A Fantastic Weekend

I now have a retirement plan - I'm moving to Scotland, buying a Highland cow and some sheep and living out the rest of my days surrounded by the most beautiful countryside ever with the most darling accent ever being spoken around me.

Yes, I - like ALV did in Ireland - have communed with my ancestors by traveling to the old country. I'm going to ignore the fact that that term for me also includes not only where I've been for the past several weeks, but also Germany and France. Whatever. The point is, my whirlwind 2 days in Scotland were fantastic and I'm going back as soon as financially possible for a proper visit.

We arrived quite early on Saturday and had to amuse ourselves in central Glasgow until our hotel room was ready, so we first went to the Gallery of Modern Art. We thought it would take quite some time, but it was quite a bit smaller than expected. There were many pieces that we simply did not get, but some were at least interesting if not lovely. This is one of the interesting ones:

Afterwards, we went back to George Square, where our hotel was and where they were having an army-sponsored thing called the Piper's Trail. There was some dumb skit involved, but it was punctuated by piping and dancing and kilts. We were unfortunately in the back row:

After we nabbed our hotel room, we still had a couple hours to kill so we went to The Lighthouse, which is dedicated to architecture and design and, in particular, Glasgow's darling - Charles Rennie Mackintosh. It's not a proper lighthouse of course, as it's in the middle of the city, but it does provide some great views of Glasgow from the top of the Mackintosh Tower (the spiral staircase of which was more practice for St. Paul's):

That pretty much got us to 2 pm, in time for the Whisky Bus. Oh yes. There's more. Specifically, my most "communing with the ancestors" bit - drinking scotch. (They really were involved in the trade of scotch, so I'm not making this up. I think they would have appreciated their descendant enjoying good scotch.) Anyway, we went to Glengoyne Distillery and hello - gorgeousness abounded:

The waterfall from which they (and some 17 other, now closed distilleries) traditionally got their water:

And hey, even more gorgeousness (yes, I'm talking about our adorable guide in the kilt and I don't apologize for it!):

I couldn't take pictures inside the distillery, of course, because you know, there'd be a big boom with my electrical device and all the alcohol vapors. But it was pretty interesting stuff and I think that I've been converted to a scotch drinker for life.

After the ride back into Glasgow, we were pretty hungry, so we decided that while in Scotland, we must do as the Scots do. We ate haggis. And you know, it was actually really good. I expected to take a bite and push it away in disgust based upon my mother's descriptions of exactly how they make haggis, but it was delicious! It tasted exactly like what you would expect of a sheep product - like mutton, only richer. The closest I can describe it is that it was like lamb liverwurst. It does color everything else you're eating for the meal, but I'd definitely do it again.

Since we had gotten up to get to the airport at roughly 2 am that morning, we were quite tired. And you'd think that once we got to the hotel, there would be no more excitement. I kind of wish that had been true... but the fire alarm went off in the middle of the night. After much grogginess and confusion, we trooped downstairs, smelling *something* burning all the way. It must have been a small kitchen fire, since we barely saw the firemen and we were allowed back in a short bit later, but don't let it be said that we had a moment of non-excitement. I did feel rather sorry for the bride and groom that had been still partying in the reception hall though - that must have been a short damper on their spirits.

On Sunday, we trekked over to another of C. R. Mackintosh's famous designs, the Willow Tea Rooms. How darling is English afternoon tea? Very (imagine a couple more sandwiches... we were hungry):

And finally, we went to one of the weirdest museums known to man, the Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery:

It had fossils. It had French, Dutch and Italian art. It had Dali. It had stuffed animals (as in the kind that used to be alive and now... aren't). It had mummies. It had an organ (and an organist playing while we were there). It had armor. It had a Spitfire:

And, of course, the elusive haggis:

I didn't even get to half of Glasgow, much less the rest of Scotland. So it's clear I'll have to go back. And live there.