Into Scotland and in Glasgow

As we headed north from York the terrain began to have more hills and the vegetation started to change. First we noticed evergreens where it seemed that all the trees had been deciduous before. Then we started seeing fewer and fewer trees and more and more sheep. When I noticed a lot of stone walls, we pulled into a "lay-by" to take some photos.

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I was able to find a hotel in Glasgow's West End. I had booked a triple room but I felt that we all needed a little more space, so Sam was able to have a single to himself. The Kelvin is a 2-star hotel and we have decided we will henceforth book into 3s or better. *G* The accommodations are completely adequate but we are preferring a bit more moving space and more comfort.

We came to Glasgow instead of the original plan to go to Edinborough because Graham had heard there was another professor of forensic chemistry at the University of Strythclyde. Her areas of research and his mesh so although she will also be attending the conference in Nottingham in July, they agreed to meet at her lab. They will continue to see how they can do research together....Graham is already scheming how to return to Scotland!

Located on a side street immediately adjacent to a busy thoroughfare, traffic noise was low.
Sam's room faced the street while Graham's and mine was in the rear, facing the tiny carpark.

Once we determined we were going to go to Glasgow, I was very excited to find out that there was a festival going on. This meant that we had 3 choices for that evening for music programs. We used youtube for our research and purchased tickets to see Eddie Reedor. She had a beautiful voice and sang a mix of country, old standards and Scottish songs. The crowd knew and loved her.

The venue, Moran Or, is located in a decommissioned church and we ate in the restaurant located there also. The rest of the building has a huge bar (World Cup on the tvs) and another club.

Desserts with dinner were good. Actually the meal was fine, but service was slow and because of that we missed a chance to get good seats for the show.

Sam got to run twice in Glasgow. We arranged for him to take a "running tour" and a running coach came by the hotel at 4:30 to take him for an hour's run. Sam got to see more of Glasgow than Graham or I did!

Additionally, we were able to find a running partner for Sam in Glasgow. Schools do not have teams but there are a number of youth clubs and senior clubs. Sam had found that there was a 10K race in Glasgow but was not allowed to register for it because it was only open to "seniors", runners over the age of 19. The organizer connected us to a "junior" club and when I provided Sam's running stats, they connected us with Alistair. We communicated mostly by email but had one phone call (yeah for Skype) about a week before we left home. The guys arranged to meet at the Botanical Gardens 2 blocks from our hotel, but then the Mom decided to drive all of us over to another park where Alistair knew the 5K route and the guys took off. We had a nice walk and when I determined that she is a GP (general medical practitioner) I asked a lot of questions how the Scottish health care system works. She feels it is a very good alternative, having spent a year in Australia and hearing about our system. She says no doctor in the public system will be rich with "swimming pools and yachts" (how she put it) but the pay is more than a teacher makes.