June 21 Glasgow

Up at 6:15. Breakfast is not until 8 and it looks like a really nice morning. Breakfast was really good; sausages, scrambled eggs, beans, toast, yoghurt and a banana. At 9 I called Discover Scotland Tours to make sure they were going to pick me up right outside my hotel which is the main reason I chose them. Good thing I checked as they had me leaving from downtown a few miles away. Got that sorted and was pleased. At 10:10 I started walking down Byres Street towards a church at St. Patrick's Close. I got there about 10:25 right after the sermon and took a seat the the back. The priest had a very thick accent but was very well received by his congregation. After the Mass I lit a candle for Dad on Father's Day and for he and Mom for their 65th anniversary and I put the candles right together.

St. Patrick's Church

Then I walked towards the Kelvingrove Museum and it is such an impressive building. Admission is free and I spent nearly two hours there. I started off by looking at an art exhibition by the Glasgow Boys, a prominent group of Glaswegian painters in the 1890's such as Hornel, Henry, Mann and others. They were largely known for landscapes though they ventured into other genres as well. Next I looked at some fish fossils from the Devonian period and another that highlighted marine crustaceans and other animals such as ammonites and belamites such as I had seen on the Jurassic Coast in Dorset. They also had a cast of a tree fossil stump that is one of eleven that were found in a stone quarry on the edge of Victoria Park. Sounds like it deserves a visit. 

Kelvingrove Museum

I also looked at a history of Glasgow from the 1100's to the present. Glasgow was the most prosperous city in Scotland largely due to its industrial base helped by an abundance of coal, iron and shipbuilding. There was also a great display of artefacts found indication habitation going back as far as 4000 BC. 

As I started to walk back towards the hotel in a light drizzle I noticed my phone had gone on the fritz. I was unable to make phone calls and my screens had all changed. This was a little disconcerting but I thought once I got back to the hotel it would connect to the internet and hopefully correct itself. On the way back I stopped and picked up some McVittie chocolate biscuits and a pint of whole milk for my coffee. I made a nice ham sandwich and enjoyed a pint of Wainwright Golden Ale. Also had a cup of coffee with my cookies. 

I want to try and update the blog but do have to try and correct the phone. It is 3:00 and in the next hour I published 2 posts and at 4 I went back down Byres St. to the phone store. There a clerk removed the SIM card, put it back in and turned the phone on and off. All was restored and I was thrilled. Back to the hotel and did a variety of puzzles from a paper I had bought. Watched some TV, Morris was on and then an episode of Silent Witness a show I hadn't seen for years. I wrote up a third day of the blog, had a cup of team with a biscuit and a plum. Made a ham sandwich for tomorrow, laid out my clothes and was off to bed at 11:30