Hello marvelous supporters,
I get the somewhat exciting task of writing about our day off here in Glasgow. Only somewhat exciting because you only get to hear about what I did on our day off. I can’t speak for the others as I wasn’t with them, and I have no clue as to what they got up to. So let’s just hope you enjoy reading about my day off that I spent with Carter and Iain.
My day started off a little earlier than I would have liked but for a good cause. I needed to see the ever trustworthy and dutiful Bob Dunlop for some physio treatment at 8am. This was because Bob had never been to Edinburgh, and this was his day to see it. Let’s just say that if I wasn’t seeing Bob at 8am I would have chosen to sleep in a few more hours as that is a very rare occurrence on tour. However, for Bob I was happy to oblige.
Dave, Iain, and I headed to the dining hall for a quick breakfast before heading in to town to meet Mrs. Carter and Mr. and Mrs. Smythe.
Iain had told his parents that we would meet them at noon, so of course we met them at around 12:30pm. This had to be expected as his parents must realize we would be travelling on Smythy (pronounced Smitty) time. Apparently they had misjudged Smythy time and had shown up at 11:30am.
Sorry guys! I will make sure to whip him in to shape sometime soon.
Once everyone in our party was accounted for we set off on our journey. We started by wandering the pedestrian streets of Glasgow, namely Buchanan Street and Sauchiehall Street.
The first one I can pronounce, the second is a wild guess! Especially with a Scottish accent! Once we all agreed that we were hungry we decided to stop for lunch at Molly Malone’s Irish pub. One of about 45 Irish pubs in Glasgow I am sure! We had fine British pub grub washed down with some cola before moving on.
We decided we wanted to see the sights of Glasgow without walking too much. So we decided to hop on a bus and head over to Kelvingrove where we stopped in at the Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery.
Now I had heard, from the esteemed Bob Dunlop, that this was the one Museum to see in Glasgow if you were going to see one. I’m not gonna say it was the best Museum I had ever seen but it had a very lovely facade and lets just say that Dave and Iain and I had quite the time playing a thriling game of “tap your finger on a button to move your train along to the finish line first”.
Let’s just say that my time playing this game was bit unsuccessful as Carter won 3 out of 5 races and Iain won the other 2. I had a fine time participating however!!
After a riveting time at the Museum we headed back in to the centre of Glasgow to seek out some dinner. Some quick (ok not so quick) web searching lead us to the Glasgow Central Train Station to a fine establishment called Alston Bar and Beef.
You’d think that a fancy steakhouse would be easy to find in a train station but in fact the one entrance was hidden between a sandwich shop and a book store. Once we found the place however, it was made apparent as to why there was only a one door, almost hidden entrance. After descending 2 floors by stairs we found ourselves in a very nice restaurant that was set in a part of Old Glasgow, or should I say “underground Glasgow”. The dimmed lights and fine brickwork made for a very nice ambience that was thoroughly enjoyed by our party.
A very fine set menu saw me indulging in a smoked mackerel pate and steak frites. Now, this being a steakhouse primarily, this wasn’t your average steak frites! The cut of steak was sublime and the frites most palatable!! I can easily say that it was my best meal here in Glasgow, and that is saying something as the food in the village has been above par.
Now with dinner finished we said goodnight to the Smythe’s and Mrs. Carter and made our way back to our cozy village for a nice snooze before resuming training the next day.
Thanks for all of the support! Keep it up!!
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