Ayr/Glasgow, Scotland - Day 1

On Friday we caught one of the last British Airways flights before the weekend strike direct from Madrid to London. For the most part, it was a smooth flight save for the tons of English teenagers running everywhere on the plane and snapping photos at every chance. Landing over London as it was lit up at night was a really cool experience not ruined by the typical British rainy weather. From Heathrow, we caught a bus to the bus station where we picked up an overnight bus from London to Glasgow. The bus experience in total can be summed up with thank god we're young because I would never have tolerated that otherwise. In the seat in front of us was a baby that cried strong until 3 am. Needless to say, we didn't get too much sleep that night but pressed on as Scotland awaited. We caught another bus to a town outside of Glasgow called Ayr in the county/province/region of Ayrshire, famous for the its Scottish poet Robert Burns, "Scotland's favorite son". He wrote a poem called "Scots Wae Hae" that served as an unofficial national anthem for many years. We met up with a friend of ours there and headed back to Glasgow after settling into a nice and cozy little hotel in Ayr. The trip back to Glasgow was better because we were finally in a car with legroom and the sun was shining so we could actually take in the wonderful scenery of the Scottish countryside. Glasgow was cold and windy but surprisingly clean. The architecture is also very static as compared to other cities we've visited in Europe. There aren't a lot of curvy buildings except for the occasional dome on top of a building and the town center seems to be laid on straight lines instead of the typical winding curvy roads of mainland Europe. We walked around the center for a few hours, visited a free art museum, and headed back to Ayr. Glasgow will be returned to on Thursday at the conclusion of our drive through the highlands. In Ayr, we visited the famous bridge of Robert Burns' poem "Tam o' Shanter" where a man escapes the clutches of a witch by crossing a bridge over running water but not before the witch manages to rip the tail off of his horse. We visited a graveyard that had a tomb bolted to the ground because underneath was a witch and by bolting her in, they were hoping she wouldn't come out and get anyone. As I noticed the houses directly next to the cemetery, I wondered how many parents brought misbehaving children into the graveyard and threatened to set the witch lose if the children didn't stop misbehaving. If none, then some should try it because it would work like a charm. We spent the evening meeting some more local folks that are friends of our friend and called it an evening as our lack of sleep on the bus trip finally caught up with us. Hopefully today will be a day in which we can understand Scottish English easier than Spanish.

 

    

     

    

     

The bridge of Tam o' Shanter just after sunset, spooky! 

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