Robot Claw – Page 306 – “Life In The So-Called Space Age”

To Oban

June 5, 2018

We drove yesterday to the port town of Oban, along highways and windy narrow roads. KLS was a bit hair-raised, but with many stops we made it in time for lunch.

Oban is a popular tourist destination, and departure port for the many Hebrides islands. It was sunny and warm yesterday and the visitors were out in droves.

In addition to the bevy of souvenir shops down near the water, we also climbed to the overlook above the town to visit McCaigs Tower, a fanciful construction financed about 100 years ago by a wealthy man to honour his family.

Our B&B is out in the country on a quiet single-lane road, surrounded by sheep and cows. It’s incredible quiet and peaceful here.

But I’m not sure the sheep enjoy the visitors 🙂

Big trip coming up today: on many boats and coaches. We’re going island-hopping…

Glasgoing

June 4, 2018

That bacon sandwich at the front there? That’s “the UK’s favourite” and cost only £1.20. It was salty and dry, which means I loved it 🙂

We’d slept for hours the night before, and yesterday being our only full day here took the chance to explore. I can recommend the local hop-on tourist bus; ours had a live narration and did a fine job not only showing us the city but helping us to decide which of the many sights to see in more detail.

Glasgow has many of these striking murals painted on the sides of buildings. Apparently they were done a few years back using spray paint only by an Australian artist to help beautify the city for the Commonwealth Games. This one shows the patron saint, Saint Mungo, as he may appear today. One of his miracles was apparently resurrecting a bird.

After the bus we went to the People’s Palace, which is a museum dedicated to life in Glasgow through the years. I particular enjoyed all the history of the Glaswegian tenement buildings and what life was like for those that endured the overcrowding of the city 50+ years ago.

Afterwards we (literally) followed a marching band almost all the way to the Cathedral and the large ancient graveyard beyond.

It had become warmer by now (~75F) and the climb to the top of the Necropolis was tiring and sweaty. We ended up walking over 25k steps in total yesterday – over about 9 hours – and collapsed in the room with loads of candy in the end 🙂

There is a lot more to see in this city, but we don’t have the time to see it. Today we head west…

We’re Here

June 3, 2018

It’s so easy now to travel. A few clicks on websites, a drive to the airport and next thing you’re on the plane. The whole trip from our door to our Glasgow hotel was about 14 hours and couldn’t have been easier.

The hotel itself is pretty wild, and first impressions were that it seemed we were stepping into the set of 2001!

The room is small (cozy?) and comes with an iPad that wirelessly controls lights, the blinds, the TV, AC, everything. The lights in particular are extremely adjustable:

Also the room comes with blackout curtains because of the long days. It was light when we went to bed and when we woke up!

We didn’t do much other than the explore the shopping district yesterday, which was busy and loaded with people. The weather was warm and bright, with rain only coming in early in the evening.

Today (it’s Sunday morning) we’re planning to go full-on tourist and visit some attractions. And that will start with a bacon sandwich…