each ticket!!!  And that was the child price?? We wondered what was going on that movie prices were that high. We decided to stay anyway, perhaps there was something special to account for the expensive ticket. The answer: nothing! It was just a very expensive outing. The movie we saw was Mario Brothers. It was a delightfully fun and entertaining movie but still not worth the $25 each price tag. Especially when there was an arcade next door where I could probably play the games for 50 cents.

Even though the movie theater was directly across the river from our apartment and in clear sight, the nearest bridge made it about a 25-minute walk. The trip back to the apartment was really cold with the icy wind whipping across the Clyde River. We made it back and started packing. We would be leaving the big city in the morning.