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The Bonnie Scotland Tour...Sunday, September 24, continued
It's raining again, pouring in fact. Chris is driving Carole and I back to the hotel and then down to Stoke as he has to go by there to go home to Redditch. We waited for Connie, to say goodbye to her but she never showed up. Found out later they waited 45 minutes for a taxi. It was raining too hard to walk! We had to hit the road so we loaded up and left. The rain was really coming down and the traffic on the motorway, once we found it, was nearly at a stand still. It took about 2 and a half hours for what should have been an hour and a half trip. I made Chris take some money for gas (this was just a week or so after the petrol blockades in the U.K. nearly had the country dry because of the high price of it!) and after a kiss and a hug, he got on his way. You're a star, luvvie! We checked into the North Stafford Hotel, in Stoke. It's right across from the railway station, a big old Victorian hotel. We had found it on the net under hotels listed for the Stoke on Trent tourism site, I think it cost us about $250 a night for the room.And what a room! We were shocked at the size of it!!! We could have fit our whole triple room in this bathroom alone, it was so big!! We weren't sure what to do with all the space!!! The beds are more comfortable, still a bit hard for my taste. Nice lounge and bar. Lovely restaurant where we decided to have our evening meal. A bit pricey but we didn't want to search around and were just content to take it easy. Except, ick, Carole found a hair on her starter plate! They apologized but didn't reduce the price any.
Back to our room and we watched Corrie. The theme came on and the outdoor set is shown, Awwwwww we want to go back! We had some brochures from the desk on the pottery factories in the area and sussed out a laundrette in the phone book. Looked like one right around the corner. Not surprising as the university is just around the corner too. An early night. Plan to find the Spode factory as it's close by according to the map. Do a little damage to our credit cards in the factory shops :)
Monday September 25
First things first, laundry. I don't know why we didn't have breakfast in the hotel as i thought it was included but perhaps we were avoiding a repeat of last night's little problem. We took our laundry around the corner and up a couple of blocks. There was a self serve laundrette and beside it a drop off one that didn't cost a whole lot more and would leave us lots of shopping time! It did seem a bit strange to leave your knickers in the hands of a strange man to wash though service laundries are fairly common! We had a bit of a map and managed to find our way across the rail tracks into the town proper, passing a pretty church along the way (St. Peter ad Vincula). Saw a post office so we got some stamps and then made love to the bank machine to get some cash. Just across the road was the Spode factory! Yay!The next thing was breakfast. There is a lovely little café in the factory compound called the Blue Italian café, named after one of Spode's famous blue and white china patterns. It was cafeteria style and all the dishes were blue and white Spode china. Wooden tables and chairs with blue linen. We had some juice, tea and some sweeties. After that, the visitor center. This was one of the main things Carole had wanted to do here in England, invade the Potteries so as much as I'm looking forward to it, she's even more so! I'm glad we stayed the second day. The original plan was to meet with my friend Janet yesterday but she couldn’t make it and when we realized how close everything was we decided to stay over to today to shop.
We couldn't book a tour of the factory as they were full for their afternoon tour but we were invited to browse the museum and could see some of the artists at work. We saw a short film on the history of the Spode factory and then had a good look at all the old china and pottery on display.
So... Josiah Spode was apprenticed at the age of 16 and by the 1760's he opened a small pottery. Over the next 30 years he revolutionized the British tableware industry with two breakthroughs. He invented the blue underglazing method in order to replicate the popular blue and white earthenware from China and he invented bone china. Now I'm not sure it didn’t already exist in China but it sounded like this method of creating it was his. Before than everything was ceramic. The blue and white designs are engraved on copper plate and transfer is created from it and pressed on the piece and then glazed and fired. The first scenes were replicants in the Chinese style but Spode soon had artists doing original work.
Bone china as devised by Josiah Spode actually contains ground bone from cows, usually in with 2 types of white clay. When fired this makes the china translucent. If you hold it up to the light, you can see the shadow of your hand from beneath. Spode died shortly after he invented the formula but his son was extremely successful in marketing it. Many of the patterns made there today were made 200 years ago and many of the same methods are still used. We actually saw artists hand painting the designs that were transferred from the copper plate. Eventually Josiah the third's partner, Copeland, bought out the factory from Spode III's estate and it's been in their hands since.
