Paisley & Glasgow; Sunday, 11 November, 2007

After the early starts for the conference, and yesterday for the tour, I had intended on having a nice long lie in this morning. Unfortunately, someone at the ETAP had decided differently, and in the process of getting the croissants heated for breakfast managed to set the fire alarm off, albeit briefly at half six. Thankfully, we didn’t need to evacuate, but it still meant that whilst I was able to drift back off, I didn’t have the solid nights sleep I had been hoping for.

After breakfast (which did appear to have some slightly burnt croissants as part of it) I grabbed my things ready for a day trip out to one of Scotland’s many islands. I walked into town to Central station and got there with nearly 40 minutes to spare before the train.

Or I would have had 40 minutes if it were not for the fact that it’s a Sunday, despite all the SNPs hard work Scotland is still part of the UK, and consequently the almost inevitable “Plannedsundayengineeringworksbussesreplacetrains” (it’s so common that it might as well all be one word!) was happening. I wandered out the front of the station and caught the replacement bus out to, of all places, Paisley, where the trains were starting from. The bus took 20 minutes longer that the train would have done, and consequently I made the train, rather than missing it, which I would have done, had I arrived at Central station much later.

The train runs to Wemyss Bay where you change onto the CalMac ferry across to the island of Bute. My reason for visiting was two fold, firstly for the stunning journey along the banks of the Clyde towards Wemyss, and the across the sea to Bute. Secondly it was to visit the castle in the capital of the islands Rothesay.

The castle is important not only to Scottish but also to British history. It was built in the 13th Century and lost twice to, and recaptured from, the Vikings in the first hundred years. The family who built it were the Stewarts, and it was their descendents, who made the castle their home, who first became kings of Scotland, and then in 1603, after the death of Elizabeth, James VI of Scotland became James I of England as well, and united the crowns of the two countries.

Much of the castle today is in ruins, but the main entrance has been rebuilt and houses a small museum.

Having looked around the castle I had a wander around the town for a short while before heading back to the ferry to take the journey back in the opposite direction. I arrived back in Glasgow a little before sunset so I caught the train out to the Exhibition centre and took some photos of a winters sunset on the Clyde, the cranes silhouetted against the clear sky, next to the modern bridges and the armadillo (Scottish exhibition and conference centre).

I walked back to the hotel and dropped off my stuff before wandering out for a bite to eat, and then an early night, in the hope of no more fire alarms.