Day 3. Glasgow and the Trossachs – Sep 11th, 2013
After a good night’s sleep I woke at 07:00 hrs. I turned on the BBC to get the latest on the Syrian situation. I was happy to see that there was more of a diplomatic as opposed to military solution. I think Mr Putin has been very clever.
After a buffet breakfast that could have been in any hotel in the world, we departed at 09:00 for a city tour. Under grey skies we headed for Clydebank. In its heyday, there were 60 ship building yards on the Clyde – now there are five. In the early days ships used to come up the Clyde right to the city centre. The Queen Mary, Queens 1&2, the Lusitania and the Mauritania were built on the Clyde. There was a sad tale about the three aircraft carriers ordered for the Royal Navy, only to be scrapped, and the resurrected. Before that remaining one floats, naval aircraft will have to hitch hike on a French carrier – how galling.
In the 1930’s young Lieutenant David Niven was posted to a Lowland Regiment wearing trews. Most of the jocks were Glaswegian and Niven could barely understand them. So far I am catching about 90% of what our Glaswegian coach driver Colin tells us through his boom mike. That is a step ahead of my last trip to Yorkshire where I understood about 10% of what that driver said.
During WW2 my mother was the height taker on a battery of 3.7 inch anti-aircraft guns. One of the battery’s deployments was defending the shipyards on the Clyde. She caught pneumonia due to the miserable weather and was hospitalized in Buchanan Castle.
The first modern bridge we saw was one that local school kids named “The Squinty Bridge”. Its span is curved such that it looks like the top frame of a pair of glasses. Then there was “The Armadillo” – the conference centre has a series of outer shells that remind you of the armoured beastie.
Lord Kelvin hailed from Glasgow and got his first degree from its university at age twelve. The U of G dates from 1451. The U of G has been a world leader in Medicine, Law and Engineering. Lord Lister was another famous graduate – I wonder if he invented Listerine. Glasgow has three universities and we passed by them all.
We crossed back and forth over the Kelvin River (creek by Canadian standards). We visited most of the Glaswegian neighbourhoods. There is a lot of emphasis on cultural institutions such as music, art and ballet. Glasgow has a large Muslim population, but race relations are good. There is also a sizeable Irish contingent that dates from the Irish Potato famine of the 1840s.
By 10:00 it was bucketing rain – Norway revisited. The coach driver kept making comments that would indicate there is a great rivalry between Glasgow and Edinburgh.
We passed a statue of David Livingstone, a famous Glaswegian whose likeness I had last seen at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.
Mid-morning we stopped for a half hour break at “The People’s Palace”. This building is both a conservatory and a museum. In the conservatory about a dozen art students were sketching the plants and flowers, dodging drips from the glass roof. In front of the building there was a very large terra cotta fountain with Queen Victoria sitting on top over her four Dominions of Canada, Australia, South Africa and India.
Paying our respects to the Patron Saint of Glasgow, one Saint Mungo, we then drove past the Buchanan Coach Terminal that is the largest in the UK and from which you can board a coach for any destination in the EU.
Glasgow will host the 2014 Commonwealth Games and millions of pounds have been spent and will be spent to spruce things up. Notwithstanding, I found Glasgow lacking colour – drab comes to mind. Most of the early principal buildings were constructed from a red sandstone. However, it is not the grimy Victorian industrial city I had in my mind.
We spent twenty minutes back at the hotel before launching our trip to the Trossachs. Unfortunately, it was still raining so that made photography from the coach challenging.
The first notable thing on the outskirts was the forest of Tulley Tubes. Mr Tulley invented a biodegradable plastic that had been extruded into tubes about one metre long and used to protect new plantings from deer and rabbits. After about five years the tubes degrade and the older tree can survive.
After WW2 Churchill had plans to level Glasgow and to build five separate cities to which the Glaswegians would have to migrate. Glaswegians seem to have a reputation for resisting the authority of central government so Churchill’s plan was never implemented.
In poor visibility we passed within a mile of Sterling Castle. I could immediately see its tactical and strategic importance. The castle sits on top of a volcanic plug in the centre of the valley, thereby tactically controlling all movement. Strategically, Sterling Castle is the one of the keys to holding Scotland.
