Glasgow, coming and going June 28-29/18

A train from Edinburgh to Glasgow leaves every 15 minutes and takes one hour.  Very civilised.  Dropped baggage off at hotel, a cute, modest hostelry six flights up (by elevator) above some other commercial enterprise and right next door to the station whence I depart tomorrow, not to be confused with the station at which I arrived today.  

Glasgow is different from Edinburgh.  Much more hustle and bustle and fewer woolen shops per square foot.  Though surely a tourist stop, it is not as obviously dominated by bus loads of sightseers as is Edinburgh.  

Decided to do art today so headed off to the Kelvingrove Art Museum.  The walk was not pretty and it was very hot.  I had no idea it could get this hot in Glasgow.  It was so hot that the pure air I remember from several years ago, was now smoggy and burned the eyes.

Museum did not knock off my socks.  I offer this painting for your consideration.  See how your interpretation matches the curator's comments below:

A big cat and a small mouse:

Reminiscent of the Met's collection of helmets, only more lively.  Dandy fellows one and all:

This Chinese brocade outfit may have a military look, but it is nothing more than an expensive, fancy coat, which, when you think about it, might serve to scare off the enemies, or not:

Hi Ilene!!  And Jessie!

Then this afternoon I visited GoMA.  It takes about fifteen minutes to work your way through the exhibits.  The installation below would, in any other context, be called Clothesline with Shmattahs and Other Objects, but in a museum, it is called Art:

This desk and bookcase and chair with a head on it would be called Who Cares about Odd Proportions and Slightly Whackadoodle (i.e., the head) Office, but again, in a museum, it is Art:

Loved this!  In case you cannot tell, the sunflowers on the right are Hockney's painting of the photograph of the flowers on the left only it is all one painting.

Opinions can also be Art if they are lucky enough to get into a museum:

Once up at 5:30 a.m., why wait to take the 8:30 ferry to Arran?  Catch the 6:45 instead and have a full day going to Holy Island, perhaps, and hiking the circuit.  Good plan, but ferry to meet the early train  not running, so that plan was dashed and replaced by a two and a half hour wait at the ferry terminal.  Seems that every good idea for Arran Island comes up against a schedule snag, and while there are buses linking the towns, their frequency is, well, not so frequent, so Holy Isle idea nixed.

An odd couple (to say the least) took their three bunnies (there is a wee black one over in the left corner) to Arran for a day out.  The bunny stroller had more toys than a baby of a Yuppie couple, a fan clipped to the side and a suitcase packed with greens to keep them well fed.

 On board were lots of dogs and babies and children of different ages, and bikers and drinkers, and golfers, and at least one hiker.

Arrived and checked into B and B and then off to Brodick Castle, a lovely walk.  This pretty bench seemed an ideal spot for lunch but the ominous buzzing sound of a horde of insects suggested that another spot might be better.

The castle at Brodick is not visitable at the moment, as it is undergoing repairs, but the  gardens/arboretum were  wonderful.  If you like formal gardens, there was one, and if you don't there was one anyway:

But most of the grounds were much more wild.

A gate in the open position:

Aye, now, the faeries must be coming:

Not an outhouse, but an ice house:

A Bavarian-style summer house. Though it looks to be made of large twigs, thee pieces are metal:

The ceiling (and walls) certainly do have a woodsy feel what with being decorated with acorns and all:

A deer that does not transmit Lyme disease:

But speaking of diseases, grey squirrels apparently carry squirrel pox (who knew) and have killed off most of the native red squirrels in the UK., but are doing quite well on Arran. 

This afternoon was a time for testing my devices, a 6.5 training walk for the first official leg of the season.

Edinburgh, June 27/18

Sirens as in fire alarm screeching at 9:30 a.m. at which time I WAS STILL ASLEEP.  ¡No me lo puedo creer! That wee dose of Valium I took last night to help fight jet lag could have moved me five  time zones farther and still have done the job.  This extremely late wake-up and get-up put the entire day was out of whack because I had intended to arrive at the Royal Yacht Britannia at 9:30 at which hour it begins to receive visitors.  Turns out the alarm was "a false alarm," the hotel is still standing, and I did not reach the ship until much later as I had to have coffee, get organised—spelling British style, in case you are wondering—and walk the three miles to get there.  Fact: Edinburgh is a rather sizeable city.  It was a lovely day to walk, so no real complaints.

Thought I left the zoo behind yesterday.  

It's all that protein, maybe from that jar of whey down in the corner:

Now, the Royal Yacht Britannia, which, in case I should have to refer to it by name again, shall be known henceforth as the RYB, is beyond beyond.  If you only listened to the audio and didn't see any of it, your brain would still be jumping out of your skull.  Here are a couple of tidbits to give you the flavour, and sorry for the flash whiteout in the middle, but persevere and read what you can:

The queen's schedule was screechingly dull:

Part 2 with three items from above repeated because cropping I am not, so head on down to 6:00 p.m. where her majesty discusses her attire for the evening, which, note, takes an hour:

Would you be surprised to learn that there was much alcoholic beverage on board?

The prince indulged in some artistic activity when he had the chance and inclination.  You have to do something, after all, when your day is not full to the brim with correspondence:

I forget the details here but the gist is that that stuffed wombat in the fan had something to do with a hilarious game that some of the upper uppers played after having a few drinks.  What hey!

