Day 4 - Glasgow — Wayfaring Abroad

Today began a quick turnaround of visits. We drive to Glasgow from Edinburgh this morning and try to see as much as possible before heading north to Inverness on the 22nd.

We got up early in order to beat whatever traffic there could be and also to have as much time as possible in Glasgow. The sun had just risen when we left and the car window was covered in frost. We set off amongst the early morning workers and got on the motorway without any trouble. The drive to Glasgow took less time than the drive to Stirling the day before and we were off the freeway and parked beside Glasgow Cathedral before we knew it.

The drive through the countryside was light up by the sun but about 10 miles before we got to Glasgow the sun disappeared and the fog and haze took over. Glasgow was covered in a thick layer of mist, casting an eerie site over the cathedral.

We entered the cathedral and found it practically empty. It appeared that 10 am on a Thursday in December was not prime tourist time. We slowly made our way through the cathedral, along the pews and down into St. Mungo’s Chapel beneath the main Cathedral.

From the Cathedral we walked across a bridge and over into the Necropolis. The Necropolis sits on a hill overlooking the Cathedral and is filled with stone structures and a mausoleum. We slowly meandered through the rows and looked back towards the Cathedral. The fog has really come at this point and it looked like there was a filter covering the building with the spire at the top barely being visible.

After the Cathedral we drove across town to the West End and found a parking place by The Botanical Gardens. Our first stop in the gardens was in Kibble Place where we saw carnivorous plants and New Zealand ferns. After walking around the Kibble Palace greenhouse we made our way to Tearooms where we spent a while walking through each different climate.

The Carnivorous Plants in the Kibble Palace.

I failed to take note of each species of plant but saw an incredible amount of beautiful plants and colors. The Tearooms seemed to go on forever with more rooms branching off from one another. It was very impressive. After a while we decided that we needed a break and that it was time to get lunch so we made our way south of the Botanical Gardens for lunch.

It was a cold day and the fog was creating an insulating layer for the cold to huddle by the street. We decided that some warm soup was a must so we stop in for some pho. After we were nice and comfortable from the soup we headed back out into the cold and made our way across the city in search of a parking spot.

We had a couple places in mind to stop at but needed to park for a while to do it. After looking to stop at Kelvingrove Art Museum and failing to find parking we drove down to the Science Centre where we parked and made our way out into the city. We started at the Science Centre and walked over to the Riverside Museum and Tall Ship.

We walked through the Tall Ship and luckily I did not hit my head on the ceiling, though I had many opportunities to do so. From the Tall Ship we went through the Riverside Museum, looking at all the cars, going onto the trains and finally back out into the chill before walking back into town and up to Kelvingrove Art Museum. By this time the sun was setting and we headed back down to the car so that we could finally check into our Airbnb.

The place we had chosen to stay at was chosen specifically because it had an included parking space, something we figured would be important having a car in the city. Once we made our way into the apartment and grabbed the remote to control the parking lot door we went back to the car and over to the lot. The information for the lot said that it was a tight fit but we quickly learned that tight did not describe the lot. There was zero chance that the small SUV we had could fit in this lot. I tried as I could to turn into the space but considering that I could barely make it into the lot, we decided to forget it and parked in the mall parking lot.

After a quick break we headed back out for lunch and back to the apartment so we could get to bed. The next day was starting early.