UK Vacation: Day 10

Our final morning in Glasgow started at Rose & Grant's Cafe where Hubby and I both ordered french toast and coffee. Superb! Scottish accents vary from city to city and I found that the Glaswegian accent was very difficult for me to decipher compared to the Edinburgh accent. Hubby, luckily, seemed to understand the folks in Glasgow just fine! The rest of our morning was spent at Dumbarton Castle, the location suggested by the friendly owner of the Beinglas Farm Campsite. We took ScotRail west from Glasgow to the small town of Dumbarton. We had our first train mishap where we missed our stop and in a wonderful display of kindness, a local walked with us and gave us directions to ensure we made it to the castle safely. Missing the stop actually ended up being fine, as we got to see the town on foot. Dumbarton was a beautiful mix of an old city center with small businesses taking up residence in traditional stone buildings and neighborhoods of newer, single family homes with manicured lawns. After so much time in the big cities and deep in the country, it was nice to see how the suburban residents lived.

Dumbarton Castle was a vision to behold! The oldest stronghold in Scottish history dating back to the Iron Age had over 500 steps to navigate.

The Guard House

The French Prison

White Tower Crag - The highest point of the castle
You can't tell in this picture but Hubby was feeling quite sick at this point.

360 degree view!

After completing our tour of Dumbarton Castle, we hopped back on the ScotRail train and took it to Charring Cross where we (once again) walked to the the Tenement House Museum. According to their website: "At first glance, the Tenement House appears to be an ordinary middle-class tenement from the late 19th century, standing in Garnethill. However, when you step inside, the faithfully restored four rooms appear as if frozen in time and provide a rare glimpse into life in Glasgow in the early 20th century." This was by far the most expensive museum we visited during our stay but was wroth the price to see the beautifully curated items and talk to the knowledgable staff.

The Tenement House: Not my picture

Since we skipped lunch, we decided on an early dinner at Villa Toscana, an Italian restaurant recommended to me by one of my online acquaintances. By this time, Hubby had a raging fever and I had started getting a sore throat. Both of us were fairly certain that our time in the mold infested hotel room was to blame for this onset. The food was marvelous (I selected the gnocchi) but the portions were more than we could handle. Based on the sickness that was about to overtake us, we called it a night, opting to go back to the apartment to do laundry and pack our bags.

Villa Toscana, Glasgow

Step Count: 19,609