It's Sunday morning, a bit gray and overcast, but such is to be expected in Glasgow at this time of year. Truth be told, if yesterday's intermittent bursts of rain and sunshine are anything to go by, it's actually quite a mild autumn here. It's certainly warmer than Michigan generally is and there are far more leaves still on the trees here. We're staying in a really lovely little flat in the West End, just a block or so from the shops and restaurants of busy Byres Road and half a block from the flat where my Grandma and Grandpa Smillie used to live. It's a five minute walk to visit my Grandma Pringle and my uncle Douglas and aunt Noriko. Couldn't be more perfectly situated.
We left Detroit Friday around 6 pm, landed in Amsterdam about 7 local time (12 ours, and we hadn't slept), then caught a 9:30 plane to Glasgow. Needless to say, we were exhausted upon arrival and yesterday just sort of disappeared, between our sketch comedy efforts to extract enough cash from machines to pay for our flat, grabbing a quick bite to eat, a fast nap, a speedy shower and then heading over to Grandma's flat for cups of tea and a plate of shortbread. Chris could barely keep his eyes open and thus we headed home early last night, stopping at the marvelous Marks & Spencer's Simply Food (why can't the USÂ make really good, healthy food so convient?)Â shop for a few supplies and we were in bed and fast asleep ridiculously early.
We both slept for just under 11 hours! Lazy buggers and we have the morning to ourselves as friends and relatives go about their business. I'd love to say we headed out and made the most of it, but we've stayed in and made the most of it, drinking big glasses of water and large cups of coffee in a two-fisted effort to stave off jet lag. This afternoon I think we'll stick to visiting family and wandering about the West End.
Tomorrow we're planning a walking tour of some of Glasgow's medieval landmarks, then Chris will head to London on business Monday night. I hope to spend Tuesday with my grandma, going through the piles of photos she's recently dug up, most of which I doubt I've ever seen. Chris comes back Tuesday night and Wednesday we'll head to the Kelvingrove Galleries, which have been closed for the past few years for a massive renovation that cost somewhere along the lines of 27 million pounds. We used to go here quite regularly when I was a kid and I haven't been back in 25 years. The good thing about art and artifacts is they don't seem to change much, so I'm expecting massive nostalgia for my free-admission bucks.
Wednesday night I'll celebrate my first birthday in Glasgow in 25 years with, I hope, a quiet dinner with the family and then it's up super-early on Thursday morning to head back to the states. Dag. That exhausts me just thinking about it.