The day that wasn’t originally planned….
We set off at 7am. Not because we had a ferry to catch, as that was booked for Saturday afternoon, but because Jo had been asked by her headteacher to be very, very important at some kind of Masonic meeting for grammar school headteachers at a school in Penrith. Patently Jo’s boss couldn’t be bothered to go, so delegated it to one of her minions.
Whilst she did her funny and very, very important handshakes, I had a walk round Penrith – took 20 minutes, wouldn’t recommend, the town is a bit of a dump – and then mostly sat in the car. I rotated between car parks for Booths, Morrisons, and a nice farm shop we found on the way in. Lunch for me was a foot-long sausage baguette, and the king of cakes (Victoria sponge). Jo had school sandwiches.
Four and a bit hours later, she was done and we resumed our journey to Scotland. Pretty uneventful, other than a non-UK registered articulated lorry whose driver had clearly fallen asleep as his suddenly swerved into my lane, then back. We have good brakes and didn’t die (it was too close). And only one border crossing on this holiday.
We found the hotel (very nice, too), changed and headed out for dinner – Italian. On our walk to the restaurant we encountered our first be-coned statue. Apparently it’s been there for 30 years and has become a national Scottish thing – but in Glasgow they’re left, whereas in Edinburgh they’re removed.
Glasgow, third biggest city in the UK and home to 20% of the Scottish population, looks very much like Newcastle we thought. Confusing road systems over a river, the city centre has a grid-like layout, and built across many slopes making some streets quite steep. Some really nice buildings, too.
We had Italian food and wine (the table behind confusingly ordered steak and peppercorn sauce….maybe they thought it was an American Diner) then wandered back to the hotel via a very nice cocktail bar (Pear Drop for Jo, Old Fashioned for me). Weirdly we saw a group of youths raving in the middle of the street, with a DJ and PA system set up – having a great time, doing no harm, good old fashioned rave music. I remember the days…. Oh, and more cones on statues.
Dinner – Santa Lucia, Glasgow
Hotel – The Wellington, Glasgow