We went through the museum which had examples of 200 years of Spode wares, most of it pre 20th century, hand painted or with hand crafted transfers. At the end we could walk through a few workshops. One man was setting knobs on top of what could have been teapot lids. Two woman were sitting and applying transfers which would be glazed and fired. The ones we saw, the yellow colour would fire off leaving a gold design. We saw a young man etching some copper engraving through a magnifying glass, very minute and particular work. The last section had a woman hand painting a floral and fruit centre on plates, well she was colouring in on the transfer. She said she didn't go to Art college, she apprenticed right there at the factory and she gracefully agreed to have her photo taken. It happens all the time, she said with a smile.
Then we hit the factory shops! A lot of it was half price and then discounted and most of it seconds but we couldn’t see anything wrong with it. I bought a few things for myself and a few things as gifts and also a linen table cloth and napkins in the Blue Italian design. It cost £106 plus £34 for shipping. Now, when it arrived in Canada, it was delivered by a courier company at no charge. But a month later we got a bill from their broker for the customs and fees and had to get a form to apply for a refund from Canada Customs as we had claimed the amount within our duty free allowance. It arrived about a week after we got home, which would be about 3 weeks after we bought it though at the factory they warned us it could take several months.
We left there and caught a bus to the "city center". Stoke on Trent is made up of 6 small cities or towns, Hanley being the main city. That was the "city center" and we decided to find a pub first for lunch. We found one in a narrow lane in behind the main street called the Pig and Truffle and had a filling lunch before going to the "Potteries". Now I had thought that was a shopping center that featured factory outlets. In fact, there were only two outlet stores, one for Royal Doulton, and the rest of it was just a large indoor shopping mall. Apparently you have to go to the factories themselves to shop at the factory outlets. Bit tricky without a car or having the time to take buses or taxis. No matter, we were more than happy to browse in those two shops which had some lovely things. We did notice, here and in a few other places on our journey in the UK that the Spode didn't seem to be much more expensive than it was when we bought it at the factory. Or so it seemed but we hadn't really taken close note of what we paid for each piece individually to compare.
Another purchase and shipping certificate gathered for Carole and we went outside, getting tired now. There was a small market in a square by the shopping centre but there wasn't too much of interest. We decided to go into Marks and Spencers to get some food for our supper tonight rather than eat out, sandwiches, yogurt, fruit, cookies. We got a bus back to Stoke and luckily the one we got went right down the same road as the laundrette so we stopped, picked that up and headed back to the hotel. Carole wasn't feeling too well so she wanted to have a lie down for an hour or so. I went to the hotel bar to write in my journal, do a few postcards and read for a bit and she joined me later. We ate in our room and watched television and got packed and ready for tomorrow. Train to Glasgow tomorrow!
Tuesday September 26
Ooh the shower in the room was wonderful! Lots of water pressure, hot, hot water, though climbing into the tub was a bit nerve wracking. Most of the tubs, I find, in hotels here, are a climb up into. You have to be really careful on the wet porcelain. It seems to me that breakfast was included but I haven't written anything down about it so we may have just finished our M&S goodies in our room with the tea things that accompany every hotel room in the UK.We went across to the station after checking out. Our bags seem to be getting much heavier! We discovered we had to cross the tracks to the platform required though an underground subway. Stairs!! Not normally a problem except the luggage is so heavy! I have to learn to travel lighter! We asked a station conductor if there was a lift and he took us to a cargo elevator that went up to an overhead walkway, bless him! We found the right car and settled in. We gave Alan money to buy our tickets ahead of time to get an advance purchase discount so you get your seat reserved as well. Better journey this time as there were no arm rests and we were able to spread out to a seat each to ourselves an hour after we were underway. It's an overcast, dreary day and the journey was 4 and a half hours to Glasgow.
We got a cab to the hotel, the Jurys in Glasgow's west end. Our room overlooks a pond with dozens of white swans swimming there! I've never seen so many in one place! The room is modern, with one double bed and one single. I offered to flip a coin for the double but Carole offered it to me. There is a sport center in the hotel, with a pool and jacuzzi, a small bar and a restaurant. We had a burger in the bar once we got settled in, our papers and passports in the hotel safe since we'll be here until Saturday morning. Found out the handiest route into town is a commuter train a few blocks away. The bus also goes on the main road but takes longer. Looks like the hotel is used by a lot of tour groups as we saw several buses out in the car park. It's raining hard and though we're excited to be in Scotland, WHEN is it going to stop raining!!? Tomorrow we plan to take a city tour of Glasgow and then get on and off at a few places. Thursday will probably be our day trip over to Edinburgh. Friday night is a "meet and greet" for the tour members. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing in our room, watching telly and sorting postcards.
