Train Spotting

I have been informed that today is a "chill" day for us here in Glasgow. Nope, not a national holiday or anything like that. It's just a Sunday in Glasgow and the guys are wanting to relax at home for the day before heading out later tonight to go to dinner at Jamie's Italian, a Jamie Oliver restaurant in George Square. One of the things on Noah's to do list while in the UK was to eat at a Gordon Ramsay restaurant. When we spotted the Jamie one the other day the question was asked whether it would suffice, and the answering was yes, so that's tonight.

Before that though will be a bit of a late afternoon walk about, depending on how Bertha treats us. Yes, Glasgow is getting to see a bit of Bertha, and that means that Noah, Jake and I get to have encountered the first two hurricanes of the 2014 season. You may recall our playing frisbee with Arthur a month or so back.

I'm way ahead of myself right now, so should probably backup a fair bit and catch you all up.

When last we chatted it was nearly a week ago, we were in York, sleeping off a yummy Monday night roast dinner.

The next morning we went to the National Railway Museum. Now, so far I've been fairly clever in remembering to take pictures of signs or plaques to be able to keep track of the things we're seeing and taking pictures of. Not so at the NRM. So instead, you just get to see a series of shiny trains without me interrupting too much.

It's a red train.

It's another red train, but bigger.

It's a green train that was beside the big red train but smaller than the first red train.

It's a duck.

It is a very, very big train engine. These are the kind that scare me a bit, hulking brutes that they are.

See? Shiny trains.

My apologies to train enthusiasts everywhere for reducing it all down to "shiny" and the colours of the rainbow. Yes, given how much I tend to go on about every other topic under the sun that I know equally nothing about, you'd figure I'd make a reasonable attempt with the trains. Nope. Perhaps something to be thankful for?

And then the inside of the above one. I can't even manage a steering wheel.

We enjoyed the museum, full of trains, train bits, railway memorabilia, and so, so, so much stuff that I did not take pictures of.

We then headed back to the hostel, and the guys decided to relax there for the afternoon as I wandered back out to explore York some more.

This is the interior of Holy Trinity Goodramgate, York. It dates back primarily to the 15th century although apparently there are pieces that go back to the 12th, and then right on up into the 19th. All I know is that it looked old, was nice and cool, had these great box pews to sit quietly and reflect from (yes, I am capable of such activity), and most fun of all in my opinion, has this tremendous bow right in the middle of it's floor. The building sags, and it really does add to it's charm.

I then continued my little walk through the Shambles, an area in York with buildings dating back to the 14th century, and all of them proving that Holy Trinity wasn't the only place in town that could get it's sag on.

Eventually I headed my way back to the hostel by means of one of my favourite (read most used) snickelways. Yes. Snickelways. What is a snickelway? That dear reader, I will leave you to discover.

The next morning we were leaving bright and early to catch a train to Edinburgh before making our way on to Glasgow.

This last shot from York is for Sebastien. His IQ is apparently 132, which is astounding for a bear who wears chainmail. That said, he is fairly well travelled, so who knows. And if you're confused by this current tangent, well, you're not alone.

Off to Scotland.