knowing that our 4th anniversary was coming up, we began looking online for cheap tickets on Ryan Air ... having only a weekend, we didn't want to go to far ... also wanted to go to a country we hadn't been ... so in the end we chose Scotland ... $0.01 round trip tickets (plus Euro 40 in taxes) ... score! the land of bagpipes, kilts and Sean Connery ... romantic, eh?

we took off friday nite and were in Glasgow by 9:00 ... again, having only a weekend, we decided we would limit ourselves to just exploring Glasgow ... its a big town with plenty to see & do. we hopped on the train from the airport that got us right downtown ... our hotel/pension was on the west end so we took a taxi ... dropped our stuff off and went off in search of dinner ... ended up having some great Indian food ... like london, there is a large Indian population in Glasgow ... great food!

the little pension we stayed at was great ... perfect location to explore from ... the old gothic Glasgow University and Kelvingrove Museum were right around the corner ... it was about a 15 min walk into the city center. my only complaint about the place was that the fire alarm went off in the middle of the night ... thankfully no fire, but not the way i want to be woken up.

they served a full Scotish breakfast there ... eggs, tomato, porridge, beans, potato, sausage ... definitely a good way to start off the day. spent all day saturday wandering the town ... they have a great hop on - hop off bus service there ... takes you to all the main sites in the city ... got a chance to see a lot of cool places, museums, architecture ... most of the museums in Glasgow are free ... so just wander in and spend as much or as little time as you want.

The museums were fascinating ... odd collection of social/cultural history, ancient history, nature, art, etc ... this photo here is of the recently re-opened Kelvingrove Museum





by late afternoon, some rain had moved in, so we decided to catch a movie ... in english ... a real treat for us! saw the new 'Pirates' movie ... by the time it was done the rain had moved on ... still cool (60s) and damp ... something else we're not used to in Germany ... has been in the 90s.

we spend the balance of the weekend eating some great food...drinking some great cask ale ... found a great pub called the drum & monkey ... went there twice





explored Glasgow University on Sunday ... beautiful school ...









we also walked to the north side to check out the botanical gardens ... nice place on a sunday afternoon ...





we had a great weekend ... got a chance to explore a new place ... see some great museums, art & architecture. only one key thing was missing ... not one mention of Sean Connery ... i dreamed of seing him in some dark pub asking the waitress for some "spicy mustard" in a way that only Sean Connery could ... turns out, he's an Edinburgh boy ... Glasgow and Edinburgh are like oil & water, i guess. i will have to return to Scotland again and continue my quest for Connery

thats all for now ... we're enjoying a nice quiet weekend at home ... our close family friend Mike is recovering well from a recent heart attack, and i'm thankful for that ... Harm's brothers just started school this week ... ha ha ... Niko's first day of high school (makes me feel really old) ... thats about it. hope everyone is well ... later! t