Oh, at long last! After nine months in the tightest restrictions in all of the UK, Glasgow came out of Level 3 lockdown last Saturday, June 5th. I was happy to let a few days pass by at least until we tried to get out and see anything. Just bide time a little longer.
We hired a car from Tuesday evening to Wednesday evening for a 24 hour period. I was hoping for a splendid west coast sunset followed by a day in the east but…mother nature had other plans! Although conditions were dry on Tuesday night, it was quite overcast so the glorious sunset I was hoping to see wasn’t really going to happen.
A change of plan. We broke up what was the rest of the plan into two parts – which was probably a good thing in hindsight as it would have been a bit of a stretch to have tried to cram it all in on one day.
On Tuesday night we went to Falkirk to the wheel and to the Kelpies. The Falkirk Wheel really is an engineering marvel! And that part of the country is just beautiful! It was a stunning thing to behold – all of it! The wheel itself, the scenery around it. Just beautiful! And even more glorious to behold as the sun is setting. I wanted to try and get to the Kelpies at sunset so we could see them lit up. But we are so close to summer solstice and the days are ssooo long at this time of year that true nightfall doesn’t happen until after 11pm. The Kelpies were lit up but it was still a bit too bright to truly experience seeing them in the dark. They are incredible also. And the park around them is gorgeous.
Wednesday the weather was going to be dreich in Glasgow but the east promised to be brighter. So over to South Queensferry and to Portobello Beach near Edinburgh. We travelled north and crossed the Clackmannanshire bridge over the Forth and then headed south skirting near Dunfermline before crossing the Forth Road Bridge and stopping at a charging station for car electric car charging. Great views back over to the north of both the road bridge and the rail bridge from a little observation point at the charging station. Took a stroll into the town while the car charged up. Walked past a hoose. Took some snaps. Watched trains go over the rail bridge. Grappled over which of the million ice cream parlours there were in the town which to buy from (you must have been spoiled for choice when you wanted an ice cream when you lived there, Jim! Lol) – then decided on none in the end. Bought sandwiches and carrot cake slices and went back to the viewing point and ate while taking in the view back from there.
Car charged up and onto Portobello Beach. Tried to work out which groyn – and YES, those things are called “groyns”….those wooden things that look like broken piers – the Minds were stood at for their early Zoom photoshoot. Asked the OH to take a photo of me by the one I thought it was. Inadvertently looked as despondent as Jim did in said shoot. Lol
The Edinburgh bypass by that time in the afternoon was a joy [sarcasm] and the only real crappy point to a really lovely day, The sunshine was on Leith as we left and it got increasingly dreich as we headed back west. By the time we got to Glasgow though it wasn’t as gloomy as it had looked when we had set out.
A lovely day.
All that remains is to ask – who did it better? Looking despondent – me or him?
UPDATE: Seeing as you asked, Scott ?
Did you go through that dark tunnel at the top end of the wheel? It’s about 100m long and they’ve put lights in it now that change colour. Before that is was very damp and creepy as fuck. ( Like something from the SAW films.)
I actually preferred it that way to be honest. lol
See the blog post update. ???
Couple of times about 1991 ish we went to that house in S Queensferry to see if Jim was home. He never was but we used to chat with one of his neighbours .If memory serves me correct he used to drive a gold Jeep style car so we knew if that was away he wasn’t in. We used to take CDs over for him to hopefully sign iirc ) I still love the place though and normally visit if Im out that way.
I wish he still lived in the UK, but I think since his dad passed away and then from the pandemic he?s decided to be in Sicily for good now. Oh, well. Never mind! It?s not as if he hasn?t been dropping hints at me all these years to leave him the heck alone. Lol
I would dream of a spontaneous chance encounter, esp. before I moved here.
Speaking of spontaneous ?encounters? – I saw Gordy Goudie walking along at the back (or front?) of the Kelvingrove on Monday.
ahh nice one. Is the museum back open?
It has been for a while now.