June 17
Glasgow to Cockburnspath

The Hilton was very comfortable and the reception staff both friendly and helpful. I checked out at 09.00, abandoned my pack into their tender care and walked a short distance down Byers Road for breakfast. The area was coming to life with noisy road works starting. There were few people in evidence, however.

Byers Road comes alive	Breakfast sliders

At a café I ordered the breakfast "sliders" - three mini rolls containing bacon, sausage and black pudding. The waitress apologised that they had run out of black pudding & would I prefer a tomato one instead. Leaping at the opportunity to have something healthy. I replied in the affirmative. A minute later she returned, very apologetic that the day's fruit & veg hadn't yet been delivered. She did offer to pop across the road to Tesco to buy some tomatoes but I couldn't expect her to do that & settled for a second bacon roll, instead. The rolls turned out to be quite large - there's a surprise. I will need to do a lot of walking to justify lunch.

I caught the underground one stop to Kelvinhall, and realised that it would probably have been a shorter walk if I had just continued on foot down Byers Road, to reach the Kelvingrove Gallery and Museum.

This is huge and contains an excellent design section. Some of it I liked and some I didn't. After an hour, I stopped for a sit down and an iced lemon tea - just like Singapore.

The collection of displays was eclectic to put it mildly. There was a small one on the significance of Country & Western music to the city, a larger one on the development of mental health services and a huge range of paintings by both local artists and ones from further afield, including Salvador Dali and LS Lowry to name but two.

I continued my perambulation after elevenses, and saw lots of art and design by Rennie Mackintosh & his wife and an emotive display on the evacuation of St Kilda. I also saw a St Kilda display in the museum in Fort William. All of this was housed in a most ornate building, dating from 1901.

At 1 pm, the organ recital began. We all took photos of the organist, we all watched his hands on the large screen TV and I took photos of the people watching both.

The café was crowded so I emerged into a warm but cloudy afternoon, sat on a wall and worked out what to do next.

I took the plunge and decided to walk into the city along Sauchiehall Street. This took me past the Kelvingrove Bowling Club, what a backdrop, which is being prepared as the bowls centre for next year's Commonwealth Games. There were loads of schoolchildren around, presumably in a bid to win their support, both as potential spectators and players.

Sauchiehall Street - elegant terraces

The street is long - 2.5 k according to Wikipedia - has many elegant buildings and it took me well over half an hour to reach the edge of the CBD. It has to be said that the area had many touches of class which I wouldn’t normally associate with Glasgow.

I eventually reached my destination, The Bon Accord, probably Glasgow's premier real ale outlet, now tucked in behind the motorway. It is old and dark, has a long row of hand pumps and sells good beer and food. I relaxed in comfort in a large leather chair and ate nourishing cauliflower soup, washed down with Pounamu beer - from Staffordshire, unfortunately. I chose this for the name and it was, indeed similar to a New Zealand IPA.
	Hiding behind the motorway
The Bon Accord

Feeling a little refreshed, I left the pub and walked along St Vincent Street for another 20 minutes. There are some fine churches, although the St Vincent Church, owned by the City Council but rented by the Free Church, is definitely in need of some maintenance.

Glasgow City Free Church	Mansion blocks on St Vincent Street
It needs some maintenance	Offices on St Vincent Street

Once more, there were rows of elegant buildings, this seeming to be the area for posh consultants' offices - lawyers, accountants, engineers etc.

The lower end of the street, closest to the city centre, lacked the elegance of the upper end and had the normal chain stores. I searched in vain, as ever, for the notebooks I required for my travel writing, and did some window shopping. I probably should have ventured into the Willow Tearooms, one of the city’s architectural masterpieces, but couldn’t summon up the energy.

The clouds had thinned and it was no longer very humid so I sat outside a café just off the Byers Road, opposite to one of the sandstone houses, and had a good coffee and a Mars Bar crispy thing.

The hotel returned my pack, I lost my fleece on the stairs but managed to find it again, and I walked back to the underground. This delivered me quickly to Queen Street. There was about ten minutes to wait for the Edinburgh train, which I did, accompanied by large rush hour crowds. I managed to find a couple of seats to myself so travelled in comfort to Edinburgh, a journey of a bit less than an hour. We passed through lots of small towns but also lots of green space. We left Glasgow on time and arrived in Edinburgh on time. ScotRail really has distinguished itself on this trip!
Glasgow Queen Street	Last train of the trip

I took a few photos in Waverley and then found my way up the rear escalators to Market Street and the Sports Bar where I was to meet John and Pauline in 90 minutes. The suggested bar looked very dead but the building that housed it was huge. With left luggage costing £9 at the station, I had no option but to walk up the steep hill, weighed down by my pack. Not an attractive proposition.

I looked at various pubs, including the Sports Bar, which really was closed, dead and, in all probability, broke. The Doric was old, claimed to be the oldest gastro pub in town and was delightful. They even seemed to have the old style Scottish air pressure beer engines. I bought a pint of Edinburgh Pale Ale, only 3.4%, which was very good and a cheese and ham roll, which was stuffed with salad.

	They did serve a good roll
The Doric	Cockburn Street

Just before 8pm, I went outside, waited a few minutes for John & Pauline to arrive, and loaded my bags into their car. No more manual handling for this trip! We had a very acceptable Thai meal in a small restaurant on yet another cobbled street and then drove the 30 + miles back to Cockburnspath. My holiday was almost over.