British Isles 2015:
Day 9 - Glasgow, Scotland

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British Isles 2015: [Day 1 - London] [Day 2 - Dover/Calais] [Day 3 - Southampton] [Day 4 - Guernsey] [Day 5 - Cork] [Day 6 - Dublin] [Day 7 - Wales] [Day 8 - Belfast] [Day 9 - Glasgow] [Day 10 - At Sea] [Day 11 - Invergordon] [Day 12 - Edinburgh] [Day 13 - At Sea] [Day 14 - Versailles] [Day 15 - London] [Day 16 - London]

	Sunday, July 26, 2015: Here we are heading into Greenock, Scotland.
	To avoid breakfast at the buffet restaurant today, we ordered room service. The foil bags contain the Princess version of Egg McMuffins. They were pretty good considering that it wasn't really McDonald's but we didn't want to order them again.
	As usual, we could expect great weather today.
	Here's the welcome display at the Greenock terminal.
	We had directly booked a private tour with Morag after discovering that she had created a tour long ago that visited filming locations for the movie, "Dear Frankie," one of our favorite films.
	Since we were docking at the same place that the ship docked in the movie (go watch it right now; we'll wait) and most of it takes place in Greenock, it seemed like the best way for our to spend our day. Morag brought along a list of locations for us.
	So, we set off through Greenock. This wasn't a filming location but we added it to our collection of Kelly photos.
	41 Finnart Street is where the farewell scene between Frankie and the Stranger was filmed. For those unfamiliar with the film, it's about a boy who does not know his father and eventually, his mother hires a man to be his father for the day. The man, played by Gerard Butler, is referred to as the Stranger because his name isn't revealed.
	Here's the view down Margaret Street ...
	... and here it is from the movie.
	Speaking of Margaret Street, here's a picture of one of the street signs for Tom's mom.
	The front of the house where Frankie's family lived was fillmed here, but actually number 10. However, we got out to take a quick look at number 4, ...
	... because it had a visible section of the beautiful decorative tile seen in the movie.
	Battery Park is where ...
	... Frankie takes his Da to meet Ricky Monroe, ...
	... and where Lizzie sits on a bench while trying to figure out what to do.
	We were in search of the hilltop scene next, passing some adorable sheep on the way.
	This isn't the exact location, ...
	... but it's definitely pretty close.
	This sculpture is called "Water Nymph" and was created by Andy Scott, a sculptor know for his horse sculptures. You'll see one of those here in just a minute.
	Here's the Custom House building ...
	... where the dance was held.
	Here's another Andy Scott sculpture called "Ginger." The most famous of his horse sculptures are the Kelpies, 100-foot tall horse heads. Morag told us to look out for miniature versions of the Kelpies in Edinburgh, which we did.
	This was a nice sculpture of a ship bow with water below it. It's called "Endeavor" and is much larger than it appears here.
	We went to a park next to Newark Castle.
	Here's a closer shot of the castle, ...
	... but we were really here to see this pier, ...
	... used in the film as the location where the Stranger teaches Frankie how to skip stones, ...
	... even though, clearly, there aren't many skippable stones here, ...
	... and as the location for the closing scene of the film with Lizzie and Frankie.
	Next, we went to the Parklea Coastal Footpath, ...
	... where Frankie and the Stranger ran across the mud flats at low tide.
	Here's Debbie taking the previous photo. She's rarely seen in our vacation photos because she's always behind the camera, so Tom likes to sneak in a photo of her now and then.
	Next, we drove in to the city of Glasgow.
	Here's George Street looking down to Nelson Mandela Place ...
	... where Lizzie went to the stamp shop.
	We saw a lot of interesting metal work in Glasgow, including this parking garage.
	We had given Morag a list of places we were interested in seeing in Glasgow and she got us to every one of them, starting with the Necropolis.
	It's a hillside cemetery ...
	... dating back to the early 1800s.
	You could spend days reading the mini-stories on the tombstones, such as this heartbreaking tale of the Rev. David King's second son who drowned in the wreck of the S.S. La Plata in the Bay of Biscay.
	Here's a monument to William Miller, the author of Wee Willie Winkie. I'll bet it never actually occurred to you that someone wrote that. Well, this guy did.
	Across the hill from the Necropolis is the Glasgow Cathedral.
	This structure is a massive tomb. It looks like it needs a gardener's loving care.
	More elaborate tombs, ...
	... and more (including one with a fancy head on it), ...
	... and more.
	The view from up here was very nice.
	A statue of John Knox stares across the way at the Glasgow Cathedral.
	This dude was so important he got his own life-size statue relaxing in a chair.
	The weather cooperated with us by being mild and sunny all morning.
	Here are Morag and Debbie reading the headstones.
	One entire section consisted almost entirely of beautiful Celtic crosses.
	From the Necropolis, we walked over to the Cathedral, passing a beautiful rose garden, ...
	... and an ornate gate.
	We went to Cathedral Square where we saw the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. There's a familiar face up there. Who can it be?
	Queen Victoria. Again.
	This is a statue of David Livingstone. His archives are maintained in Glasgow.
	Here's a Citroën Cactus, one of three we saw, each a different color. We were quite taken with the plastic siding on the car, making it resistant to door dings. Genius!
	Charles was here. So were we. This was the St. Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art, and we stopped in just long enough to use the toilet and make a donation.
	Right across the street is Provand's Lordship, Glasgow's oldest house.
	Here it is.
	Here's a window in the thick-set walls.
	The back of the house has a large garden, ...
	... and here it is.
	There's the back of the house.
	We drove around Glasgow some more. Here's some local culture.
	Here's the Barras, ...
