Glasgow Arrival
We're in Glasgow, scotland's largest city. We haven't spent much time downtown yet - from the train station, we took a taxi to our hotel and had a quick drive through. We're staying in the West End.
I didn't know it when we took a train to Stirling earlier, but we were nearly in Glasgow's back yard at the time. It's only about 45 minutes by train from Edinburgh to Glasgow. On the train in yesterday, once we passed Stirling, I'd see a cluster of houses, sometimes even some apartment towers, and think, we must be getting close to Glasgow, and then there'd be fields again, then housing, then fields. It was like trying to guess when the ending is near in a Terry Gilliam movie.
At our hotel, we were given keys to our room, on the third floor. We climbed the three flights and found a wide landing, but didn't find our room ... then I remembered that over here the ground floor isn't counted - the first floor is what we'd consider the second floor. So I found the narrow stairway leading up to our floor.
Once we were settled, I went out for an excursion to explore the nearest shopping street - Byres Road - and scout out opportunities for dinner. There's a neat cluster of pubs in an alley off of Byres called Ashton Lane - I think it's entirely pubs except for a cinema. I stopped in one - just for research purposes, you see - and asked for something dark and strong. No, not baked beans. I was handed the tastiest beer I've had yet, and unfortunately it wasn't even Scottish, but rather Belgium. I'd also asked for a pint, and normally this yields an Imperial pint, but this time I received a Scottish pint, which is substantially more. I think I'd read at one point a Scottish pint is two and a half times as large as an Imperial pint, and I'm not sure it's that big, but it is quite imposing. The glass is very tall, and it curves inward in the middle, presumably so one can get one's hand around it.
Later, we all made the trek back to Byres but ended up in an Italian restaurant on the main road that reminded me greatly of La Terrazza in downtown Portland because its layout was nearly identical and the food was very similar.
Today we plan to explore downtown.
I didn't know it when we took a train to Stirling earlier, but we were nearly in Glasgow's back yard at the time. It's only about 45 minutes by train from Edinburgh to Glasgow. On the train in yesterday, once we passed Stirling, I'd see a cluster of houses, sometimes even some apartment towers, and think, we must be getting close to Glasgow, and then there'd be fields again, then housing, then fields. It was like trying to guess when the ending is near in a Terry Gilliam movie.
At our hotel, we were given keys to our room, on the third floor. We climbed the three flights and found a wide landing, but didn't find our room ... then I remembered that over here the ground floor isn't counted - the first floor is what we'd consider the second floor. So I found the narrow stairway leading up to our floor.
Once we were settled, I went out for an excursion to explore the nearest shopping street - Byres Road - and scout out opportunities for dinner. There's a neat cluster of pubs in an alley off of Byres called Ashton Lane - I think it's entirely pubs except for a cinema. I stopped in one - just for research purposes, you see - and asked for something dark and strong. No, not baked beans. I was handed the tastiest beer I've had yet, and unfortunately it wasn't even Scottish, but rather Belgium. I'd also asked for a pint, and normally this yields an Imperial pint, but this time I received a Scottish pint, which is substantially more. I think I'd read at one point a Scottish pint is two and a half times as large as an Imperial pint, and I'm not sure it's that big, but it is quite imposing. The glass is very tall, and it curves inward in the middle, presumably so one can get one's hand around it.
Later, we all made the trek back to Byres but ended up in an Italian restaurant on the main road that reminded me greatly of La Terrazza in downtown Portland because its layout was nearly identical and the food was very similar.
Today we plan to explore downtown.
posted by Michael Nelson at 11:37 pm
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