Sabbatical Day 4: Edinburgh to Glasgow

 August 1, Day 4: I spent the morning in my room in Edinburgh drinking coffee and practicing French with Duolingo. Coffee at the hotel is from a machine, weak and not very good. I make a double espresso and top it with a cappuccino. That sounds like it would be strong, but its not. It almost tastes like coffee. It was a peaceful morning, just what I needed after three active days. 

I checked out of the hotel at 11am and made my way to the Waverly train station. It was an easy walk, I knew my way around. I found the kiosk to purchase my ticket to Glasgow, found the track and got on the train. This time I was on a local train, not an express, we took a longer route and made many stops. The express train is about 50 minutes, this one was an hour and twenty. 

                                                      Some photos from the train, of the Scottish countryside. 

And, I got off at what seemed like a different train stations, the Glasgow City Center High. But the signs also said Queen Street, so I don’t know. It looked different from the station I was in on Saturday, but maybe it was only a different perspective. It was an easy ten minute walk to my hotel. 

This hotel is in a very convenient area for what I want to do, but it’s definitely a low end Holiday Inn Express. They vary greatly from one to the next. This one has a larger room than the one in Edinburgh, but my view is of a parking lot, there’s traffic noise because I’m on the second floor, and only an open window and a fan to help keep the room cool. But, at least there is a fan!

I settled into my room and then, following the recommendation of several Facebook friends I made my way to the Willow Tea Room for a traditional afternoon tea. 

I love the tradition of afternoon tea. I have tea at home most every afternoon, albeit a much more simple version of tea and a few chocolates. This tea was delicious. I only had a small bowl of yogurt for breakfast, so I was ready for a meal. I had four triangles of sandwiches: a smoked salmon, an egg salad, a ham and mustard, and cream cheese and cucumber; a scone with clotted cream and jam that was divine; and a chocolate cake….a bit more than I could actually eat, but I had some (most) of everything. And the tea, their Scottish tea variety, was lovely. Feeling sated and refreshed I headed off for the Cathedral and the Necropolis, two of my must-see locations in Glasgow. 

This was an easy walk, about twenty minutes from the tea room, up into some university area. There a lot of colleges and universities in Glasgow.  Somehow that makes sense to me. Arriving at the grounds of the Cathedral and the Necropolis I followed the path that wandered up through the cemetery. I couldn’t help but read the tombstones and wonder about each person. Each one was someone who lived and loved and must have made some kind of an impact on the world. Yet, now, who knows anything about the lives of most of these people? And so many tombstones in decay. It was sad, actually. I suspect that the intention of those huge tombstones was to leave a mark, a way to be remembered, but instead many are crumbling. I couldn’t help but wonder if somewhere in this cemetery were members of my family, ancestors long forgotten? 

I have tried for months to locate the graves of my ancestors that I do know of, family members buried perhaps in Galston or some other town in the Ayershire. My search has been in vain. There are no records to be found in any of the council records, it’s too far back. Most council records in Kilmarnock and the Ayershire are begin in 1870’s, and the great grandmother I am trying to find died around 1847. The records I have are curious though, because both my great grandmother and her mother in law, each with similar names, are recorded as dying on the same day Oct. 1847. It seems unlikely, although not impossible, for these two women to have died on the same day.  Tomorrow I will take a bus to Galston where I meet a Facebook friend who is the minister of the very church my ancestors may have attended. She has offered to pick me up at the bus station in Kilmarnock and drive me to Galston and around the area. I’m looking forward to it.

After walking through the cemetery for a bit the weather turned and rain was coming, so I decided to head back to the hotel. But, along the way I came to the entrance of the Cathedral, which was about to close. However, a kind person let a few more of us in, including me. And oh my, am I grateful he did. What a spectacular space, a working church. I do wish I were going to be here on a Sunday. Still, I am grateful to have been inside, if only for a few minutes before it closed. 

My walk from the Cathedral back to the hotel was easy, about twenty minutes east. There is a small grocery store near the hotel and I decided to stop in. I bought a green salad, some peanuts, and a bottle of Pinot noir, which I may drink over the next three nights I’ll be here. I came back to my room, took a long hot shower and put on some clean, cool clothes. After all the food I ate at the tea I was not very hungry, but I was ready to relax. I poured a glass of Pinot noir and opened the green salad, a perfect way to end this day. Now I will sit with a cup of herbal tea and listen to the rain and the traffic before falling asleep. 

***Glasgow Cathedral: Glasgow Cathedral is a parish church of the Church of Scotland in Glasgow, Scotland. It is the oldest cathedral in mainland Scotland and the oldest building in Glasgow. The cathedral was the seat of the Archbishop of Glasgow, and the mother church of the Archdiocese of Glasgow and the Province of Glasgow, until the Scottish Reformation in the 16th century. Glasgow Cathedral and St Magnus Cathedral in Orkney are the only medieval cathedrals in Scotland to have survived the Reformation virtually intact. The medieval Bishop's Castle stood to the west of the cathedral until the 18th century. The cathedral is dedicated to Saint Mungo, the patron saint of Glasgow, whose tomb lies at the centre of the building's Lower Church. The first stone cathedral was dedicated in 1136, in the presence of David I. Fragments of this building have been found beneath the structure of the present cathedral, which was dedicated in 1197, although much of the present cathedral dates from a major rebuilding in the 13th century. Following its foundation in 1451, the University of Glasgow held its first classes within the cathedral's chapter house.