Urban Replaced Country Life Too Quickly

Day 28 in Scotland, but no walking other than in the city.  Wednesday, July 3.

Premier Inn, Milngavie to Point A Hotel, Glasgow City Center.  Steps 24577

Bus ride of 30 minutes through residential areas collecting passengers heading for shopping.  Many got off at the giant Tesco.  

How to dry a shirt when there are not enough hangers.  Trekking poles work great.  

Watched at least 25 hikers depart from the Premier Inn while I ate breakfast.  Rather nostalgic to see and know exactly where and what they are headed for.  Beautiful landscapes, trail companions, hard work.  

Breakfast was mostly a bowl of fruits.  

One lady walker was very stylish in the wrong way.  She had a large pack on, but was wearing the wrong clothing.  A real skirt (not the outdoors hiking kind) with flowers on it, tights, boots that were more for a city and not mucking through mud, and a denim jacket.  Hope she has some waterproofs with as denim is the worst to wear when wet and cold.   The man walking with her was dressed appropriately.   

When checking out of the Premier Inn I asked the receptionist about the number of walkers.  Yes, this time of the year the hotel is mostly filled with them.  She also mentioned that there is a man who has walked the West Highland Way - 14 years in a row.  We both made comments about maybe doing it a few times, but after that - The entire UK is full of long distance paths.  Broaden the horizons. 

The hotel was directly under the flight path of planes landing at Glasgow airport.  Each time one passed over I kept thinking of that body that fell out from the wheel well last weekend on approaching London coming from Africa.  The body landed near a lady sunbathing in her garden.  

If it wasn’t for this painful foot I had considered walking the 10 miles into Glasgow on the river path. 

On arrival in Glasgow located the Point A Hotel, which is very much in the center of the city.  

The Hotel is sort of modern?  My room is large, white, bare.  There are little fold down tables.  A chair that hangs on the wall that can be taken down and moved about, but it doesn’t look comfortable. It is a corner room so there are two windows, but one is rather hard to see out as it is dirty (on the outside) but that doesn’t matter as there are only rooftops to see.  

Just looked at the website for Point A Hotel and noticed what had missed my brain back when I booked these nights in Glasgow.  In the description it mentions ‘a budget hotel with snug rooms, some have windows’.  Wow, I could have been spending the remainder of my time here in a closet.  Now I better appreciate what I did get.  TWO WINDOWS, even if one is dirty.  The website does make a Big deal out of the free WiFi, and for that I am grateful.  

The room does seem laid out for a handicapped person, complete with folding chair in the shower. On seeing that it remind me of those weeks in re-hab after falling over the stair railing.  Another big OUCH!   Possibly I qualify as an invalid now with the gimpy foot.  

Wandered the streets getting a sense of direction and the layout of everything.  Collected a Glasgow map and will now develop a plan for tomorrow as a ‘tourist’. 

Ended up having two falafel wraps today from different places.  The second, which their sign proclaimed, was the best.  

I would like to express my appreciation to Gary for being the loving and supportive husband he has always been to me, and especially these past weeks as I have traveled the route from Milngavie to Inverness and back.  Thank you ❤️

“A well developed sense of humor is the pole that adds balance to your steps as you walk the tightrope of life.”  William Arthur Ward