To Glasgow

 June 14

The drive from Oban to Glasgow is beautiful.  We drive right along Loch Lomond.  The hills are steeper and higher than around Loch Ness.  Of course, it is all very green.  There are areas of pine trees with distinct lines of grasslands.  Wild flowers along the road.  I don't see as many sheep grazing as in some other areas. 

We stop at the Falls of Falloch.  We have no idea how far it is to the falls but people are walking from the parking lot without a lot of gear so we figure it can't be too far.  It was a very short walk - maybe 200 yards.  I love it!  I feel that I can smell the green color.  There are some midges but not too bothersome.  We hear the falls and then come upon them.  Melodie and I linger to take more pictures and just enjoy the nature and beauty.  

We stop again a little further down the road.  There is a National Park all along the lake with periodic stops and lots of trails.  This stop had an electric generation area.  The water was stored at the top of the hill and released to produce electricity when needed.  

We made PB and J sandwiches in the morning and enjoyed those as a midday snack.

On to Glasgow.  In the guide book we read about the art nouveau building designed by the renowned Scottish architect, Charles Rennie Mackintosh. We thought that sounded interesting so found a parking garage relatively near, used our GPS to guide us to the spot only to find a building behind lots of scaffolding.  Turns out there was a huge fire in the building several years ago and it continues to be in a state of being repaired.  We spoke with a local woman who said that there is much discussion and suspicion around the funding of the project.  

Glasgow is an interesting combination of old and new.  We walked along a main pedestrian street with lots of shops and restaurants (including Taco Bell and KFC).  This is a real working city, with lots of activity and more diversity than we have seen anywhere else in Scotland. 

School just let out.

Shopping mall where we parked the car. 

Subway tracks and station

This is the night that we're staying in a castle!  Many castles have been converted to hotels to help pay for the upkeep of the castle.  Time for a memorable splurge.  Well, it's memorable but not exactly the way we had hoped.  The rooms are all very modern and feel like any other nice hotel.  The view out the window isn't of gardens but of the parking lot and neighboring houses.  The dinner was quite good but I had hoped it would be served on some vintage china and not cafeteria style dishes.  Since I'm such a tea person, I was hoping for a fine china tea cup.  No, the cafeteria style mug. I guess I was looking for some period furnishing and tapestries on the walls.   We have gotten some pretty good laughs about it though and it is comfortable.  

We enjoy a drink in the lounge before dinner.  Melodie and I have baked lamb butt and Connie and Marilyn both chose salmon.  A couple sits at a table near us.  After dinner they strike up a conversation with us.  They lived in Houston for a few years but are basically local.  I guess since they lived in the States for a few years they felt they knew all about the subtilties of our politics and thought that Trump was doing a fine job.  I did have to give an example of why I felt he wasn't so great.  I did stick to just one example and how that example made me feel.  We moved on from there to the fact that there aren't any blacks up in the Orkney Islands because it is too cold for them there.  Humph.  There isn't even a way to respond to that other than shake your head in disbelief.  Marilyn was good at moving the conversation back to less rocky territory and we left with warm good byes and have a good trip.  

Time to go to bed in my modern room in the castle.