Auchterarder to Glasgow

Tuesday July 16, 2019

The time had come to leave Miles and Marina’s wonderful B&B. Marina gave us a bag of caramel popcorn that Dave had tasted while sharing a whiskey with them one evening. She also prepared a whole packet of info for our day in Glasgow and booked a room for us at (what turned out to be) an amazing hotel. (What we had booked was less than amazing. You do the best you can when booking online.) And she suggested a great place to have supper. More on that below.

After goodbyes, we headed to our last historical stop - Linlithgow palace (early 1400s). In its day, this place was spectacular. Part of the palace was a ruin and parts we could get into. There were only a few plaques with info on them so it was a “refreshing” stop. Mary Queen of Scots was born there and became queen at 6 days of age. Right beside the palace was St. Michaels (1242). Once a beautiful Catholic Church, it's now a beautiful but far less “decorated” (John Knox and his buds took care of that), Protestant, active parish. Interesting tidbit. It was used as part of the university when the plague hit in 1645.

Glasgow was about an hour’s drive away. Our hotel “Motel One”, was in the city center. We parked the car at the car park down the road and pulled our suitcases down the sidewalk to the hotel. The first time we’ve done that! We got settled, I began the repacking of suitcases, and Dave took a nap. Then we headed out for supper.

It was about a 20 minute walk. The weather was great. (Another day without a drop of rain.) After a lovely meal, we walked to a theater to see a movie. Another 20 minutes or so with lots of sights along the way. After the movie, we walked back to the hotel which was only 10 minutes or so away. As this was our last day of holidays, and we didn’t want it to end, so at 9:30 we stopped at pub for a drink. Still broad daylight at 10 pm - which allowed for lots of people watching.

We popped into the train station, right beside our hotel, because the entrance looked very inviting. There was a massive, old hotel right beside the station that you can access from inside. That whole station was really beautiful and still quite busy considering the time of day.

When we got back to the room, there was a message from Delta saying that there was probably going to be “weather” in New York that would impact our flight the next day. A bit too much like the “weather incident” that we had at the beginning of the trip in Chicago. Here’s hoping everything is fine and we actually get into Chicago tomorrow at 10:30 pm as planned. It’ll be a really long day. Thankfully our room has blackout curtains which means for the first time since we left home, it’ll be dark at night.

One thing I learned today: It’s against the law to have “alcohol on the street” after 10 pm. So at 10, those sitting in an outdoor cafe having a drink need to go inside the building.

One new thing I experienced today: Seeing a movie outside of the US/Canada. The theater was on the fourth floor, the seats didn’t recline (we’re spoiled at home), and there were ads for 25 minutes (no previews of movies to come) before the movie started. We saw “Yesterday” which was a fun movie.

Most powerful moment of the day: A person was lying on a piece of cardboard in a sleeping bag on the sidewalk - at 9:30 pm. A guy who looked like he just left the gym after some serious weightlifting pulled a banana out of his bag and was going to eat it. As he passed the person on the sidewalk, he stopped and put the banana by his head. I thought the person was sleeping, he grabbed the banana and ate it. What a gift for him!

One pleasurable experience: Eating at “Two Fat Ladies at the Buttery”. The best part was the name of the restaurant, but the whole experience was delightful. The last “nice” meal of our vacation. Trout, pork belly, and two fantastic desserts.