5-18-2025 Glasgow…then Edinburgh

We packed our bags and took one long look around our hotel room at Point A. This hotel has very friendly clerks, very clean rooms and is very very compact and efficient. The room had the bare essentials. There was no closet but hooks with hangars on the wall; 2 small tables folded down from the wall; and a red fold up chair was hanging from a hook. That was the only chair. Luggage fit under the beds and small built-in shelves held phones and stuff…small stuff. The bathroom, too was equally as efficient. The door handle was the towel rack and a ledge above the sink held our toiletries.

Our train to Edinburgh left at 4:00 so our plan was to first go to the National Piping Centre and fool around with bagpipes. There’s a small museum there which was interesting. One could pick up a “chanter” which looks like a clarinet of sorts—the bit with the holes that makes the different notes on a bagpipe. Of course one needs to have some skill to do this which my fingers do not have….but WAIT…. enter Hunter the Piper. Hunter was a young man from Canada who was adventuring around Europe. He was an official piper so right then and there, I got my first (and only) piping lesson. It was great fun. And I never really succeeded. I am truly finger challenged.

After the Piping Center, we decided to take the Hop On Hop Off bus to get a good look at Glasgow. After walking around and getting lost and walking some more, and looking for the bus stop, we were told that all of the center of Glasgow was closed down for some kind of event…running, maybe(?). Buses were not running. Great. A Bloomsday wanna-be in Glasgow. Here are some general photos of Glasgow from our walk-about…

We decided to go to Kensingrove Museum which was not closed. This museum has a bit of everything but I was most interested in the art and architecture of Mackintosh—the architect of the Mackintosh at the Willows Tea House that we went to. 

Teresa took a great photo of emoji heads hanging from the ceiling

We had lunch at the museum and I tried IRN BRU which is a wonderful Scottish soft drink. It’s the color of orange Fanta but it tastes completely different—not orangey at all. It tasted like….well,  …like IRN BRU.

Onward to Edinbrrrrraw….I’ve been practicing how to say that with the Scottish brogue. I have no problem rolling my ‘rrr’ but wrapping those other sounds around it is the challenge.

Upon arrival at the train station in Edinburgh , we decided to take a bus to our guest house which was about 1½ miles from the  city center. After some trial and error, Google said we needed to go UP to the next street to catch the bus. Not up a hill. Not up an elevator or escalator. UP means three long steep sets of stairs. UP a hill of stairs. With luggage! NOT! Uber to the rescue.

Allison 17 Guest House is a guest house with 3 levels of rooms. Some have bathrooms. Our en-suite room was on the top floor and we had to carry our luggage up a spiral staircase. I’m not sure the pics show the steepness.

Here's the view from our room. Teresa said it reminded her of Mary Poppins.

The night was young and I went to the store for some food. Here are some pics...not much of an adventure, just different sights and different food.

We ended the day with a dram of whiskey and a Slainte (cheers!)