This is a salt shaker, gift of some Russian somebody, a tsar, perhaps, but that would be before QEII's time.  Where the salt emerges is anyone's guess. Anyway, the important thing is not the silver or the gaudiness or anything like that, it is the little monkey in the lower right corner, which, the people who played the wombat game used to hide every day, and I don't know who had to find it.  Most likely they engaged in that pursuit after visiting the bar which was next to the room where drinks had been served just previously.  The dog is not included in the account.

A button from Lord Nelson's coat!

Where dinner was taken.  If you were a guest, you got to keep the menu as a souvenir.

The places were set just like in Downton Abbey, with measurements taken to assure that each item was EXACTLY WHERE IT SHOULD BE:

Her majesty liked modest furnishings and had rejected a more elaborate decor for the sitting room.  Sadly, the fire had to be electric.  Coal, the first choice, would have required an attendant present at all times, and thus would have interfered with the intimacy of the gatherings.

Crew's quarters:

Sick bay.  Corgie, it seems, has an ocular disturbance:

I loved the laundry!



Detail work is important:

An absolute necessity:

For shore excursions:

There was also a Rolls Royce on board; I forget why.  It had to be partially disassembled to be hauled aboard.

Every minute aboard was a jolly good time, but, alas, after audio-stop 29, the tour was done!  Walked back to the centre of the city by a different route, so did get to see a fair amount.  Stone.  Edinburgh is made of dark, grey, stone.

Lady who rebuked me for not having donated enough to her collection. She sang, after a fashion, and spun.

Aside from the person who discovered that chloroform could be used as an anesthetic, David Hume lived here:

That's it for the day since photo taking was not allowed on the underground tour of Mary King's Close. Datum of the day: there were two kinds of plague:  You had 99% of dying from one variety and 50% of dying from the other.

No idea what this is meant to represent.  Neptune and the unicorn?

2018 Sotland and England

The best place to begin is probably not with the most recent disaster: the spillage of a full mug of hot tea all over my backpack, fortunately not all over the computer (but very close) when there are so many others that might thrill more, such as having left my computer at TSA screening, but, again the idiocy of this oversight did not exceed crisis proportions for too long, since, owing to my abundance of training, I was able to race down one L O N G escalator, along a moving sidewalk, and up an equally L O N G set of escalating steps to the place where left-behind items congregate, and, with the help of an agent, was able to retrieve it, then race back over the course in time to board.  

Exhausted from the trip and the anxiety permeating this adventure, I stumbled into the hotel just before 8:00 a.m., and, using the worst technique possible, to wit, "Hi!  I have a reservation, and I know that check in time is not until 3:00 p.m.  I did ask for early check-in, but realise that that usually does not mean 8:00 in the morning," sought to evoke pity and lodgings right then.  "Let's see what we can do," he kindly replied, and then, after hitting some keys, added, "There are no rooms of the type you booked available, but I could give you an upgrade......."  He didn't exactly GIVE the upgrade; the fee was a chunk of change, but I would have paid triple to get into a room and get sorted. Willingly inserted the card into the machine. And yes, the upgrade was really nice. A tall skinny extra hot latte from the Starbucks three doors down worked wonders.  Refreshed, I headed out on a rare, beautiful, Edinburgh morning to pick up a slew of pre-booked train tickets and acquire a EE SIM card. Fortunately, there was an EE store close by, and I say fortunately because I had tried three other places, but none were to be had.  I think Alex must have bought the last one.  

I saw a bus:

 Have I not left home?  Am I Schlemiel gone to Warsaw?

Errands successfully accomplished, all but one, that is.  I have some old £10 notes that have to be turned in for the new variety, for merchants will not accept the oldies, so, as advised, I headed to the first bank I saw to make the exchange. "Oh, no," said the lady after she asked if she could help me, which, quite clearly she could not.  "We don't take those."   "But you are a bank," I countered.  "But we don't make those exchanges.  You have to go to London."  I wanted to say, "Are you bloody crazy? London?"  Apparently.

On many street corners there are guys like this guy.  A sign in their, "Please put your donations here containers," reads, "£1 to take a photo."  I paid and shot.

 There was a guy making art out of sand.  Of a truth he wasn't doing much of anything.  I am suspicious that he brings his piece, already made, before the tourists arrive.

Now THIS here is a dog!

There were lots of tourists heading for the castle.  When I reached the ticket booth, the line was reminiscent of those at Disney World during school vacation, in the middle of the day.  The closer it got to noon, the denser the crowds became, so I left this zoo to go to the real zoo.

Fortunately, I was awake enough on the bus from the airport to notice that there was a stop directly in front of the zoo.  "Even I can manage that," I thought.  And I could, and it was a perfect day for such an activity.

What coloration!

Birdicus whose titulus I do not knowicus:

Yeah!  You think it was me?

Well, it was those guys, especially that old fellow in the middle:

Now, as any zoo goer knows, a visitor will not get to see all the specimens on a given visit, because the animals are out of sight or hard to spot, hiding in a cave or something, but, Bertus, what ever did you do.......or not do to merit banishment?

A rather flamboyant dragon made out of little bottles:

Methinks it is time for a dip:




My favourite species of the day, after the two giant pandas, was the Malayan Tapir.  I was so sad not to be able to get his snout.  Definitely worth a look-up on line.

A hunting and gathering expedition in the freezing cold lower level of M&S yielded some decent provisions, at least enough to get started. Having a frig in the room is major perk #1. Oh, and along with the "it's on us bottle of water," there is a bottle of beer.  How is that for a welcome!