Glasgow

Yesterday, 8 September saw Chris and I leave London in a manner we hadn’t accounted for. We had a 10.30am train to Glasgow. Tickets booked and paid for. Euston Station the departure point. Early rise. Ablutions undertaken promptly. Bags packed. Keys returned to their lockbox. Garbage put int the large skips. Apartment tidied. Everything ready. Just walk our bags to Moorgate Underground Station a block or two away around 9.05 (to miss the morning work Tube riders) in order to get to Euston a good half hour or more before our train departed. So well-planned. So well-thought out. Meticulous, we might even say.

And all blown to smithereens by a train and underground strike. When we arrived at Moorgate, we discovered that the Northern line that would take us to Euston was not running. No other lines going that way were running either. We left the station thinking to get a taxi. Bad mistake. We walked down to the nearest big intersection to hail a cab, but none came. Time was ticking. Eventually, we decided to order an Uber and get to Euston that way.

Our Uber driver was there in a matter of minutes, and we told him our plight. But London traffic Monday morning, oh yeah, you bet it did it damnedest to delay us. And delay us it did. We sat in that Uber for forty minutes trying to get across town. Thank God we didn’t catch a taxi. With a metered ride, it would have cost a fortune. In the end, we got to Euston Station at 10.35, five minutes after the train had left. We had booked Premium seats too for a nice ride. Bugger. The girl at the Avanti trains office told us there was another train going to Glasgow in an hour. In the event, there were two trains going to Glasgow, one at 11.30 and one at 11.38. Both would be packed as many people had missed their connections as a result of the strike.

We managed to get two of the remaining few seats of the 11.30, which was a four hour journey, while the 11.38 was five and a half hours. They were by no means premium seats. In fact, we were placed behind a metal section of the carriage and not a window at all. We only saw a little slither of countryside from the window of the seat in front of us. Still, we slept, listened to music, read, and did all that again a few times. Around 4pm, we pulled into Glasgow Central, happy to be standing again and walking. We made our way to our new digs, an apartment in a building called The Anchor Line, just next to Geroge Square, which sadly, is cordoned off for major refurbishment. Our apartment is small, but we’ve had smaller, and is very tastefully decorated and supplied, so no complaints. It may in fact have the best bed we’ve slept in for the whole trip. We had an expensive meal down in the Brasserie in the bowels of the building, but we hadn’t eaten all day, so we were fine with that. A good night’s sleep followed for both of us.

Today, 9 September, we caught the underground out to Hillhead and its lovely river, the Kelvin, where we had coffee and then a walk through Glasgow Botanical Gardens. The large glasshouse, with rooms going off to the sides was a highpoint, as was the arboretum down to the river. A lovely peaceful morning.

Home to a rest and sleep. We are still getting over our respective viruses. Cough splutter. And tonight, we headed down the length of Buchanan Street to a pub we’ve been to before, Times Square, where we ate hearty UK pub food. A walk down to the river Clyde, then back up through Buchanan Street talking pics of buildings as we went because they are all so absolutely incredible.Weiterlesen