Glasgow was the first destination of our big summer trip (not counting a flight connection in Dublin). It was a long flight, but everyone did great. Flying east and north, we stayed ahead of the sunset the entire way, leaving San Francisco around 6pm and arriving in Glasgow about 2:30pm, never having seen nighttime.
We got off the plane in Glasgow and went to get our luggage. The Glasgow airport's baggage carousels have electronic signs that say when a given plane's unloading has started, and when the last bag from a flight has been delivered. This made it easy for us to see that our big red suitcase had not made it. The little red suitcase had mostly Vernon's clothes in it, and the little silver one mostly Alison's. This was the beginning of the "how many times can they wear it" game with the kids.
It was pouring down buckets of rain when we arrived, but that was the only real rain we saw in the whole trip other than a couple of light sprinkles. The cab driver from the airport was reluctant to go down the street where the Werblows' apartment was (Scots have a habit of parking on either side of the road, facing whichever way they were going when they noticed the spot, and the street was packed with cars on both sides), so Vernon got out and sprinted down the hill until he found #29. Amy had arrived earlier and came down to let him in (and bring a borrowed rain jacket). Soon after, the rain stopped and we were all glad to have arrived. (Note to the Werbows: you will see a lot of your jackets in the following photos.)
First meal in town was at a local chippie called Mario's Plaice (the name is a pun - "plaice" is a kind of flatfish). The kids had these enormous hot chocolates, too:
The day after our arrival, we set out to look around and try to get used to the time zone. Not too far away were Glasgow's Botanic Gardens, which had a lot of greenhouses.
The gardens also a little playground. Here's Cielo spinning.
And Amy and the kids surrounding a Botanic Gardens plaque in the ground:
We then went for a walk, during which we passed the Lawn Bowls Centre that would be used for the soon-upcoming Commonwealth Games. After some poking around, we picked out our first pub of the trip for lunch!. Everyone was pretty hungry by then, and fortunately it was a nice friendly place. It was a little late for lunch, so we were almost the only customers there. Eero and Cielo wanted food and not photos.
Our plan was to come in to Glasgow, get adjusted, then rent a car and head south. The day of the rental car pickup we decided to walk. It was a nice long hike, and among other places took us past and through the University of Glasgow. This is Cielo (left foreground) in front of the Gilbert Scott Building.
We walked past the Glasgow squiggly bridge (officially the Tradeston Bridge) a pedestrian/bicycle bridge over the River Clyde.
And the squinty bridge - officially as the Clyde Arc! One of the criticisms of the design of this bridge is that it interrupts the Clyde Walkway, a hiking path that starts in Glasgow, instead of going over it. Hikers, cyclists and pedestrians have to push a button to get a walk signal at what's called a "toucan crossing" (because both pedestrians and cycles can cross - "two can cross").
Across Glasgow we also used several "puffin" (pedestrian user-friendly intelligent) crossings and "pelican" (pedestrian light-controlled) crossings that are pedestrian only (so no "two"). You can see one of the crossing boxes at waist level on the pole in this picture.
After we arrived at the car rental place, we verified we could come back in an hour or so. Since we were still missing almost all of the children's clothes, we took off to a nearby mall and bought some underwear for the kids. By that time everyone was pretty tired.
Then it was back to the car and off to the south!