Sunday, June 18, 2017

From Evensong to VI-Poo, with some transportation for spice

The boys didn't get a lot of sleep last night.  Quinn read in the lobby for an hour at 3:00 AM.  In the end, though, we all felt much better today.  Tom ordered kippers for part of his breakfast, so Quinn and I both tried our first bites of it.  Surprisingly not bad!

Our plan was to start the day with the City Tours Sightseeing bus, but after three buses didn't show as scheduled, we gave up and walked down to the Riverside Museum, where we discovered why the buses weren't running.  A men's 10k race.

The museum has all varieties of transportation.  Trams, trains, motorcycles, cars, bicycles, tricycles, skateboards, boats, caravans. If you can name it, they probably have it, including the second oldest Rolls Royce in the world.

There were lots of entertaining and educational interpretive videos, some things you could climb on, and enough variety to make the museum consistently engaging.  I enjoyed learning about the Indians and Pakistanis who had come to Glasgow to work on the trams.

After finishing up the museum, we went out and visited the tall ship moored behind it.  Then we discovered the tour buses were finally running.  I'd decided I wanted to attend the Evensong service at Glasgow Cathedral, but the boys didn't want to join me, so I popped off the bus on my own.

I was a bit early, so I visited St. Mungo's Museum of Religious Life and Art.  It was small, but enjoyable.

I also discovered the Glasgow Necropolis, which was quite a surprise, because I'd never heard of it before.  On a hill overlooking the cathedral, it covered with grand and beautiful graves and memorials.

The Evensong service was lovely.  I'm not familiar with the Church of Scotland, but the service very much reminded me of the Anglican service at Canterbury Cathedral.

The choir members wore red robes with red tartan stoles or ties.  They were ten voices strong, and I'd bet they are students from the local colleges.  Very skilled and very young.

There's something impressive about choral music and organs in a cathedral.  Moving and powerful.  I'm glad I went.

After catching the rest of the tour on the bus (with live guide instead of recorded, this time!) I made my way back to the hotel, where the boys were waiting.  We hit the local Sainsbury for food and ate it on a park bench near the hotel.  The same park bench I'd sat on to read yesterday while the boys napped.

Scotland has some very . . . interesting . . . ideas in its commercials.  All three of us were flabbergasted by the VI-Poo commercial, where a young cinema starlet speaks in colorful terms about having to make stinky "number two's" and the embarrassment that follows.  But wait!  Just spray the toilet with VI-Poo and it will prevent unsightly odors, thus making you more likely to get a job?  Or something like that.

Toto, we are not in Kansas anymore.

Heading out of the city tomorrow.  Looking forward to it!

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