Not much to report. Spent an hour at the Riverside transportation museum in Glasgow. Would highly recommend.

Arrived Warsaw and was challenged a little by the metro system. Hopefully today it’ll make more sense.

😃

Cold and dreary today in Glasgow.

In the kitchen, I ran into a PhD candidate who was studying lasers. We had an interesting  (at least to me) convo about her studies into using lasers to image human tissue, specifically using lasers instead of xrays to perform mammography. So neat.

Started out at the Peoples Palace. It’s the city museum. Very interesting glimpses into the lives of the locals, past and present. Glaswegians have a lot to be proud of. The town has really pulled itself together in the last 30 years. 

After some coffee and a treat, I went to the modern art museum. Meh.

The tour of city hall was the highlight of my day. What a great old building. Full of Italian design and superb craftsmanship, great art and grand staircases, gorgeous woodwork, and more. The building suffered no WWII damage at all. Its construction cost in 1889 was 500,000 pounds. In today’s money….45 million? A lot anyway. Just beautiful.

After that, more tea and a long walk. Had some phone calls to make and that brought my day to a close. 

Looking forward to Poland!! tomorrow.

😊

❤

Consisted of plans that would allow me to run inside if the weather didn’t clear…but it did, and I had a great day in the spring sun.

I saw 2 museums at Glasgow university, had a nice walk to the cathedral, there was time for another small religion museum, then it was time for a meander home via the Glasgow Green (a city park).

Very nice all together, and only one more modern art museum to see tomorrow and my to-do’s will be complete!

Happy birthday dad!!

Took the train to Ayr today. About an hour’s ride on the all-stops route, it was pleasant to sit and read. Very quiet car today.

Ayr is best known for being the birthplace of the poet Robert Burns. Gotta be honest, not a huge poetry fan. Still found enough to do to make it a lovely day. 

Ayr is also a beach town. The body of water is called the Firth of Clyde,  or the mouth of the Clyde river. I was lucky, the tide was just out when I showed up. There’s no waves, just the water slowly coming in. Kinda weird for an Oregon person. Found some rocks and some very happy dogs.

After a nice walk on the beach, I found the high street and mailed some cards. 

The main attraction downtown is a old church, the Auld Kirk, of St John the Baptist. It’s a Scottish Presbyterian church and staffed by some really welcoming volunteers.  I got a neat tour from someone who had been going there since 1953. What a treat.

After that I was ready to go. I skipped the Burns museum. 

There was just time back in Glasgow to go to the Mackintosh. It’s some kind of arts and events center focusing on design. Architecture really isnt my thing, but it was neat because it has a viewing platform thats free, and some neat information about civic projects across Scotland. Also a small museum of Mackintosh related material. Would highly recommend for architecture fans.

Mackintosh once designed a tea shop for a famous lady in Glasgow, and that is something I *can get behind, because nearby is a famous tea shop with the same set up. I’ve never had a real tea, so….off I went. It was fancy and fun.

It was still light, so I wandered around the Necropolis, the local businessmans cemetery. It also gives good views of the downtown area. The  Necropolis is apparently an important European cemetery. Maybe I’ll make that a focus of my trip this time. I do enjoy a good graveyard.

It was finally dark enough to call it a day. Home to my bunk and have some herbal tea to relax.

Since no pics of the Burns museum…

Here is a famous poem by Robert Burns ..or at least the first part of it. Its called Tam O’ Shanter.  It’s long…

When chapman billies leave the street,
And drouthy neebors, neebors meet,
As market-days are wearing late,
An’ folk begin to tak the gate;
While we sit bousing at the nappy,
And getting fou and unco’ happy,
We think na on the lang Scots miles,
The mosses, waters, slaps and styles,
That lie between us and our hame,
Whare sits our sulky sullen dame,
Gathering her brows like gathering storm,
Nursing her wrath to keep it warm.