As you may recall, we boarded the ship after our Edinburgh fringe adventure and took several excursions, visiting the cities and areas where we landed.
Somehow I neglected to mention our trip to Glasgow, but will do so now!
We visited the city on August 29, after our visit to Belfast. Portree is on the map but the ship was unable to dock there because of a construction issue on the dock, so passengers were unable to visit the Isle of Skye.
Here is some information about Glasgow:
Glasgow is the populous city in Scotland, located on the river Clyde. It is the third most populous city in the United Kingdom. It is a leading city for university education and research, finance, industry, commerce, shopping, culture and fashion and was celebrated in 1990 as European Capital of Culture. Most of Scotland’s national arts organizations are based here, including the opera, ballet, theatre and orchestra. The city even has its own Poet Laureate!
On our afternoon bus tour, we passed by some notable architecture and visited one of its finest cultural institutions, the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.
These modern buildings are concert halls. One is called the Armadillo and the other two photos show the OVO Hydro, built by Norman Foster. Visiting artists from around the world perform here.
The swiss cheese looking parking garage is also architecturally interesting.
Our local guide is offering an explanation as we get ready for our guided tour of the fabulous Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.
Across the street you see the tower of the University of Glasgow
we had some time to explore the many offerings here and you can see that it was quite an eclectic collection, from the traditional to the modern, with even an explanation by Dalì himself about his construction of the upside down crucifixion. The Dali had its own special exhibition space, and the light was dimmed to protect the painting.
Back on the bus!
St George’s-Tron church
Glasgow City Chambers
Street art
Our guide is explaining that we will not be able to get into Glasgow Cathedral on a Saturday but offers an interesting history of it. It is the oldest building in Glasgow and the only medieval cathedral on the Scottish mainland to survive the Protestant Reformation of 1560 virtually intact because the townspeople took up arms to protect it . It was the cathedral church of the Archbishop of Glasgow from the 12th century. The church honors the city’s patron saint, St Mungo, whose tomb rests in the lower crypt.
Our tour ended here and we were taken back to the ship we had dinner in the main dining room and went to the main dining room for dinner. We enjoyed the music trivia with the adorable assistant cruise director Brandon and the first set of the dueling piano duo, but didn’t find much late evening entertainment to our liking, so we went to our room to watch “ Flavia” on TV. I dozed off during the movie.
August 30 was a Sunday and a sea day since we couldn’t get to Portree. We had brunch in the main dining room and enjoyed being on the ship. I even went to the gym and did some pedaling.
Line dancing on the Lido deck
Sorry for the diversion but Glasgow was an important port. Traveling by ship allows us only a brief glimpse into a city and it would be a great one to spend time exploring.
Back to our schedule. I still have more stories to tell. We disembarked from Dover on September 5 and we spent the morning at Windsor Castle, then checked into our hotel for the night before flying home the next morning. Or did we? Yes, we fkew home but there was a hotel mixup! What a mess! I only have myself to blame because I made the reservations.
We are back, still recovering from jet lag but there is still more to tell.