Last Day 8- Glasgow

From hiking through northern Spain to this trip- I can tell that as I get older, I like small towns and slow and low stress traveling. 

Glasgow is a mini New York City.  Full of horn honking, fast walking commuters and tons of buses on small streets . I love NYC when I am in that mindset, but we have been in quaint areas and I wasn’t mentally prepared for the city. Plus, we were possibly in the worse hotel room ever last night. It was so bad that we checked out and paid for a new hotel for tonight. In a nut shell- no hot water, no elevator and we were on the forth floor with our luggage and no way to turn off the hot radiator.  I am not a fussy traveler -at all- so it was pretty miserable. Believe me when I say our booking company is going to get an ear full when we return. 

Tonight’s hotel! 

Ahhhh....

Last nights hotel - this is me ready for bed with NO make up! Yep - I have no vanity while showing you that I am touching the ceiling. 

 

On to exploring the city. Glasgow is a city of murals on buildings. We tracked down several. 

The central train station is massive. 

The Glasgow Cathedral  built in 1180 was simply amazing. The Vatican does have a Michael Angelo carved statue but the detail in this cathedral was really more impressive than our tour of the Vatican several years ago. Mark doesn’t agree. 

Behind the cathedral is the Necropolis. A Victorian cemetery with 50,000 people buried and 3,500 monuments. Really cool. 


This guy must have been well liked. The monument reads “erected by a few of his friends”. 

Clottie trees are popular in Scotland. You will find them randomly in a forest. You tie fabric to a tree. When the fabric weathers and fall off the tree - the legend says “your ailments will be cured”. Ok, I’m all in for this!  The arrow points to mine! 

We visited the Glasgow Museum of Modern Art. This place can’t compete with the Tate Modern in London or our little gem, Crystal Bridges in northwest Arkansas. The had one Warhol and mostly empty space. 

The city chamber office is a beautiful building with homeless living in a small camp on the grounds. 


Glasgow has a very modern edge mixed with the old historical buildings. 




Tomorrow- we head home!  Lovely vacation but ready to be home. Thanks for following our adventure!

Day 7 - Inverness to Glasgow

This was a scenic driving day with a few stops along the way. We are headed to the big city. I think we are going to miss the countryside. 

First stop was a short walk to the Invermoriston bridge and falls. Trees overgrown with moss - really pretty

We found an interesting suspension bridge. Bridge of Oich -  built in the 1854. That is pretty amazing. 

There are so many castle ruins but these two will be our last. Invergarry Castle. This castle was the seat of the clan MacDonnell. Oliver Cromwell burned the castle down in 1654. It was rebuilt and held for King James the 7th. 

Then the old Inverlochy Castle in Fort Williams. Inverlochy Castle was built 1270 by John “the black” Comyn. It doesn’t look like much now. 

we took our daily selfie here. Nice wind blown hair,Vic!

While in Fort Williams we stopped for a tour and tasting at Ben Nevis Distillery. With a view of the tallest mountain peak in Scotland. Had a nice lunch and a personal tour. 

The highlight of the day was driving through the Glencoe Valley. So beautiful. My camera phone doesn’t do the area justice. 

Then into Glasgow. I can already tell this isn’t going to be my favorite of Scotland. Turning in the rental car was nerve racking, tons of people, honking horns, one way streets  and a hotel without an elevator... and we are in the 4th floor. I will he giving the travel company an earful about this hotel. Grrrr first stop was a bar! Tomorrow will be our last day- looking forward to being home. 

Day 6 - Chilly Highlands and Warm Whiskey

We are staying in the lovely and stately Royal Highlands Hotel with wonderful service and wee tiny rooms. I think I about fell off the bed twice last night. LOL. 

We started the day at the Clava Cairns. 2000 BC circular burial grounds. Amazing that Bronze age structures remain today. There are 50 in the area. Each burial ground had one or two bodies.   

Stumbled across this train trestle - it was a Wow moment. The Nairn ViaductIt spans the River Nairn at 1,800 feet it is longest masonry bridge still used daily in Scotland. 


We went to the Culloden Battlefields. Let’s just say there isn’t much interesting about a field...Big Smile. Everyone told us it was a must see. Not so much.  It is simply for the history. Lots of battles won and lost here starting in 1745. It was freezing and started to rain sideways with what must have been 50 mph winds. Time to go!

Went down the shores of Loch Ness. We watched for a while but didn’t see Nessie. 

Urquhart Castle built in the 1296 by William the Lion and was won and lost by the Jacobites, Clan Grants and the MacDonalds.  In May of 1690 The castle was turned to rubble when the soldiers loaded the entry with gunpowder and blew up the gatehouse to prevent reoccupation of the castle by the Jacobites.  

Since it was so cold that we could see snow flakes we decided to visit a couple of distilleries. First was Glen Ord. Notice the different shape of the copper distillers at each place. Each claim they make the best tasting scotch. I preferred Glen Ord. All scotch is aged in oak barrels previously used to age sherry, port, wine, bourbon or rum. 







Then to a very different style production distillery, Tomatin. They let us walk into a masher where the malt is made into grist. They ferment in stainless. Notice the locks in the glass case where the alcohol is collected... those are placed by the government so the distillery can’t cheat the government from alcohol volume tax. Which is about 77%   

Tomatin has their own “cooper” to maintain the barrels and offers housing to their workers on site. 

I found a barrel that has been aging since I graduated from high school. That is a looooong time!

And just to prove we were really there.

 Dinner was at the Mustard Seed. We tried to get in last night but they had room for us today. We hated the food. Not!  The fresh mussels were the best I have had in a very long time. 

Night time photo of the Inverness cathedral and castle. The castle isn’t very impressive. .