Scotland: Glosgow Three

There are two main parts of Glasgow:

• The Center - business like downtown, a commercial zone and shops. Our hotel and favorite restaurants are here.
• The West End - B&B's, restaurants and nightlife.

The SEC center, also designed by Sir Norman Foster.  Used for concerts and sporting events.

City Hall. The tents are for the Italian Festival

The Tower used to be the site of well attended (10,000)
public hangings.

The largest terra cotta fountain anywhere.

Scotland trivial: The country's animal is the unicorn.  It may be legendary in most of the world, but not in Scotland.

Scotland: Glasgow Two

In its heyday, Scotland's second largest city was Britain's second largest city, second only to London. Twenty percent of the Scotts today live here.

From 1880 to 1950, 50 ship building companies employed over 100,000 men. This included building the Lusitania and Queen Elizabeth II.  Twenty-five percent of the world's oceangoing ships were built here.

After many years of decline, the city has been purposely revitalized  It is now a cosmopolitan destination with energetic dining and nightlife, free top-notch museums and a unique flare for art and design.

It's five universities host over 150,000 students. Residents of Scotland go to universities free of charge.

Here are a couple of sights from the hop-on, hop-off bus, in the rain.

Clyde Arc. The Clyde River runs through the town.

Scottish Events Center designed by Sir Norman Foster

The old and the new typifies Glosgaw

Scotland: Overview One

We’ve arrived in Glasgow to begin a two week bike tour.  Then we'll go on a two week bike tour in Ireland.

There are two halves of Scotland, the Highlands in the North and the Lowlands in the south.  We will be in the lowlands, starting south of Glasgow and making an east – north - west route, ending in Edinburgh.  We will spend a couple of days in England; our main objective is Hadrian’s Wall – quite different from Trump’s wall.

Click here to read about Hadrian's Wall.

The highlands and the Lowlands are different culturally and  religiously (North is Catholic; south Protestant).  The north speaks a lot of Gallic, the south English.  You’ll find kilts in the north, trousers in the south.

Three fourths of the population is in the 75 mile corridor between Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Here is a map of Scotland and another which shows our route.  Click on the maps for a larger image.

Scotland is known for Scotch whiskey, distilleries, moody glens, golf links, kilts and haggis.  Note that I don't like the first or the last of these items.  Irish whiskey yes, but Scotch whiskey, no.

Scotland has 720 islands, most of which I assume are uninhabited.  The country encompasses about a third of UK's geographical area but less that 1/10 of its population.

We went on the Glasgow's hop-in, hop-off bus today so we'll write more about it tomorrow.  Also we had a great Italian dinner tonight about 2 blocks from our hotel. It was so good that we may go there again tomorrow.

It has been raining all day and the same is forecast for the next 13 days. Thirteen days riding a bicycle in the rain?  We may need to find an alternative.