Well, David and I have been taking it easy the last few days since we’ve been under the weather. We weren’t sick enough to stay in, but we definitely didn’t want to push our luck with hard days. So, we went on our planned excursions to Stirling and Glasgow but didn’t try to pack in as much as we might have. Plus, it was rainy and windy in Stirling some of the time which encouraged brevity at some locations.
Wednesday we went to Stirling to see the castle. We took a guided tour and then wandered around the castle afterwards. It didn’t rain during the tour but it was windy at times (about 55 degrees). Some of the tourists there were in t-shirts and shorts and they seemed pretty chilly to me! David and I had polar fleece under raincoats with scarves, so we were fine.
Our friends in Edinburgh said Stirling Castle was even nicer then Edinburgh Castle, and it’s true. A lot of research and work went into restoring the palace to look as it may have at the time of James V. Queen Elizabeth reopened it in 2011.
They had a guild of tapestry workers create these 7 tapestries by hand using methods of the times. Took them 13 years to finish all 7. They are beautiful!!!!
After the castle we wanted to see the church in town. The 900-year-old Church of the Holy Rude is the only church still in active use, other than Westminster, to have had a coronation (infant James VI, who became James I of England). They told us on the tour that at one point when a group was trying to storm the castle they put cannons on the roof of the church and shot at the castle from there. Sadly the church was closed, but we met a guy outside of it who was a volunteer guide. He told us what we would have seen in the church and the history of the church. Then he took us around the graveyard and showed us interesting headstones and told us stories until it started raining again. Then we headed back to the train station and back to Edinburgh.
Thursday we went to Glasgow. When they say Glasgow is more “industrial” than Edinburgh, what that means is run-down and less touristy. Like Birmingham (Alabama), they lost a lot of their industry when manufacturing started to move abroad and when shipbuilding became less popular. By the 1970s it was pretty run-down. They are trying to reinvent the city by bringing in sporting events, artists, etc. Around the universities it seems like they are pretty successful and there is growth. Other areas we walked by still seem pretty closed up and abandoned. They do seem to have a lot of murals up on buildings that make those parts seem a little more vibrant.
We walked to the Glasgow Cathedral but there really wasn’t much there to see. We normally would have stopped at the Victorian Necropolis next to the church that is a major tourist attraction but we really didn’t feel like staying outside that long when we weren’t 100% well. Instead we grabbed a brunch snack and took the train (almost like a tram) two stops to Partick.
I ended up stopping in a shop to buy a hat because I decided I wanted something for the highland winds. I was going to buy a Scottish fair isle one but I could find one with fit and color I liked. So, I ended up buying a super soft Aran patterned merino wool one (yes, I bought something from Ireland in Scotland!).
Next we went to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. We stayed there until they closed. Half the museum is an art gallery and half natural science and Scottish history. The even have organ concerts at 1 pm.
I had really wanted to try lawn bowling there (apparently a big activity here), but it was raining and we didn’t feel well so we skipped it and headed back to our flat in Edinburgh.
David and Heidi’s Travels 