My last full day on this 5-week holiday - it’s raining ! 

This morning I am taking a bus across town to visit the University of Glasgow and the Kenilworth Museum. I am able to buy a day ticket for the bus right from the driver as I will be taking the bus back & forth again this afternoon. 

The rain is drizzly, on & off light rain which makes it nicer for walking about. I have my umbrella that I bought last night due to this forecasted rainy day. The bus drops me off right across the street from both the university and museum which are situated in a large park area. 

The TV show Outlander used the University of Glasgow as a stand-in for Harvard so I’m curious to see some of the filming locations since it’s right next to the museum which is a good option for a rainy morning. The campus of the university is up hill but not hard to locate the quad where the filming took place. After a wander around campus, I cross over a bridge (again another filming location for Outlander) to reach the Kenilworth Museum. This grand museum houses all manor of things from art to natural history bits and bobs. It’s all very Victorian in design and feel. The main events of this museum are a couple Monet paintings and an important rare religious painting by Salvador Dali. In between the art exhibits, I see science exhibits and all types of stuffed animals. A pretty interesting and beautiful museum. 

Before I leave the museum, I stop at the cafe for a scone. With some butter and jam, this light & fluffy Scottish scone is a great breakfast. 

Back to the bus stop I go. I have to get back to my hotel and do some packing before meeting friends for drinks in the early afternoon. Lucia and Andy are two of the four friends from Scotland that Holly and I met on an all-day boat tour in the Cinque Terre back in Summer 2016. We had so much fun on this boat trip and afterwards in Monterosso hanging out with our new friends. Holly being more social and well-connected than I has stayed in touch with Lucia. We contacted Lucia who lives about 10 minutes outside of Glasgow. So Lucia and her mother had an appointment for a wedding dress fitting and were meeting Andy downtown for his birthday dinner. I met up with the three of them for a few drinks in the afternoon. We met around the corner and down the street from my hotel in Glasgow. We had a nice visit catching up since our last meeting in Italy.  What a lovely bunch!

Being as the forecast called for rain, I booked on a late afternoon distillery tour not far from downtown Glasgow. This required me to catch that same bus again back to very near the museum. After getting off the bus, it was a short walk down to the river crossing over the pedestrian bridge to the distillery on the water. The place is pretty much brand new being open only a few years now. They converted an old pump house into a distillery. The area has been renewed after a long history of being the ship building yards. Now they are making whisky here. Being new though the whisky is not near to being ready so the tasting at the end was of whisky made elsewhere. The tour was interesting and informative. The tasting solidified my knowing that I only like whisky mixed, preferably with ginger ale & some lime. 

After the tour, I wandered back up to the main street to catch the bus back into downtown. I decided to have some vegetarian haggis for dinner - gotta try it but only the non-meat version so yep, I’m a wimp but I don’t eat cow or pig, so.... the pie was good and so was the neeps (mashed turnips) that came with the haggis pie. 

For my last night, I went to the movies. A few days ago, I saw a bus drive by with a movie advert for The Current War starring Benedict Cumberbatch. Finding out that the movie isn’t going to be released until October in the US, I thought I’d see it here so off I go to the Cineplex. It’s a 7 story building in central Glasgow with floor after floor of movie theatres. There are tons of commercials shown before the movie starts. The commercials are pretty amusing. I enjoyed the movie but am very tired and ready for sleep as I wander the several blocks back to my hotel. 

Good Night Glasgow !