Some R & R

Two nights in Penrith and three in Glasgow, then 2 in Helensburgh gave us a good time to rest and recuperate  wash our clothes and sort our plans for the next walk.  I visited the local libraries to do some online work, and we shopped the op shops mostly.

In Glasgow we took a hop on hop off tourist bus as it was cold and wet, and we had done enough walking. We hoped off once but generally just enjoyed the humorous commentary by the tour guide. We learned that Glasgow was built by the wealth created  by the tobacco trade, which used a lot of slave labour. They are not so proud of that these days.

We stayed at a hotel in  Kevin Grove in the city centre very close to the museum.  Glasgow is an arty and musical city, unlike myself.

We had already made the decision not to walk the Kentigern Way after reading g that the signage could be a bit confusing. We had had enough of that already.

The promised heat wave was not going to be forthcoming and the idea of walking in the rain in Scotland without having booked accommodation did not please us.

We spent a lot of time on the internet trying to work a plan for the John Muir Way, which goes across the country from Helensburgh on the East to Dunbar on the West. 134 miles or 216 km, it will take us 11 days of walking about 20-30 km a day. 

In the end, we signed up for a self guided walk with Macs Adventures. Kay has used them previously and said they were good. This means that they organise the accommodation with breakfasts, they transport our gear from hotel to hotel and provide a daily plan for us. Their app had all the directions and instructions, so we just have to walk. It costs a lot more, but we didn’t want to be trying to find somewhere to sleep after a day walking in the rain. We were both relieved when it was booked.

After 2 nights in the city, we moved  to an airbnb out at Paisley  which is a town in its own right but  part of the greater Glasgow city.  As we had all day to fill in and were feeling that we had been a bit lazy, we decided to walk out there. It was only 13 miles or 21 kms. It took us 6.5 hours.

So off we went with our raincoats on as   cold squally showers were  predicted all day. And for once they got it right. 

The walk was interesting as we got to see many different parts of the city in detail. We basically  walked for 6.5 hours along the main arterial route across the city, going  from one set of little local shops to the next.  We took cover  from the rain in shop doorways, petrol stations, police stations, and whatever else we could run to when the heavens opened.

Each group of shops, about 1km apart, had at least one barber shop and one or two hairdressers. They were all busy and made me think that hair was very important to these people. More important than coffee even, as we struggled to find a cafe along the way, eventually finding one run by a church group that sold cheap coffee and pastries, was warm, and had a toilet. That was just what we needed.

In the  19th century, Paisley was a global centre of the weaving industry, giving its name to the Paisley shawl and the Paisley pattern. A young Queen Victoria wore shawls made here, so just like the influencers of today, this helped make the local garments sought after around the world. This declined in the 20th century with the last mill closing in 1993. I remember making Paisley dresses in the 1970s having no idea where the word came from.

We both liked this place as the  buildings were all old but more spaced out. The history was evident as there has been churches there since the 6th century.

 There are about 50 churches in the city although some have been converted to apartment buildings or put to other uses such as thd Art Centre.  The civic buildings were magnificent too, made with huge columns and very ornate decorations.  Flash buildings like those always make me wonder how the many poor working families felt when comparing them to their basic cottages with outdoor toilets.

We were there for  the annual celebration of Sma’ Shot Day. There was a parade down the main streets followed by the burning of an effigy of a “cork”  . It celebrates the historic victory of local weavers in a dispute with their employers, the manufacturers, known as “corks”

Our airbnb was the ground floor on the left of the photo below. It was very pleasant, if not minimalistic.  Only 2 coffee cups but 12 wine glasses!

I took the opportunity to cook some proper veges and try out the pies in a can that we had been seeing in the supermarkets. Take off the lid with a can opener then cook in the oven. The steak and kidney pie was surprisingly very nice and only £2.50. My bag of veges was £1.

These Brits really do like their statues, and so do the birds. But we  noticed that the birds weren’t too keen on Queen Victoria as she had none of the proverbial running down her head, whereby the local statemen were covered in bird poop. Go figure that!