Tuesday, September 16, 2003 (Near Glasgow - Scotland)
Lasting effects of the flu. Getting good at
getting lost. Spot the Lego man. The dilemma of where to park in the city is
always there. Why is it always
my
turn to do the laundry?
Day 188. With the effects of my flu still
lingering, it was quite a lethargic start to the day. The drowsiness lasted
pretty much all day but we soldiered on with the exploration of nearby Culzean
castle (pronounced colleen castle) nevertheless. It’s more of a stately
home than a castle and is quite a big property, set amidst acres and acres of
land. It’s one of Scotland National Trust’s flagship properties, as
it happens. Much like the National Trust of England, the Scottish National Trust
receives no subsidies from the government and so must rely more heavily on
admission charges than do the various Heritage organizations. It only cost us
£7.50 to join English Heritage and just €15 to join Dúchas of
Ireland. Becoming a member of either the English or Scottish National Trust
organizations, however, would have set us back something like £60 each.
With just an expected two weeks ahead of us here in Scotland, it didn’t
seem likely we would be able to visit enough properties to make the membership
pay for itself. We had to make do, then, with the minor discount our student
cards afforded us.
A guided tour of
the house was going to start about thirty minutes after we arrived and so we
decided to stroll through the grounds admiring the gardens and so on. We went in
search of something called the swan lake but never did find it. Getting lost is
clearly not something that is restricted to our driving
practices.
The guided tour itself was
interesting. The property is quite impressive with a long and rich history. Both
Sandy and I had a great deal of fun trying to spot the little Lego men; one of
which had been hidden in each room of the house. By the end of the tour, we were
so engrossed in the competition that had developed between us that we barely
heard a word of what the tour-guide was talking about. Sandy insists that I
record in the log the fact that she beat me having found seven little men to my
five. Honestly!
Having seen what we
wanted to see at Culzean, we partook in a spot of lunch in the car park and I
called the Glasgow Tourist Information office to ask about where to park in the
city. I also wanted to find out if there were any decent sauna complexes within
a reasonable distance but Scotland suffers from the same fate as England and
Ireland in that saunas are apparently just not that popular here. The best they
could come up with were a couple of hotels that had fitness centres annexed to
them with a steam room as a part of the complex. Hardly the same as somewhere
like Thermea 2000 in Valkenburg that has something like fifteen different saunas
and steam rooms.
Parking in Glasgow
was, however, a more optimistic affair and we were given directions to an
open-air car park just minutes from the city centre. We arrived, parked the
brick and set off into town to see what we could see. As usual, the TIC provided
us with sufficient bearings to start our tour of the city but the lateness of
the day meant that it was going to be impractical to try to take on any of the
city’s fine museums. Instead, we went full-blown tourist (shudder!) and
bought tickets to one of the hop-on hop-off, open-top, double-decker buses that
ferries tourist around the city for an hour or so whilst some student stands up
front giving a blow-by-blow account of all the buildings and landmarks as we
pass. It served our purpose for the afternoon. I’ve stated on a number of
occasions throughout this log that I dislike being a ‘tourist’ but I
must say that I found the experience to be a little uplifting this afternoon. I
suppose anything can be tolerated in
moderation.
After a couple of failed
attempts at getting a bite to eat, we left the city centre and went in search of
one of the two campsites that are relatively close to town. We spotted a huge
supermarket along the way and couldn’t resist, so we stopped off and
re-stocked everything again.
The
campsite is small, compact yet comfortable. Perhaps predictably so, there is
very little ‘green’ here so close to a major city but at least we
got to run two loads of laundry through the campsite washing machine and dryers.
It’s ironic that we always seem to be in the vicinity of a laundrette each
time it’s my turn to do the laundry. I’m sure this has nothing to do
with the fact that I’m the driver.
Posted: Tue - September 16, 2003 at 01:26 PM