Day 19 - Glasgow

Alcohol: 11 drams of whisky, Haggis: 0 serves
Distance walked: 8(-ish) km

The breakfast buffet here at the Radisson has both black pudding and haggis available, along with something called Lorne Sausage which looked similar. I'm afraid I wimped out on the lot and had a regular full English breakfast instead. Perhaps I'll be brave some other day. Sadly, the coffee here is dreadful. Clearly designed with the American tourist in mind, it comes in a cup the size of a small bowl and is weak enough to see the bottom of the cup through the pale brown liquid.

After the disappointing breakfast I braved the Scottish equivalent of Vline and travelled out to the Auchentoshan distillery for my Ultimate Experience tour. This involved a change of trains and a 1 mile walk at the end. I'd allowed plenty of time for missed connections and wrong turns, but didn't need any of it. I ended up spending half an hour wandering around the graveyard of a nearby church in the rain until the distillery opened for tourists.

There was only one other person doing my tour. He was another Australian but from Sydney. He is a consultant for SAS and is currently working on a project for the NAB! I'm being followed. The tour was very interesting. As there were so few of us we got taken to places that bigger groups aren't allowed to go. As we had paid the big bucks we got to try lots of different whiskies, including some from other distilleries that are owned by the same parent company. Below is a photo of all the bottles which we had samples from. We were both very happy by the end of the tour.

I managed the walk back to the railway station with only one wrong turn and got the correct train back to Glasgow. I'm impressed with myself because I was more than a little drunk at the time. The tour guide had been rather reluctant to let me go out on my own.

I didn't get back to Glasgow until around 2pm and was starving hungry. One of the first places to eat I came across was a Wagamama so I tottered inside. I've been to this chain before so I knew what to expect. This was fortunate as my waiter had such a strong accent I couldn't understand a word he said. I just replied by making guesses using context. I must have got it right because I got the dish I wanted. Although in hindsight a big bowl of ramen was perhaps not a wise choice when ones coordination is impaired by drink.

After my late lunch I went to the Police Museum. It was staffed by a retired policeman who was very anxious to let visitors know that the first police force in the world (Europe at least) was in Glasgow. Sir Robert Peel's Bow Street runners in London came much later as he was only 12 at the time the Glasgow police force was formed. The museum was quite interesting with an odd mixture of history, tales of famous crimes where the perpetrators were convicted on seemingly very little evidence and a curious obsession with changes in the uniform over the years. I do like small quirky museums.

Afterwards I kept planning to visit the cathedral to admire the views over the city. However, it kept being uphill so I didn't. Instead, I pottered around before settling in a tea shop to rest my feet and consume tea and cake. I've become quite the tea drinker as it is generally a safer brew than coffee over here.

I then when back to my hotel to rest up some more after a hard afternoon of doing very little. By 8pm I still wasn't particularly hungry after my late lunch and even later pastry but felt I should venture forth before becoming too slothful. There were policemen on horses at the Central Station which were very fine. The three vans loads of police that had just arrived and were settling in for a long evening were not so fine. While it was still broad daylight and there were plenty of people of all ages and genders walking about, they were clearly expecting things to get boisterous. I think there was or had been a big soccer match on. As I wasn't particularly keen on encountering a boisterous Glasgow crowd on a Saturday night, I had a quick bite at a place that did pizza by the slice and then head back to my hotel.

One more day of my holiday to go and then I have to switch my brain back on.