Dear Everyone, we
had a busy day on Thursday – after catching up on footy news early, Wes rang
Barbara to get some Daylesford news and she confirmed that our much loved Mitre 10 run by Jenkin & Thomas
would be closing at the end of the month, but the electrical/electronic side of
the business would continue at present. I don’t know how we will survive if
they close as well – John, Keith & Tim are friends and can solve every
problem we throw up at them!
After breakfast we
walked to the Kelvingrove Museum &
Art Gallery, which took about an hour and was worth every step. We were
blown away by the history of Glasgow, the art, the building (although it is not
as decorative as Melbourne’s lovely Exhibition Buildings) and the organ. We
spent two hours there and our heads were spinning. Highlight for Wes was seeing
Dali’s Christ of St John of the Cross,
which was a very controversial purchase some years ago, and I enjoyed seeing
some French art we had not previously encountered.
Couldn’t resist this sign!
We decided to walk
on to the Botanic Gardens and when we arrived it was 1pm, so we headed to the
tea rooms and are so pleased we did. We shared a Scottish Seafood Tapas dish of
smoked salmon dip, prawns Marie Rose & pickled herrings with rye bread. I
had a pot of spicy citrus tea and Wes settled for a strong smoky blend called
Belfast Shipyards. Perfection, including our waitress, Iris, who spent her time
saying Thaaank Youuu and Sorrrrry as she worked her way between
the tables.
We visited the
Kibble Palace with all the wonderful tropical plants reaching up to the sky and
then the second hothouse, which went for miles it seemed and contained every
plant known to man. The gardens are well-maintained with lots of public seating
and grassy areas.
Wonderful vintage racing car at
the Museum
Into a taxi and off
to see The Tenement House, a
wonderful late Victorian tenement flat frozen in time. It was home to an
unmarried shorthand typist for over 50 years and apart from electric lighting,
little has changed since the early 20th century.
As we walked back
to our hotel, we decided to pay The
Willow Tearooms a visit, and came away quite underwhelmed. Our meringues
looked fabulous but were almost impossible to eat, however Wes had his first enjoyable
coffee of the trip, so that was a plus.
After a rest we
donned better clothes and walked all the way to the Alston Bar, where gin is the specialty of the house. I tried
Botanic, which I have been dying to taste and discovered it is served with freshly-ground
black pepper. We both had Hendricks for our second drink and wondered why we
had bothered with anything else. This bar and eatery is under the Grand Central
Station and is named after a street that has disappeared over time. It has a
good atmosphere and was much frequented by working women especially as it is a
very safe and welcoming place for an after work get-together.
Yesterday morning we were delighted
to find we had managed to sleep through the night without waking at 2am, having
cups of tea, catching up on emails and trying to tire ourselves out so we would
sleep until 6am at least. Off to our last breakfast at this hotel where we got
into conversation with 4 travellers from Norfolk who were on their last day of
a 5-week coach trip of Scotland.
Stairs leading to the Glasgow
Police Museum…..
We went for a walk
in the rain and crossed a couple of the bridges over the Clyde river before
finding ourselves at St Andrew’s Catholic Cathedral, which is a very beautiful
church and has an interesting cloister garden of mirrored plinths with words of
inspiration.
Sadly we had to go
to Queen Street station to catch our train to Pitlochry, but we had reserved
seats and after working out the complex system of numbering and finding
somewhere to put our bags we settled back for a lovely 90 minute trip. Rhonda
had warned us that when we arrived we would probably have to lug our bags up
the stairs and over the bridge, which we did, before popping into the station
second-hand bookstore, where we gave the volunteer there our return tickets, in
the hope that one of them would be able to use them. It was cheaper to buy
return tickets than single tickets!
We walked to our
accommodation, Claymore Guest House, which
is on the main road, Atholl Road, and settled into our lovely front room with a
bay window looking out onto a beautiful garden. We unpacked and decided to rest
until 5pm when we went searching for an early dinner, which we found at the Auld Smiddy Inn. We had eaten there
last year and the food had been good but the service officious. This time we
enjoyed excellent service and Wes tucked into a salmon steak, while I consumed
Scottish mussels, washed down by an Australian shiraz.
We were due to see
our first of 6 plays that night, hence the quiet afternoon, and we did enjoy
seeing The Admirable Crichton, a
dated but interesting play, which was very professionally produced and acted.
It was lovely to walk back home here afterwards, reflecting on what we had
seen, before falling into bed and sleeping soundly for 7 hours.
Breakfast this
morning is in a lovely conservatory strikingly decorated in black and white,
with stunning views out to the garden and greenery beyond. We have Scottish
weather, with gentle rain falling, and as soon as it dies down, we will head
out for a walk and then see our second play, Perfect Days, at 2pm.
Lunch at the
Botanic Gardens – Scottish Seafood tapas!
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