Day 48-52 - Scotland

Our bus trip into Edinburgh took us through Lockerbie, where there was still light in the sky at 10:30pm, and the temperature in the surrounding countryside was nearly zero. We arrrived in our hotel not long before midnight.

The next morning did not greet me well, but I managed to rouse myself for a full Scottish Breakfast. In this respect, the Scots are the anti-Italians: black pudding, tattie scones, sausage, bacon, eggs and many other culinary delights. This is the sort of breakfast that makes your heart soar, then go into arrest.

We had one day in Edinburgh, which is probably the most unique place we went other than Venice. The old part of the town, which houses Edinburgh Castle, is on a massive hill. The newer part (only 300 years old!) is on the lower valley in front of the hill, and the main street and shops reside here.

After a walk down that main street, we went back to board the bus to do the bus tour of Edinburgh. The ticket seller engaged us in some small talk, like where we were from and such. Then, with only the slightest hint of cheekiness on his face, he asked me if I wanted to buy bus tickets for myself and my daughter. Smart @rse.


The bus ride around Edinburgh is great, because of it's uniqueness. From the painted on windows to the private park (?), we enjoyed the ride until we went up to the Castle.

Now, Edinburgh was the first place I had been on our little trip which I had previously visited. As a nearly-eleven-year-old, my grandmother and I walked up to the Castle, but I remember being disappointed that most of the Castle was not accessible to visitors.


This time was different, and explored nearly every area of the Castle, which looms large over the skyline of the surrounding area, impenetrable and inaccessible to marauding raiders and armies from the south.

We had some lovely scones, jam and cream in the cafe right at the top of the Castle, and the views all around are some of the prettiest you'll ever see.

Unfortunately, dinner wasn't nearly as good as the mid-afternoon repast. Rose felt like a roast, and we could only find it in one of the pubs near where they used to execute people. I think one of the victims ended up on Rose's plate.

The next day we were off to Glasgow, a short train ride from Edinburgh. After all our travels, this was our last train ride, and therefore the last time we'd have to carry those bags into a train station, onto a train, and then find somewhere to put them. Recommendation - anything more than one large suitcase is too much for train travel.

If Glasgow is more touristy than Liverpool, then it isn't by much. Bigger, with a classy shopping strip, the CBD sort of sprawls to much bigger than Melbourne's, but then the suburbs do not spread for much further than that.

Our visit to Glasgow coincided with a bout of slight illness for Rose, and we spent at least a couple of afternoons resting. But we did manage some high tea at McKenzie's Tea Shoppe, which was more food than two people should eat in one sitting, some more shopping for Sylvanians, and a special visit.

Glasgow is the city in which my mother grew up, and rekindling memories of my own visit there with my grandmother, we went up to Maryhill to see where my family lived before coming to Australia.

There has been some scrubbing-up of Maryhill, but it remains essentially working-class, with the old tenement buildings mostly replaced with orange brick apartment blocks. The shopping strip remains, but the church has lost its primary school. The church was closed when we went past, but a incomprehensible groundskeeper, who may or may not have been named "Wullie", assured us it would be open the next day.

We then walked through Maryhill, along a small creek, to Kelvin Grove Park. It's a lovely place I hadn't been to before, and we walked around and fed some squirrels something they probably shouldn't be eating.

The other side of the park couldn't be more different to Maryhill, as it houses the university and several lovely terrace houses, very much like the ones seen in East Melbourne. Rose wondered aloud why the Lewis family chose the wrong side of the park.

There was plenty of football going on while we were in Glasgow, including an Old Firm match between Celtic and Rangers. The combination of the mutual hatred of these two clubs, along with the fact that Rangers had already secured the League title, made the match an entertaining fusion of attacking the goals and attacking each other. The next day Tottenham beat Man City to claim the final Champions League spot.

The next morning we were rudely awoken by a rather loud fire alarm in our otherwise fine hotel. We had to evacuate, with yours truly donning a towel around the waist, and eventually an anti-hypothermia blanket around my shoulders. This is in case any Scottish bloke tells you a story about the time they saw Ricky Ponting standing outside a hotel in Glasgow at 7:20am wearing a towel and tinfoil.

There's not an awful lot to do in Glasgow, but it did give us a chance to hit the gym for the only fitness work of the trip, and also recharge the batteries before a busy last week in Ireland.