Lake District and Glasgow

Heading north to the Lake District, we first climbed into the Peak District, where the low cloud shrouded the peaks and the grass was even greener than we’d so far seen.  There seems to be a hundred shades of green (to coin a phrase) and we’ve seen them all.  The countryside is lush, with fields enclosed with rock fences, probably hundreds of years old, villages which certainly appear to be hundreds of years old and winding roads climbing into the lakes district.  Ambleside, at the top end of Lake Windemere, the largest fresh water lake in England, is a very pretty resort town with a confusing maze of one-way streets.  We eventually found our little B&B and it turned out to be almost right in the centre of town, so we parked the car in the yard and left it there for the duration.  During our short stay, we took a ferry-boat ride to Bowness, a few miles south on the lake and back, then a drive to the pretty town of Grasmere, just a little north of Ambleside.  This is gorgeous mountain lake country and a favourite get-away place for lots of people.  It was quite busy as this was a mid-term break for schools, but we had little trouble getting around and the pubs were not too crowded.

Off to Scotland – we hit the motorway heading north to Scotland, where I’d never been before and before too long the sign appeared – Welcome to Scotland.  Much excitement!!  However, before we headed to Glasgow, which was our eventual destination, we left the motorway and aimed for Kilmarnock, which is the traditional family seat of the Boyd clan.  Now, many of you would not realise that I’m descended from royalty, but it’s quite true.  My forebears were Boyds who migrated from Scotland in 1852 – Willam Boyd (1802-1885) and son David Boyd (1836-1920) – my great, great, great grandfather!  So there!  The family seat at Kilmarnock and Dean Castle, built by the Boyds, was granted to Thomas Boyd in the 17^th century for his support of the English kings and he and subsequent generations had ties with William Wallace, Robert the Bruce, Mary Queen of Scots and in fact Robert Boyd was Mary’s confidante and protector when she was imprisoned at Kilmarnock. Thomas was granted an Earldom, which was later taken away for his support of the English in the Battle of Culloden.

Enough about me!!!!  Off to Glasgow.  We’d arranged to meet our landlord between 4 & 5 and we didn’t expect too many problems, with our TomTom, but, of course there were roadworks everywhere and we finished up being a little late.  However, we found the place, settled into our apartment in a quite nice area near the University and unpacked for the first time in a couple of weeks.  Four days in Glasgow, having now experienced our first full day, may not be enough.  A lovely city, full of beautiful people and lots of excitement for the Commonwealth Games in July.  This was the second major city of Britain (after London), only the third city in the world to build an underground and the principal ship-building city of the world.  There were vast riches here in the 19^th & 20^th centuries, mostly fuelled by ship-building, but the late 20^th century saw this decline to the extent where there are only 2 ship-builders remaining and many derelict sites along the River Clyde.  However, many of these sites are being reclaimed for museums and eco-friendly communities and the Commonwealth Games village is one such site.  An amazing development which will be a fore-runner for similar sites in other cities.  The amount of regeneration in the city is remarkable and it’s a very vibrant and likeable place and the people are friendly and helpful and the fact that the Games are almost here engenders a positive vibe.

We rapidly learned to use the underground and the hop-on hop-off bus and visited some great museums, galleries and beautiful buildings and squares around the city.  We visited the Riverside Museum, which was 2013 Museum of the Year and were enthralled by the historical displays, from the early days of the original ship yards through to the modern Glasgow of today.  The pubs are great too and the food has been really good.  Off again tonight to find another quaint pub in an area quite close to our apartment.  More to report soon.