Glasgow Scotland – 
The city blossoms with urban renewal. The shipbuilding industry that once reigned on Glasgow shores is no more. As Rick and I meander through Merchants City, I imagine the bustle of imports and exports of Glasgow’s 18th century tobacco lords, the sizeable old warehouse buildings now re-purposed as sot-after apartments, pubs and eateries. It is then on to the many “pedestrian only” streets in the city’s centre bursting with locals and us visitors. We join the ranks popping in-and-out of shops, stopping for a coffee or pint in an outdoor café/pub, our umbrellas handy to pop open for the bouts of rain, whimsically changing between light splatters and brief downpours. There are a lot of soggy kilts.
Pix by Rick – Our Glasgow Photos –
George Square is dignified with statues of notable Scotts, including literary geniuses Robbie Burns and Sir Walter Scott. There is also the bronzed form of
James Watt …
yes, the SI (International System of Units) of power, the watt was named after him. This inventor and mechanical engineer developed the concept of “horsepower” and his Watt steam engine was a major factor in the Industrial Revolution.
In front of the Gallery of Modern Art in the Royal Exchange Square is the most unusual of the city’s icons. The equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington has a traffic cone on his head. This local humour is believed to date back to the early 1980’s, and although discouraged by the City Council, if removed, it is surreptitiously replaced by another cone.
We walk onward and upward to the massive sombre stone Glasgow Cathedral. Its echoing cavernous interior is a mix of weighty religious relics, historical 
facts on placards, stained glass and…what? – a bustling souvenir business with racks of tourist brochures. In the lower level we seek out Saint Mungo’s Tomb, the resting place of Glasgow’s patron saint. Outside the Cathedral a trail leads up to the Necropolis that overlooks the city.
The oldest house in Glasgow is the nearby Provand’s Lordship, once the home of the head of the Scottish churches. Even I have to duck my head to enter, the doorways are so low. Rick is taken with the solid mass of the 2-foot-thick outer stone walls and the hefty wood beamed ceilings – made to last and it has – built in 1471. The stone fireplaces in each room and well-worn winding staircases up to the 3rd level fill me with thoughts of the daily activity of those who over the centuries called this home.
Back at George Square our legs demanded a rest in the form of a cappuccino break at an outdoor cafe while being entertained by side-walk musicians playing and singing catchy tunes. On the way back to the Alexander Thomson Hotel we purchase a bottle of wine from one of the ubiquitous Greggs stores, and stop at a small shop for take-away orders of fish and chips and Haggis – then moving with the speed of light back to our hotel for this feast! We are leery to taste our “first ever” Haggis; this “best-not-to-ask-what’s-in-it” sausage is encased in batter and deep-fried, but one bite of its dark spicy meaty taste, and we are sold! The fish is pure white and flaky, the thick fries drenched in salt and malt vinegar are irresistible (we daren’t think of the cholesterol hit).
We leave gregarious Glasgow in high spirits for our tour into the Highlands.