Wednesday September 27
We saw the blue sky for about 10 minutes this morning when we got up. Sort of like the sunrise or sunset, a few minutes and then the show's over for the day! :) We walked past the hospital complex behind the hotel to the train station, really just a small platform and ticket office, the Hyndland stop. It cost £1.40 for a return ticket, pretty cheap, and goes right into Central Station or Queen Street Station, depending on which train comes first.Our goal is to find George Square and get one of the hop on hop off tour buses, run by ScotGuide. But first a wander through a pedestrian shopping street, I think it was Buchanan Street by Princes Square. We didn't go into the Prince's Square shopping center but window shopped along the street and did go into the Warner brothers store. Yes, it's an American store but the sign out front had Bugs bunny and the Tazmanian Devil wearing kilts and playing bagpipes!!! We walked through Royal Exchange Square by the large building that was, for awhile, the Royal Exchange and now houses a modern art gallery.
We found George Square, the main center of Glasgow where the lovely municipal buildings are. There are statues in the red-tiled square, large granite buildings and a mural type billboard along one side with a tourist information center in one building. The tour buses line up opposite the square from the municipal buildings and you can buy a ticket right from the driver. It was £7 for the 24 hour ticket. The Glasgow tour takes two routes, one through the older part of Glasgow that lasts about 40 minutes and then one through the newer west end that lasts about 50 minutes. The oldest part of Glasgow is east, around St. Mungo's cathedral, St. Mungo being the monk that more or less founded Glasgow. There is the Strathclyde University in this section of the city as well as Glasgow Green where the scaffold used to stand. In the Georgian west end is Glasgow University.
We did both routes first to get the lay of the land and see what we wanted to go back to later then went to find someplace for lunch, someplace warm!
We wandered back by the Modern Art museum and found a small café, called Costa, in the square there and were served a nice hot drink and a bun by a very cheeky Glaswegian who brightened up the dull rainy day by making us smile. That's something I have noticed, the Glaswegians seem to be so cheerful and fun loving, amazing considering the amount of rain here! :) After tea, we walked a few blocks to the St. Enoch's shopping center, one of the largest glass topped indoor shopping malls in Europe. Carole wanted to drop off her films at Boots for developing as she has had films ruined by airport xrays and prefers to get them done while she's away. I have never had a problem, personally and did not this time either. Plus I bought my film with the processing already included so since it was already paid for, I wasn't going to pay for it again :)
Back to the tour bus stop and we decided to explore the cathedral first. It's starting to shower now and by the time we get there, it's raining a bit heavier and too windy for umbrellas. We walked around the area for a few pictures then into the 13th century
cathedral. I really loved this cathedral - it's so grim looking on the outside with centuries of smoke seeped into it's stone exterior and it's dark on the inside (or probably that was because it was so dark outside). But it has wonderful stained glass windows and benches circling the pillars and old, old pews and a high altar with a soaring window behind it. One of the windows' design was a Celtic design in white, greens and turquoise blues. I tried to take a few photos, bracing myself and the camera for a few shots that the flash probably wouldn't be much use for. The cathedral isn't huge and cavernous like some I've been in and it isn't elaborately decorated but it's peaceful and beautiful with the front part at a bit of a lower level than the main nave and altar. The ceiling is oak and wood beamed and vaulted and exquisite!
We left there and headed for the bus stop though were only going one or two more stops away, to Glasgow Green where there is a Victorian building with a greenhouse on the back called the Winter Garden. This houses the People's Palace, a social history museum about the people of Glasgow, supposed to be from the 12th to 20th centuries but it seemed like it focused mainly on the 19th and 20th from the exhibits we saw. It had exhibits on life in the tenements, the temperance movement, civic politics, life
during the world wars, marriage, family life, the language ("patter") etc. It was quite entertaining and not a large museum so wasn't overwhelming. We didn't spend much time in the green house and decided to cross the green (in the rain) for the bus. We had to run for it but the driver saw us coming and waited. Off we got at St. Enoch's to pick up the photos. I bought some more film as they had a 3 for 2 deal of 36 exposure for I think £6.99 or £7.99. Seemed pretty reasonable. And 400 asa since the sun isn't likely to come out at this rate. That's the only down side. You enjoy your holidays but it would be nice not to be wet all the time!
Hungry now, it's past 5 and we go out into St. Enoch's square. There's a bar across the square called Times Square where we had a pint and a nice piece of breaded haddock. It restored our energy. Next stop was a post office for stamps and we wanted to buy a box to mail some stuff home to lighten our load! After that we wanted to get a little time in at the cyber "café" (no coffee in sight that I saw) which is across from Central station. Sent some email, checked a few of my regular sites to see if there were any photos posted yet from last week's goings on and a quick stop in the chat room.
