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Published: August 14th 2007
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After a couple very brief days in the Netherlands it was back to Edinburgh for a one night stay then on to Glasgow by train the following morning, Saturday. It seemed that the rain from the Netherlands may have migrated a little bit and as we left Edinburgh the skies were pretty dark to the West and there was the occaisional light shower beginning. Before we left Edinburgh we had a chance to have one final coffee with Jesse at the fair trade organic coffee shop. It was one of the few places where we could actually get a cup of good coffe. We also met Jesse's friends Chad and Jeff from Surrey who had been in Iceland and were on their way back to Canada.
We arrived in Glasgow just after noon and were lucky in being able to drop off our luggage at our pre-booked B&B before we made our way to Glasgow Green to take in some of the World Pipe Band Championships. It was just a short walk from the B&B to Glasgow Green and although the skies continued to be threatening we were still dry. It wasn't long before it started to rain though and
Heather describes it best when she says it was coming at us from four ways. From above, from below, from the side, and front & back. The ground was wet to start with but with the rain it was soon like walking on a sponge with the water squishing up.
Robb's friend RJ (Robert John) plays with the Australia Highlanders Grade 1 band and they had competed earlier in the day to gain a spot to play for the Grade 1 Championship. They were last up, played a good solid set, and just as they marched onto the competition field the skies opened up with a terrific downpour. This was only their first time to play in the Worlds competition and I'm sure they will return. With the downpour we didn't stick around for the march past of all the bands, (nearly 200), and the announcements of the winners. In the end the local bands missed out, - - - SFU placed 2nd in Grade 1, and RMM 3, (Robb's former band) placed 2nd in Juvenile.
On Sunday we explored a little of Glasgow. We came to a conclusion that Edinburgh was the tourist town, and Glasgow wasn't.
There seemed to be a distinct difference between the two. We had expected to do some final shopping in Glasgow for tourist type gifts but no tourist gift stores were found by us. In Edinburgh it seemed there were one or two tourist shops in each block. We did find a truly terrific Spanish restaurant for dinner, just off George Square in the centre of the 'downtown' area. After dinner we dropped into The Counting House which is an old bank building that has been converted into a pub. It seems that calling it a pub is wrong because it is far more upscale than any pub I've seen in my professional and personal travels in BC. Maybe its' size and 20 foot ceilings has something to do with it or maybe it's the large domed skylight.
Monday was Globespan day again. Again they were late, but only about 40 minutes and in the end we actually arrived back in Vancouver about an hour early. Between our flight over, and this return trip they must have removed one row of seats because there was more leg room and it was much more comfortable. All the unedited photographs from this
trip have been uploaded to the 'net and are available for viewing at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/kanetravelblog
That's all for now folks !. Enjoy the photos while some of us begin to ponder Italy, Spain, Morroco, or a cruise from Scotland to Iceland, Norway, Sweden. Who knows where we will end up ? Somehow I suspect that the 2nd weekend in August 2008 might be in Glasgow though.
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