| From: "Kate McMullin" <kate@brong.net> Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2002 20:12:17 +1000 (EST) |
We got up reasonably early, intending to catch a train up to Inverness, and see some of the northern bits of Scotland. But we missed the train by moments, and, being a Sunday, the next one wasn't until around 2pm! So we caught the next train to Glasgow instead. My maternal grandfather was born in Glasgow, but as it was a very last minute decision to vsit the city, it was a bit late to find out more precisely where he lived. We looked through the town, and looked at all the statues in George's Square, including Watt (the electrickery guy) and of course, Walter Scott (literary guy, that the whole of Scotland seems to have memorials and statues to). We walked down to the Glasgow Green (big gardens) and saw the People's Palace and Winter Gardens. The gardens are enclosed in a giant greenhouse, so have huge palm trees and really cool cactuses (cacti?). The People's Palace was built as a museum of Social history, so had very interesting displays on the history and development of the area. We raced back to the station for the train to Perth (original one) - the train was long and slow, and we played lots of card games. Perth was pretty deserted when we eventaully got there: being a Sunday, all the tourist attractions were closed. The only open thing was the Scone Palace (2 miles out of town - they don't seem to use metric in this part of the world), where all the Kings of Scotland were crowned (invested?) from long time ago until recentish, and where the Stone of Destiny originally lived, before it was stolen by the English. Sounds pretty cool, doesn't it? However, it being a Sunday, the bus to the palace left one minute before the train arrived at the station (let alone leaving time for bumbling tourists to find the bus information from the unknowledgable station staff). This isn't Germany, we kept telling ourselves... Anyway, we didn't have adequate map information to walk to the castle, and by the time we got there, it would have been about closing time anyway. So we didn't get there. We sat on the banks of the River Tay and ate our meagre lunch before walking back to the station, via a postcard shop. My blister was really giving me grief by then, so I really wouldn't have enjoyed the long walk. One really nice thing about the hostel (Princes st backpackers, right next to the station) is that it provides a free meal every Sunday night. Thankfully there was some left by the time we got back. It was a really nice sweet potato risotto and salad, with yummy cheesecake to follow. Played more cards and more cards, all evening. |
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