Train from Greenock to Glasgow

We arrived into Greenock around 7:30 in the morning cruising up the Inverclyde river to the port in Greenock.  We disembarked about 8:30 and were met by the Inverclyde Tourist group that consists of retired people who love to share their town and the area with the tourists.  One of the people in our group asked Anne Tansil (who arranged the tour) "is that 90 year old women our driver".  Fortunately, the driver was a young man, but we had two older ladies who did all the talking on the bus describing the area and the buildings.  Our first stop was the West Kirk Church.  It is a Presbyterian Church built in 1591.  It was absolutely incredible.  They still have stained glass windows in the church that were made by famous artists from the area at that time.  The church was actually moved from it's original location in the 1800's when it was in the middle of a shipyard.  The ship building company wanted to tear it down, but the members refused to sell and only came to an agreement when the shipyard owners agreed to move the church to its present location brick by brick.  Just one giant lego set.  The lady who told us all about the church still attends regular services there every week.  We then got back on the bus and drove to a town called Gourek.  We saw beautiful scenery and the guide pointed out different Lochs from our vantage point.   After that we stopped at the most incredible garden center for a coffee break.  Upon returning to our bus we were driven to the Town Hall and we were taken to a beautiful reception room where we were greeted by the Mayor's wife with apologies that he was unable to greet us due to very important interviews that were taking place.  That was okay though because she greeted us like dignitaries and told us stories about the town and the building.  We were shown a bathroom that used to be a storage room, but in 1958 Queen Elizabeth came to Greenock for a visit and they were told that she would need her own bathroom so they built this bathroom especially for Queen Elizabeth.  I was able to take a picture of it, so now I have a picture of the Queen's throne.  After our tour of the town hall, the tour was over, but some people wanted to take another tour with this group, and some of us wanted to take the train into Glasgow.  Ten of us were dropped off at the train station and caught the train shortly after noon.  We got off at the Glasgow Central Train Station about 40 minutes later.  The train station was in a beautiful old building.  Unfortunately  we made a bad decision and chose to eat lunch in a pub that somehow could not serve us very fast, and an hour and a half later we finally left the pub.  I did learn one thing, they still have the 2 beer lunch here.  Anyway by that time we were out of time to take the hop on hop off bus, and we basically walked around the block back to the train station and returned to Greenock.  As I told several of them at dinner last night, "We'll always have Glasgow."  We walked back through Greenock to the ship, and actually I was able to do a little shopping in Greenock.  Sorry Billy, no kilts.  Did you know that kilts can cost more than a man's suit.  I was able to find a store that carried them and found out what tartan the Boyle family would wear.  The Boyle name belonged to 2 different clans.  We could actually choose the Douglas or Kennedy clan tartan.  The man at the store showed me both and I liked the Kennedy Tartan, but I preferred the Douglas kilt pin.  After that stopped I walked back to the ship with Warren Crain and arrived back onboard around 5:30 p.m.  As you can see it was quite a day, but "We'll always have Glasgow."

Right now we are on our way to Bergen, scheduled to arrive tomorrow morning.  It's already noon and I haven't eaten today which I think might be illegal on ship.  So far I'm taking it easy at breakfast and lunch, but I go all out at dinner.  Last night I had escargot that were delicious.  The soup I selected was onion (delicious), and my main course was duck a la 'orange.  I really just wanted to pick up the duck and gnaw it off of the bone.  The serving was very small, and the waiter offered to bring me more if I wanted it, but I told him I would make up for it with dessert, and so I did.  For dessert I had harlequin souffle that was just sublime and I had a bowl of mint chocolate chip icecream.  Just a perfect finish to a perfect day.

Today is just a day onboard so I'll skip writing tonight and I try to write again tomorrow after Bergen.

Love you all, Beth