Glasgow
Monday, 5/8

We're now in our little apartment in central Glasgow and settling in, having arrived here on Saturday evening.

Our last postcard was from Troutbeck Head, the evening before our final packup of the van.  We'd been a bit toey about everything that could go wrong with this, relying on washers and dryers in a caravan park.  So on the actual morning we were up really early.  We managed to do all the washing and drying very successfully, using machines in both blocks, and amid pouring rain and strong wind.  Finally, just as we finished, and just as other campers were waking up, the rain stopped, the wind dropped and the sun came out for the rest of the day!  We should have just taken it easy and it would have worked out to be simpler, but who knows that in advance?

On our way from Coniston Water to Julia's place the other day, a little north of Grassmere, we stopped to admire the scenery at a roadside layby.  As we pulled in, a man was launching a radio-controlled quad-copter.  Initially, he stood right in front of the parking bay we wanted to use, so we waited a while in the van before he moved and we parked. He has now uploaded the video of the flight to the internet; you can view it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ouyv_QwDbNU 

  If you do, watch out for 'Bessie' at the beginning of the flight and Rob's and the pilot's legs as it lands.

Our little hire-car was a tiny Skoda; perfectly adequate for our purposes, but a bit gutless when overtaking (overtaking is a new experience for us after two months in Bessie!).  We dropped the van in to Brough, where it is garaged in a farm shed and then headed west and north to Bassenthwaite, six miles north of Keswick, where we stayed in a superb hotel.  We regretted that we were there for only one night and would be very happy to return for a longer if circumstances permit in the future.

Then on to Glasgow the long way; over to the coast at Maryport, back almost to Carlisle and then west to Castle Douglas, northish along the Ayr tourist route and finally to Glasgow, all through beautiful country.  And adding to this absolute pleasure, along the way a phone call with Tom (Rob's son), telling us that he'd asked Sian to marry him and that she's said yes!!!!! And he popped the question in our back yard while they were at Crossover for the weekend.

Yesterday, Sunday, we returned our car and spent the rest of the day in the Kelvingrove Museum/Gallery, which you can already see that we loved (or we wouldn't have spent the rest of the day there).  Here's its impressive entrance foyer...

So today... a leisurely start then we'll go out for coffee and find the tourist information centre.  What we find out there will shape the rest of the day.