Glasgow

21 - 24 February

We arrived in Glasgow after an uneventful 90 minute Flix Bus trip from Perth and were able to walk down the hill in fine weather to our apartment.

After a coffee at one of the local cafes, we spent that first afternoon going for a short walk around our neighbourhood. We were in the older, eastern end of town- the Merchant area- and spent a bit of time in one of the many pubs all heaving with patrons watching the 6 nations rugby. Great atmosphere - Scotland scored in the last minutes of play to defeat Wales.

Sunday morning we did a guided "free" city walk and learnt a few things about Glasgow that helped orient ourselves to Glasgow as well as help us over the next few days.

Some of our favourite things we learnt:

On the wall of Civic building, the standard lengths of an inch, foot and yard are displayed. At the Tron Gate nearby, standard weights were displayed.

Dishonest merchants might have an ear nailed to the pillar of the Tollhouse Steeple (there are nails still there!); this is where the expression earmarked comes from

Glasgow has a vibrant street art scene, including their own Banksy-like figure. The Rebel Bear does Banksy style stencil paintings around Glasgow, and does all their (her? his?) work dressed in a bear suit.

The Art Mural Trail has a stack of huge art on the sides of buildings.

In some of the older buildings you can see where windows have been filled in with brick or stone. We knew about window tax, but didn't know this is where the term daylight robbery comes from. 

Also, some of these buildings have really wide front doors - because the billionaire owners loved to show off their wealth by being carried around town in a sedan chair that needed a wide door to be carried into their house!

We went to the pub for lunch and enjoyed the delicious, local soup, Cullen Skink. Smoked fish, potato and onion soup cooked in a milky broth. Loved it.

And that expression "run like the clappers"?

Until police were issued with whistles, beat police used to carry clappers or rattles to alert other coppers nearby that they needed assistance by making a racket with these devices. 

The Glasgow police force is the oldest force in the world. Like most people, I was always told that London's police force was the first, initiated by Robert (hence Bobbies) Peeler. Turns out that was wrong, and Mr Peeler was never a copper at all.

Beat police used to have a route they walked, and if the public needed to get in touch with them, they could do so from the police box (as in Dr Who).

Turns out the dozen or so that are left dotted around the city are all painted the wrong colour - they were originally red.

We also were encouraged to try was the Glaswegian delicacy, the deep fried Mars Bar with ice cream. We survived the experience, but don't feel the need try it again. And can safely predict we won't be partaking in deep fried pizza... it seems they deep fry anything and everything here.

Monday morning we caught a bus to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, which was fascinating. On our city walk we heard that there was (is) an organ recital each day at 1pm on the impressive, huge organ in the main foyer. 

Some really interesting exhibits there, including a huge Salvador Dali art work.

A lot of the exhibits focus on how Scotland's rise to be an economic power is tied to their tobacco trade that flourished as a result of the African slave trade they did with the American colonies.

(We're staying near Virginia Square (as in Virginia tobacco and Buchanan Street - he was a billionaire trader at the time). 

A number of exhibits point out that racism is very prevalent in Glasgow, which is interesting when you consider this note.

They appear to really want to own this black past and take many opportunities to highlight the many who profited from the slave trade.

One Glasgow icon is the Duke of Wellington statue at the front of the Gallery of Modern Art. It's famous for having a traffic cone perpetually placed on its head, a tradition that has continued since the 1980s resisting city council efforts to remove it! Every time the council removes the cones, new ones appear and they have now given in.

It's the perfect spot for a bit of irreverent wit, outside the Gallery of Modern Art.

Interestingly, that building that is the Gallery of Modern Art... was a slave-trading tobacco importer's house!

We caught a bus down to the Riverside Museum, dedicated to technology and transport. It's located where the Glasgow docks used to be; from being one of the ship-building capitals of the world, this industry no longer exists locally.

We walked up to the Glasgow Cathedral (St Mungo's) for a looksee, and then over The Bridge of Sighs to the Necropolis where 50,000 people, including historical figures like John Knox, he of the Scottish Reformation, are buried.

A great 4 or 5 days here. Definitely our favourite Scottish city.

Six months ago in planning, our thought was that we'd catch a train to Ludlow.

However, and this is crazy, it was cheaper for us to fly to Heathrow (albeit on points) and hire a car for two weeks and drive back to Heathrow to fly home, than it was for us to catch a train from Glasgow to Ludlow, and then Ludlow to London.

Speak to you soon (for the last time before coming home) from Ludlow in Shropshire.

Perth

14 - 20 February

Perth is not far from Dunkeld, so with our trusty Fiat 500 we did a bit of exploration of areas not readily reached by train and bus.

We visited Gleneagles resort, famous not only for its golf but also as the place where the Gleneagles agreement was signed. This was when, in 1977, commonwealth presidents and prime ministers agreed to discourage contact and competition between their sporting organisations from South Africa as part of their support for the international campaign against apartheid.

One day we followed the coast road to Arbroath, passing through towns like Carnoustie. Let's just say our appreciation of Australian beaches and places to camp by the coast was reinforced.

