So, once again the ship docked quite a ways from the city we were planning to visit, this time in Greenock, about 23 miles from Glasgow. We got off the ship though and were greeting by a distinguished gentleman in a kilt, who was very friendly. We were in a group, the three shopping ladies, Norm and Bob. We bought round trip tickets on a bus to take us from Greenock to city centre Glasgow and return. The trip was nice enough and we ended up in town at George Square, a park/square with many statues.

We then got tickets for the hop-on hop off bus to take us around the city, and we saw many sights of interest, including a great mural, many adorned buildings, , a great fountain, , the peoples palace, , and the high court of justiciary.

One building I noted had a great contrast of the old and the new. I noted a police shed in the middle of one sidewalk.  As we came down a main street in the city centre, we saw the statue of Wellingon with a traffic cone on his head. The tour guide said that the cone is removed by workers every day and every night it reappears, likely the act of nearby University students, playing a prank.

We then set out toward the banks of the River Clyde and as we went under the highway overpass we saw a great mural painted entirely by spray can paint. We went by the Squinty Bridge (formally the Clyde Arc), so named because it does not go straight. There were a number of impressive buildings ahead, first the Rotunda, one of two on either side of the river. The Rotundas were the place that accessed a tunnel under the river and from within which people, carts, draft animals, and such were lowered to the tunnel for transport to the other side of the river. The tunnel still exists but is not used any longer. The structure behind the Rotunda is the Clyde Auditorium, a rather new and notable structure, referred to by Glaswegians as the Armadillo. Nearby is another breathtaking building, the SSE Hydro Auditorium, a large arena where many world famous performers come to do their thing. The SSE Hydro Auditorium officially opened in September, 2013 with a concert by Rod Stewart.

From the Riverside area we moved back to the city, going through Kelvingrove Park, on Kelvin Way and past Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum all named after Lord Kelvin the world renowned physicist, born in Belfast but who spent most of his life at the University of Glasgow. Our tour guide noted that the Kelvinator line of appliances were also named after him. I don't know.

We have read all the books written by Denise Mina, which take place in Glasgow. I must say that I expected Glasgow to be dirty and ugly. To our surprise, it is a clean, beautiful and glorious city. We did see a row of tenements, indigenous to the city, also having a famous pub, the Tennent on street level. But we loved this city and enjoyed every moment we were here.

Some other notable sights included a dapper gentleman on the street, the Charring Cross Mansions (apparently many streets in Glasgow are named after streets in Londo), a bar named Garage, a bagel store named Bagel Mania, a sign, one of many saying TO LET, which Kitty misread as Toilet, thinking there were so many toilets in this town.  

We ended our bus tour by going back to the Riverside area and visiting the Riverside Museum where we hoped to get on the tall ship. But we got there too late to see the ship. But we enjoyed the topiaries in from of the museum.