Blogs from Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe - page 30

It was our first bit of travelling for a while but we had Naomi with us and we determined to have an adventure. We left the sun behind at Gatwick airport and flew up to Glasgow where the forecast was showers and the first thing the captain said when we landed was 'Crikey! I didn't expect it to be this bad'. Where we stayed dry our luggage unfortunately did not, it could have only been out in the rain for a few minutes but every part of foam in my rucksack was saturated, I ended up wearing it backwards to stop myself being soaked. It was almost midnight by the time we were in the city centre and we had managed to find Babbity Bowsters where our key had been left despite Naomi not being ... read more

Glasgow- 7 July 2007 Claudine, Marie and I went to Glasgow for the day. The bus trip was less than an hour, and there are buses every half hour throughout the day. We went without any kinda plan, we just figured we’d wander around the city, pack our own lunches, and picnic. Honestly, I didn’t think so highly of the city. I think I was just comparing it to Edinburgh the whole time, and found it lacking. First of all, it’s known more as the ‘culture’ town—more shopping, arts, and theatre. Basically nothing I was really interested in for a day trip. After walking around (in the rain, of course) we caught up with a parade in progress and followed that around for a while, without knowing exactly what the celebration was about. Something about the ... read more

We weren't really in Glasgow today exactly, it was actually Hamilton but it's close enough! We were visiting two relatives: Alec and Kathy Campbell, and Misty, their adorable puppy! Alec is somehow related to me...my grandma and his mom were sisters. I think. Something like that. The point is that they're family so we went to visit them. They took us to lunch and then when Caroline and I mentioned we missed Dr. Pepper, Kathy took us to the grocery store and bought us all this food. She was very generous, gave us practically half her pantry, too. They took us around Hamilton, showing us where my grandma lived when she was little and couple sights around the town. Then we sat in their living room and played with Misty. When it became close to ... read more

The purpose of our trip to Europe was to give the Shoda Lecture at the University of Glasgow. Here is the background on the lecture: The Shoda Endowment On 21 May 1997, Professor Roderick Galbraith presented the first Shoda Lecture to inaugurate the Shoda Chair and the Endowment of that name. This lecture was entitled A Topical View of Aerospace Systems but was more topically described as From the Pterodactyl to the Space Shuttle. PhotoIn 1988 Dr P T Shoda (right), who had graduated from the University in 1916, received an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science for his outstanding contribution to engineering and the establishment and development of engineering in Japan. Although aged 96, Dr Shoda's mind sparkled at the event and had already decided that he would wish to endow a Chair of ... read more

Trains and Buses: During our last visit to Scotland in 2004 we parked the rental car at our apartment in Glasgow and rode city buses and trains until the day we drove to the airport for our flight home. We were really impressed by the Scottish trains because they are so clean and fast. The larger rail stations have restaurants and shops that sell magazines, newspapers, snacks and drinks. The stations also have toilets, although sometimes they charge 20 pence and close at 8PM, but this is an improvement over our Bay Area Rapid Transit System (BART) that has locked its toilets after 911 in order to prevent terrorism. Eating and drinking is allowed (which is unlike most US transit systems), some seats have tables, and trash cans and toilets are usually found in each ... read more