We found the right platform for the train back to Hyndland but didn't fancy walking up the path to the hospital as it seemed like it might be a bit deserted so we took the other exit from the tunnel. Mistake! We walked up a long curving street lined with lovely red sandstone terraced houses but it seemed to take forever and we still had towalk quite a few blocks once few finally got back up to Great Western Road. It was dark by the time we got to the hotel, but we stopped in the petrol station store to get some snacks and drinks and a newspaper. Carole's photos were great, excellent photos of our visit to the Street set and all the other places and people we spent last week with! Tomorrow, Edinburgh. The tour bus driver told us just to get a cheap day return ticket from Queen Street station after 9:30.
Thursday September 28
Breakfast is included with the room and is a buffet of hot or cold so we stocked up with a big breakfast before heading to the train station. This time we were lucky and the train went to Queen Street instead of Central so we were where we needed to be right away! Also the ticket office at Hyndland was closed with a note to get the ticket on the train from the inspector. Only one never appeared so we got a free ride into the city! The return ticket to Edinburgh was £7.50 and leaves every 15 minutes or so from either end of the line. It's restricted to travel after 9:30 a.m. and you can't travel between 4:30 and 6:30 rush hour.Less than an hour and we're pulling into Waverly station. Wouldn't you know, it's starting to spit rain already. *sigh* There are city tour buses on Waverly bridge just as you come out of the train station so that's what we did, another of the hop on hop off tours. Once around the circuit and then decide where to get off. We had to sit inside the bus instead of up on the upper deck and the guide came inside as well. The bus was loud and noisy and drowned him out a bit so we didn't catch everything he said.
By the time we started on the second circuit, the rain had almost stopped. We got off at the stop for the castle though we weren't going inside because we knew the Globus tour included that next week. We did go up to the Esplanade for a look out over the Prince's Street Garden but then decided to go into Gladstone's Land. It's a National Trust house right on the Royal Mile, not far from the castle. It's a 16th to 18th century tenement house with a half a dozen rooms furnished with guides in each room to tell you what all the antiques are and how the merchant who owned the house would have lived there. It was very interesting and well worth a look. We also found out about a traditional Edinburgh "symbol". There was a double heart design inlaid into one of the cabinets and we asked the guide about it. It's a "Luckenbooth" she said, a double (sometimes you see a triple) heart with a crown on top. These designs were sold mainly as pins out of booths in the market, locked up at night so that they could be left on the market area. Locked booths. . . Luckenbooth. The pins were sometimes attached to babies' blankets for luck and they also symbolize love and friendship, basically the Scottish equivalent of the Claddagh I think. I have to have one but a ring, not a pin I think! Carole was able to buy a ring but they didn't have my size. A quest!
Lunch next and we ended up in the Deacon Brodie's café. Brodie was a well respected Edinburgher by day and a thief by night. The café is lined with murals depicting his life and trials and tribulations. He was caught eventually and hanged in 1788 by a scaffold of his own design. The food was ok, the server at the counter rushed and brusque. Suited the purpose. We walked around the Royal mile, poking into shops along the way. We explored into the catherdral, the High Kirk of Edinburgh, St. Giles where John Knox preached in his day. This cathedral is smaller than the one in Glasgow, more square in shape but a bit more decorated on the outside with a coronet style spire. It basically dates from the 14th century after an earlier church burned. The crown spire was erected in 1495 and later Charles I granted it cathedral status in 1633. Again, more lovely stained glass from various eras, including one designed by William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones. Interesting to see the different styles from the different periods. In one side tomb the sun was actually shining in through the window and throwing a multi coloured reflection on the wall above the memorial. That's James Montrose. Yes indeed, when we emerged, there was blue sky by God!
We walked across the North Bridge (Edinburgh has about 6 bridges, none of them go over water!) Down into Prince's street gardens to have a bit of a look though we didn't go right down to the bottom. The floral clock this year is a Millenium pattern. There's also a sweet little cottage on one end which is probably for the park caretaker. We walked and sat for awhile. Then decided that since the sun was out, we might take the city tour again to see some of the sights under blue sky for some photos. So we did! What a difference! It was interesting too, we have been on board for three different guides, the last being a really good one, a woman and she had us laughing over a few things. Each of them told us the same basic information but also each of them had a few different stories to add or a few different details! We walked down Rose Street, squinting into the now lowering sun, and trying to decide on a pub or restaurant for dinner. Most of the ones we looked into were a bit too smoky for our taste but we came to a cross street, Frederick Street it was and found a place that had a pub on one side and a restaurant on the other, slightly below street level, called the Victoria and Albert! Looked perfect! And we really enjoyed the food! Just sausage and mash but it was piping hot, with savoury onion gravy. The décor was very nice too with tapestry covered both benches, burgundy walls and a low ceiling. Recommended!