	... a weekend street and indoor market.
	Our next stop was Glasgow Green.
	We visited the Doulton Fountain, built in 1888. It depicts Britain's four colonies: ...
	... India, ...
	... Canada, ...
	... South Africa, ...
	... and Australia.
	Of course, Queen Victoria presides over it all.
	The fountain stands in front of the People's Palace and Winter Gardens.
	Did someone say gardens? Why, yes.
	So many plants, ...
	... and more plants, ...
	.. and more. This one is called an elephant's foot tree.
	It would be nice if these grew in Indiana.
	Here's the Tolbooth Steeple at Glasgow Cross, where public hangings used to occur.
	Right across the street is the mercat cross with a unicorn on top.
	The gold dome-topped building is the Islamic Centre.
	Our next destination was the Corinthian Club at 1:00 so Morag dropped us off a few blocks away so we could sightsee our way there, ...
	... starting with the Duke of Wellington with his always-present traffic cone in front of the Gallery of Modern Art.
	We passed George Square, where some sort of promotion involving the Glasgow Warriors was happening.
	Here's the Corinthian Club, where we had 1:00 reservations for tea.
	This room was used as the location where Lizzie and the Stranger meet for the first time.
	The tables, chairs, and barriers have all been completely replaced since the film was made, ...
	... but the ornate ceiling and walls remain the same.
	Tom studied the menu, as if we were going to order anything other than Diet Cokes and high tea.
	Speaking of high tea, here's the tower of tea goodies: sandwiches, pastries, scones, and clotted cream. Delicious!
	Morag had great timing and came to meet us just as we were ready to leave.
	Here's some more very cool ironwork.
	Here's the Allsaints store in Glasgow with the same window full of sewing machines that we had seen in Las Vegas.
	We are compelled to photograph every Lush store, but not to go inside, fortunately.
	This ornately-decorated building is Princes Square Shopping Centre.
	There's a large atrium in the center, ...
	... and cool metalwork on the railings.
	There was a Foucault pendulum off to the side as well.
	Across the way and down a side street, we headed to the Lighthouse, which houses Scotland's Centre for Design and Architecture.
	We didn't make it past the gift shop before getting sidetracked by the wonderful work of architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the man who designed the Lighthouse.
	We took an elevator to the top level of the modern portion of the building, ...
	... so we could get a view of the city, ...
	... and of course, ...
	... a good look at the Mackintosh Tower.
	There was a display on one of the floors about the history of Glasgow, and this was the example they gave regarding the Glasgow Herald. Tom was a fan of this.
	The Mackintosh Interpretation Centre gave us a crash course in the history of Charles Rennie Mackintosh's work.
	Here's a table and chairs set he designed, ...
	... plus a chair that looks very similar to our dining room chairs, ...
	and another chair that we'd like to own.
	He also designed buildings, like the famous Hill House, shown here in model form, ...
	... and here in a photograph on the wall.
	This model showed how the original Lighthouse was modernized by adding new construction onto the existing structure with a minimum of change to the original. The new on the left lines up perfectly with the old on the right.
	Here is the spiral staircase up the Mackintosh Tower. We opted not to climb it.
	It was raining outside when we left, but Morag's car was parked right outside, so no more than 5 raindrops fell on our heads before we were warm and dry again.
	Our next stop was the University of Glasgow. A wedding had just taken place and photographs were being taken in the cloisters under Bute Hall, shown here.
	Here are the cloisters. One picture cannot do them justice.
	Here's another square on campus.
	Let's zoom in on some of the academic subjects noted over the doors. Here we have Geography and Midwifery. We didn't see Computer Science anywhere, oddly enough.
	A fancy car was waiting for the wedding party around the back of the campus.
	This view of the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum was waiting for us.
	Speaking of Kelvin, it turns out that William Thomson, Baron Kelvin of Largs, lived here.
	We drove past the Kelvingrove Art Gallery, ...
	... but didn't go in, because we're not art gallery types, but we did photograph this egg sculpture right outside.
	This cool arena is the SSE Hydro.
	The Charles Street Car Park has been nicknamed "The Cheese Grater" for obvious reasons.
	The Riverside Museum was holding a show of vintage firetrucks for the kids.
	Here's the Clyde Arc (known locally as the "Squinty" Bridge).
	There's BBC Scotland next to two domes belonging to the Science Center.
	If you look very closely at the upper left window, you'll see a cow statue. He's a member of the 2014 Cow Parade in Glasgow.
	This is the Clyde Auditorium, known by all as "The Armadillo."
	We had a second very exciting David Hasseloff sighting: he'll be appearing in Peter Pan soon! In related news, apparently Simply Red is still together.
	We retraced our early morning steps by returning to Parklea Coastal Footpath, and this time we got a photo of the bowling green club.
	The tide was way out this time so we could have run across the mud flats but we wanted to wear our shoes again on this trip.
	We also returned to the pier to see the tide out.
	We said farewell to Morag and headed back to the ship, passing this Haggis Hut trailer. If only it had been open! Haggis to go!
	We visited our last "Dear Frankie" filming location as we walked across the pier lot, ...
	... as shown here (with Maersk!) in the film.
	We passed these pretty pastel buildings during dinner and got a photo of them shortly after we left the dining room.
	Sail out was beautiful so we grabbed every form of warmth we could find and sat out on the balcony for a while.
	For some reason, we are fascinated by the pilot disembarkation procedure.
	Pretty scenery.
	It was our 19th wedding anniversary, and Morag had given us a lovely anniversary card and hilarious gift -- coasters featuring the Duke of Wellington with his traffic cone hat. Happy anniversary to us! Day 10 >