In the same area we passed close to the site of Robert the Bruce’s Battle of Bannockburn. The Scots were outnumbered 4 to 1 but carried the day. William Wallace was also mentioned, but I lost the thread.
We got a fleeting glance of Doune Castle as we entered the Trossachs. This is a region that can be considered a miniature version of all of Scotland. It features rolling wooded hills, pastures with flocks of sheep, gentle streams, lochs, winding roads and gorgeous country houses.
The Trossachs are wet and are used to collect water for 1.5 million people. There are pipes made of brick that transport water 60 miles to Glasgow. There is limited logging under the silva culture system. Sir Walter Scott loved to write while in the Trossachs.
The Trossachs are about one hour’s drive from both Glasgow and Edinburgh. So, they are a pleasant escape from urban life. But, they are home to billions of midges. I was reminded of Milford Sound and its sand fleas. There is always a downside to paradise.
We arrived in Calander at 14:00 for our ninety minute lunch break. While walking around, I had a hearty meal of an apple, a banana and two biscuits.
The town is a total tourist trap, with more shops selling tartan than food. The clothing stores were all having their end of tourist season sales, much at 50% reduction – which really makes you wonder what the total markup might be. I bought a blue reversible waterproof bucket hat on sale for five pounds to match my blue Voyager rain jacket.
Calender is on the River Forth that goes all the way to Edinburgh. It is also billed as the place where “The Highlands meet the Lowlands”.
We then drove into the National Park over the Duke’s Pass, topping out at 1070 feet and meeting the base of the clouds. This was Rob Roy’s territory where he would relieve owners of some of their cattle as the herds passed through.
The heather was blooming, but it was past its peak. I learned the difference between broom and gorse – gorse has thorns of course. Gorse – course – get it?
We dropped down into tiny Aberfoyle, where every house had a mountain ash growing to ward off evil spirits. The main feature was the tartan house which had a small petting zoo featuring sheep and miniature horses. A shepherd from Italy, vive the EU, put on a sheepdog demonstration herding ducks and then sheep. Actually the shepherd did nothing but whistle while the dog did all the herding.
I saw two unique sheep – the four horned Jacob, which comes down from Biblical times, and the Romanov. In the text describing the Jacob the word ‘tup’ was used in conjunction with the male. That word stirred an old memory from my 1959 English class in high school in Kingston, Ontario. We had to decipher Shakespeare’s “Othello”. The line was, “The black ram (Othello) ‘tupping’ the white ewe (Desdemona).
The Romanov comes from the Upper Volga and was some were brought to Canada because they could withstand the cold. I have never seen one in Canada, so that experiment may have failed.
Driving back to Glasgow, we passed a distillery – what else?
I noted that the suburban housing streets were posted with a sign saying “Twenty’s Plenty”. That meant that 20 mph was the limit, but it also reminded me that the UK was supposed to go metric but obviously did not.
In the western side of Glasgow we passed the Firth and Clyde barge canal that had been abandoned but resurrected about twenty years ago. It looked quite spiffy and I suspect it is used for the narrow boat tourist trade.
We were back at the hotel by 17:00 and my first act was to boil a kettle in my room and have a cup of Red Bush. After my revival I wandered around the centre core and witnessed an incident. A young man had come out of the Sainbury’s grocery store, I suspect without paying, and had been accosted by two Sainbury security men. They had him down on the pavement while they radioed for the police. When I came back about 30 minutes later all concerned were being interrogated by four policemen. I decided not to shop at Sainbury’s until things cooled down.
After doing all my battery charging and typing this blog, I walked a hundred yards to the Camperdown Pub at a later than usual 20:00 hrs. The British pub is a lovely institution that does not seem to travel well. A German Gasthof has some of the same attributes, but the pub tops them all. The key is the bar where the Brits stand shoulder to shoulder for a pint and a natter.
After sitting at my table for ten minutes, the waitress finally told me that I had to order from the bar. I treated myself to a burger, chips and a dark ale. The tab, with tip, was a mere six pounds ($ 9.60) and was less than the non-alcoholic package from Burger King right next door.
I called it a night about 21:00 hrs.
The Travels of David Ironsides 