We caught the 7:30 train back to Glasgow and took a taxi back from the train station. I just didn't fancy any more walking! Tomorrow, more Glasgow and meeting the tour members tomorrow night!
Friday September 29
We got a box of stuff packed, I packed things like a couple of tshirts, a stack of postcards, several large paperbacks that I thought I'd have time to read but have only barely got into the one I did start. A few small souvenirs and booklets/brochures all of which were adding weight to my suitcase. Doesn't seem to have made a whole lot of difference though! We took the bus downtown this time and tried to get off near the Hope street post office but traffic got so bad we ended up a few stops away. Despatched our boxes and decided to walk along the pedestrian section of Sauchiehall Street (pronounced "Sockyhall"). Window shopped, poked into a few jewelry and book stores and decided to have lunch in the Willow Tea Rooms, which were one of a series designed by the turn of the century Art deco architect Charles Rennie MacIntosh. Every aspect of the tea room was designed by him right down to the dishes and cutlery. High ladder backed chairs and stylized roses and decorations. The afternoon tea with four quarters of a sandwich each with different fillings, a currant scone and dessert with tea of coffee for £7.95. They served it on a three tier chrome caddy with doilies on each plate and white dinnerware. Again, as it seems like everywhere in this island, thebathrooms are upstairs. . . three flights in this case! I guess they want to be sure you really need to go! I wonder what the disabled do? A lot of the public places seem very limited for access.
We walked up short very steep Douglas Street to see the Glasgow School of Art, also a MacIntosh building. It's very sleek and has his trademark windows containing many small panes. We peeked in the front entrance hall but there was a fee for a tour round the building and we decided just to browse in the gift shop where we each ended up buying a few prints. I got two of the building, one long narrow one that shows the front and two sides and the other was a stylized view by an art student, I'm going to describe it as sort of a "cubist" perspective view of the front but that's not exactly right. Like looking at the building through a wide wide angle lens that was broken up into little panes and fit back together a bit crookedly. I liked it though. Different.
Down to Sauchiehall and Buchanan streets more shopping. There's a nice indoor mall on Buchanan street and scads of people along the streets. We meandered along to George Square under the ever darkening cloudy sky, bought a few postcards and these canny little popup maps of Glasgow and Edinburgh in the tourist information center and decided to head back to the hotel. Our evening meal is included with the tour as the tour officially starts today as people arrive. The bus driver apparently had shattered dreams of being Mario Andretti or a former life as a cab driver in Rome! Back in one piece, the meet and greet is at 6, dinner at 6:30. We leave tomorrow morning on the bus at 8.
The meet and greet didn't go exactly as planned. We were supposed to have a separate room for the half hour but a wedding party arrived at the hotel early so that was scuppered and we crowded into the hotel bar. We met a few fellow tourists fairly quickly, a lovely newlywed couple in their 40's and a senior couple from Ontario traveling with their daughter and son-in-law. There was a single man around our age from San Francisco and another woman travelling alone from Tennessee. We found out later she and her husband were visiting relatives in Ireland but he declined to go on the tour so she came and will meet him back there at the end of the week. Our guide is Peter, a nice man around late 30's or early 40's, a Londoner and our coach driver is Alec, who appears to be in his 50's and a Scot. Our prayers to the travel Gods appear to have worked, The crowd isn't *all* seniors (not a bad thing but it's always nicer to have a group of varied ages) and so far those we have met aren't "weird" LOL! That's a reference to something a tour guide told me once years ago, he prays to the travel Gods before each of his tours . . . "Please let them be normal!"
Dinner was pretty good and we got to see the bridal party on their way through the dining room to the private rooms, most of the males of all ages, including a little one in his stroller (push chair) in kilts! Lovely ! I do so love full dress kilts! We see them on occasion here in Nova Scotia as well. One man had a plaid over his shoulder and a lot of silver medalions and pins. The Clan Laird perhaps? :)
Back to our room to pack. Nice that someone else gets to lug the bags for a week! A bit of Canadian news has filtered through, our former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau has passed away! He'd not been well before we left but the public statements were such that it wasn't serious. But his children had flown in and his ex wife was there. I wasn't that surprised to hear of his passing. He was popular in his declining years even if he wasn't all that while he was in office in the 70's. He was always flamboyant though and well admired by a lot of people.
So the tour proper begins tomorrow.....
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