Scotland Adventure 2023 - Day 4

Today is the day we check out of hotel and go onboard our small ship.  Last night we had our welcome reception of cocktails and dinner.  All 150 Tauck travelers were in attendance.  Haggis was served as the second course. One thing to notice about our group is a total lack of age diversity.  Our tour group is a collection of old people.

A view of our fellow 150 passengers on our Tauck tour.

Our haggis at the reception dinner was disguised as a meatball.

After breakfast (no haggis today) we met in the lobby.  We have been divided up into five groups with a specific handler.  Our handler is Julie.  Her primary job is to count our group over and over again so we do not lose anyone.  Julie mentioned we will travel by motor coach in the city and travel by bus on the islands.  She asked if we knew the difference between a coach and a bus.  The answer is $200,000.

Our first stop for the day was the Daulton fountain. The fountain was built in 1888 and contains images of the four British colonies Australia, Canada, India and South Africa.  At the top of the fountain is a statue of Queen Victoria.

Daulton Fountain in Glasgow

Our next stop was Glasgow Cathedral. The cathedral was built by the Catholics and took 150 years complete. During the Protestant reformation the Protestants took possession of the cathedral. The cathedral is now a Presbyterian cathedral.

The Glasgow cathedral is the site of several episodes of the Outlander series.

The masons that built the Glasgow cathedral etched their mark into the masonry to indicate the work they competed so they could get paid. Over 1,100 unique marks were found in the cathedral over the 150 years it took to build it.

There is a shrine in the basement of the cathedral dedicated to St Nicholas. St Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors and children.

After touring the cathedral we rode our coach back to the city center to have lunch. We ate at the Citizen restaurant. The Citizen is located in the building where the Citizen newspaper had been published.

Our next stop was the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.

Kelvingrove is dedicated to the mathematician Lord Kelvin. Lord Kelvin developed the Kelvin scale to measure temperature. The Kelvin scale establishes absolute zero at -273.15 degrees celsius which is -460° Fahrenheit.

Roger the elephant is on display at the Kelvingrove museum. Roger attacked his handler and the handler shot Roget through his forehead. You can still see the bullet hole.

We had a forty minute coach ride from the museum to the ship. We handed over our passports and were issued key cards for access to the ship. There were bagpipers playing to welcome us onboard. It was nice to finally be onboard and not to have to pack and unpack our luggage for seven days.

The ship provided an anniversary cake and champagne so Priscilla and I could celebrate our 49th wedding anniversary in our cabin.