Above Perth is Kinnoull Hill. We walked up one morning to get a view of the town and see the castle wreck that lies on the edge of the cliff. After recent snow and cold weather, the path up was pretty slippy (a new word added to our vocabulary). To be honest we were dreading the walk back down! Fortunately we found an alternative meandering path that faced south for much of the route, so the ice was virtually non-existent until near the bottom of the hill.

We drove to Dundee one day, only about 25 miles (! miles!) away.

We had a grand day there, doing a self-guided city walk and a wander through the city and surrounds.

Scottish Gaelic - indecipherable!

This is a Desperate Dan, a famous Dundee cartoon figure

We spent one day driving to St Andrews, home of golf and a thriving university town, probably the most vibrant, bustling city or town we've visited in Scotland.

There are four markings like this in St Andrews, and another in the High St here in Perth. They identify who and where someone was burnt at the stake during the Scottish Reformation.

Sucks to be a witch!

The remains of St Andrews Castle

St Andrews Cathedral. There's been a church on this site since 1158

We dropped the car back after a few days and explored Perth on foot. 

Perth is a small city, on the Tay River as was Dunkeld last week.

Historically the city is located here because Perth is the lowest place the Tay could be forded reliably. The city grew around where merchants could bring their goods to market.

Perth has suffered some significant floods over the years, both historically and recently.

As a result, a few years ago, a gated levee was built along the river.

Here under one of the two road bridges are historic flood markers.

Fair Maid's House, likely the oldest secular building in the city

The Fair Maid statue in the High St

Curling is a big sport around here. There are half a dozen or more curling centres in Scotland.

They run come and try curling sessions, but unfortunately none of them coincided with when and where we'll be.

This historic stone is in the Perth museum.

The 1396 Battle of the North Inch (also known as the Battle of the Clans) was a staged battle between the Clan Chattan and the traditional enemies Clan Cameron or Clan Davidson.

Thirty men were selected to represent each side in front of spectators, including King Robert III of Scotland and his court.

The Clan Chattan killed all but one of their opponents, at a cost of 19 deaths on their own side, and were awarded the victory.

Now off to Glasgow, Scotland's biggest city, for the next 4 days before our final stop in the English midlands.

Birnam and Dunkeld

7 - 14 February

We caught the train to Birnam and Dunkeld, twin towns on the River Tay near Perth. We're in Birnam, the lesser of the two.

Our cottage is a cute little spot by the burn (stream). Its the former coach house for the large property next door called Heath Park.

It's a 15 minute walk along quiet streets and over the river to Dunkeld (after walking through Little Dunkeld) where there are five pubs, a co op supermarket, cafes and other shops.

It's noticeably warmer here than previous weeks. Less layers, no need for thermals to be comfortable.

We spent the first couple of days here wandering the towns; pubs, heritage walks, cafes, paths along burns, cemeteries, a spot of shopping... it's very picturesque, even in the grey cloud.

Who knew? On the heritage walk around the (other - as in over the burn at the bottom of our path) village of Dunkeld, we came across an ell, a formal tailoring measurement from three of four hundred years ago.

The River Tay separates the twin towns, connected by the current bridge built around the time Cook was sailing into Botany Bay

We're deep in Beatrix Potter territory here. She wrote some of the books in the house next door to our cottage.

We hired a car for a week and drove to the Falkirk Wheel. The world’s only rotating boat lift, The Falkirk Wheel links the Forth & Clyde Canal to the Union Canal 35 metres above, allowing vessels (the canals were originally built for coal transport) to travel from one side of Scotland to the other.

We couldn't do a cruise through the mechanism as it was closed for servicing. 

The Pineapple House! In 1761, The Earl of Dunmore decided he wanted a summer house designed to resemble a 40-foot tall pineapple.  Too much money perhaps?

We called in at Dunblane, home of Andy Murray and where in 1966 (just before Port Arthur) a gunman killed 16 children and a teacher at their school. The Scottish government reviewed their gun laws and had a buy-back scheme after this. Interestingly, the chat in Scotland right now on BBC Scotland is whether all police should have access to guns. Not carrying them, but have them in police stations and cars, instead of having to call for the teams that do carry guns.

A Highland Coo Gorgeous furry, docile cattle that are perfect for surviving snowy winters.

The Kelpies. To travel along the canals, you travel between these two gigantic structures. Kelpies are underwater spirits that'll grab you if you venture into the water. Historically, great for parents to keep their children away from lochs and canals!

This ancient tree gets a run in Shakespeare's Macbeth!

The Birnam Oak

During the week here, we caught a bus to Perth to pick up a hire car.

We hadn't planned on doing so, but our plans to do much of our local sightseeing by train and bus were thwarted by both the cost of local trains and buses, as well as the lack of frequency.

Public transport is expensive, as in a 30 minute train to nearby Perth is £10.70 - about $20. Each. One way. So a return for a local visit to the next town is $80.

The bus is dear also, about $50 for the two of us there and back.

And they don't run that often.

There's typically two hours between bus services to surrounding towns, so while getting there is easy because you can look at the timetable, coming back is tricky as you don't know how long you might want to spend in a town, and with a two hour window... that's tricky.

So our little Fiat 500 for a tick over a week has been handy.

More from Perth next week.