Stirling and Glasgow. The trip ends here
Trip Start
Aug 23, 2006
1
5
Trip End
Aug 30, 2006
Glasgow,
Scotland,
United Kingdom
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
We bid farewell to Oban. On the way through the Trossachs we stop in Callander to see the "bull of the Highlands", a huge bull indigenous to this area of the planet. The animal is awesome: veeery big, with long hair, big horns and it's taller than me! I don't dare to approach a lot, just in case...
Then we arrive at Stirling and visit its Castle. It's being renovated so is not very rewarding to take pictures (there's scaffolding everywhere!). The best thing is when two actors show us the swords that the scottish warriors used to wield and then simulate a fight between them. Entertaining.
We have luch in a very nice restaurant called "Royal Lion" (or something), medieval style.
After luch we go to see the National Wallace Monument, a tower of 67 meters high that commemorates the national hero, William Wallace (if you've watched "Braveheart" movie you will already know). the monumnet is located on a hilltop and it's tiring to climb there but it's worthwile. Once you're at the feet of the monument you can choose to climb to the top or stay down. I decide to climb the 246 steps to the top of the monument and the panoramic is rewarding! you can contemplate Stirling and beyond.
From Stirling we go to Glasgow by highway. I have to say I don't like Glasgow much, and that's because it's very much like my city, Barcelona (but without sea). For me Glasgow is a industrial and impersonal city like many in the world.
1. bull of the Highlands, in Callander
I could say Edinburgh is the pretty one and Glasgow the ugly. In Glasgow we visit:
-George Square
-the Town Hall
-the oldest house in the city
-the Cathedral
-the Terracotta Fountain
-the Palace of Justice (popularly knows as "the Armadillo", the same shape than the Opera Palace in Sydney, Australia)
-the Art Galleries (Glasgow has a wide cultural life)
-the University and its tower <-- for me, the most beautiful building in the city
The city is famous for its cultural life, theaters, museums, art galleries, etc. so it's worth spending a while in one of the many museums of the city. If you want to party there are several pubs and discos scattered around the city. That's a good thing of Glasgow: you never get bored there!
We go out for a drink but at 11.30 p.m we're at the hotel. Tomorrow we'll have to get up early to take the plane.
August 30
We leave Glasgow to Edinburgh airport route. Our flight departs at 2.30 p.m so we wait drinking Irn-Bru, a scottish refresher allegedly made of iron beams (?), it has the same flavour than Red Bull anyway.
The plain makes a stop in London's Gatwick airport. In principle the flight to Barcelona departs at 6.25 p.m but, surprise! it suffers a delay of one hour :( We have four hours to bore as much as we want.
Finally we arrive to Spain at 11 p.m and our scottish adventure officially ends.
Conclusion: YOU HAVE TO VISIT SCOTLAND. You'd love it! Edinburgh is the most beautiful capital in the world and the Highlands seem out of a Grimm brothers' story. The Scots are very friendly and nice people too!
The only drawback I found is that food is very repetitive: every dish contains potatoes and the desserts were basically custard (hot or cold) and wild berries. Hey, I like them! but in the end you've just tired. Anyway this is something insignificant. Scotland rulezzz!!
