Quiet Day in Glasgow

Okay, almost, almost caught up. It's Thursday, right? So this is our third full day in Inverness, which means we left Glasgow Monday morning, which means our last day there was Sunday.

Alright then. Now that I've got that straight.

Our last day in Glasgow was a pretty quiet one. The morning and early afternoon were spent at the house we were staying at. Did I mention we had a flat to ourselves in a house? Airbnb I think really is the way to go for the three of us as often as it makes sense. We like our space, we like our quiet time. Yes, meeting new people is an important part of the trip, but being able to have space to ourselves without holding up in a little room, or having to go out has it's merits too.

Anyway, much of Monday was spent availing ourselves of this space. And a nice place it was. As I mentioned in a previous post about Glasgow, we really hadn't taken a huge amount of it in, or gone to its museums and galleries and similar bastions of ill repute. Not that Glasgow doesn't have them. It has lots. It just turned out to be where we needed a little break from it all. Which, I continue to remind myself, is good.

Sunday though we did have dinner plans. A couple of days earlier we had noted "Jamie's Italian" in George Square, and wondered if Jamie was Jamie Oliver, the friendlier side of chefs from the UK. Indeed it was, and Noah, who had dinner at one of the grumpier chef's restaurants on his to do list was happy to swap it for a Jamie Oliver one. So a reservation was booked and we now had dinner plans for Sunday evening, which is good, because it gave us a reason to go out on our last day.

So we headed out mid afternoon and got over to Glasgow Cathedral. How could we not go to the Cathedral. It's kinda what we seem to do.

Oh, and it was raining, so some shots are spotty. On several counts.

Upon our arrival they were already setting up for the evening service, so we were not able to stay long, nor see the entire church. But here is a shot of the nave, just so you all know.

The Cathedral is situated right by the necropolis. And what better thing is there to do on a rainy Sunday afternoon in Scotland then to hang out in a Victorian city of the dead? I mean, really.

And yes, I also mean "city". There are over 50,000 buried in this Victorian cemetery which opened for business in 1832 as a result of the cemeteries act coming into place which basically said that church cemeteries in the middle of cities seemed like a bad idea to continue with, so lets build secular ones outside of the city and give us more of a head start should a zombie apocalypse ever occur and the undead rise from their graves.

Good thinking.

I wouldn't say that I have a fascination with cemeteries, but, if I had to choose between a golf course and a cemetery for a nice long walk, I'd pick the cemetery. And by that I mean a proper cemetery, not one of those "memorial gardens" things with only plaques in the ground. You might as well just play through one of those. Give me head stones, and statues, and stuff Buffy could use to impale vampires with.

As you can see, the Glasgow Necropolis comes with all of that. In spades.

You just gotta love the Victorians and their sense of drama. Lots and lots of obelisks. Also plenty of those marvelous urn/veil combos.

I am quite interested to know if Edward Gorey spent any time here.

See, even spotty, they're just cool.

This is a necropolis side view of the Bridge of Sighs, that leads from the Cathedral to the necropolis. Probably a metaphor in there somewhere.

Anyway, I shan't keep you at the necropolis any longer as, not only will you start to get the wrong impression of me if I show you more shots of tombs then of city and landscapes (well, maybe not the WRONG impression), but it was also time to go for dinner. And that's what we did.

Dinner was nice. Dinner was fun. Dinner was relaxed. Dinner was a tasty and rewarding treat. Dinner was not the fine dining posh experience we had all expected it to be given that we've actually heard of the person with their name over the door. But that's okay. We'll find posh elsewhere. What we did find was really yummy, and friendly, and a good way to spend our last evening in Glasgow. And no, I did not take any pictures of our food. I'm not there yet.

Then it was home to finish our relaxing day and prep a little for our trip to Inverness. So we left Glasgow in the morning knowing that there was still so much to see and do, but also knowing that it is here, waiting for us to return.

You know, I really am having a hard time trying to figure out how to close these things off. Do I leave you all with a cliff hanger? A hint of things to come? Do I try and offer some sort commentary on life? A poignant remark? Another poem perhaps?

I think maybe this time something else. We're doing this trip, and that kinda puts us outside of the normal daily swing of things that we are used to. But we're still here. We're still a part of everything that is going on. And what's going on right now includes many, many people, including myself, being very, very sad about the death of Robin Williams. This man has been making me pee myself laughing since Mork and Mindy.

So, since we're in Scotland, perhaps it best if I end with this.