James Watt

June already! Mandy had planned our day to see Glasgow, so we headed off by bus into the city centre after breakfast. Occasionally it drizzled on us, but not enough to spoil the adventure.

In the morning we walked past the old Exchange building (now the Museum of Modern Art) and the old City Hall into the Merchant Quarter through one of the old gates. They've turned a number of old warehouses into modern markets and cafe spaces which are really lovely.

We had morning tea at Starbucks where the sign proudly displayed - "New! Introducing the 'Flat White', a creamy cup of rich coffee.", and it was only 50p dearer than a cappuccino. We had to laugh!

Up the hill to Glasgow Cathedral. Now I'm not usually a rap for cathedrals - there's only so many you can take - but this one was really impressive.They've integrated the old with the new (organ, lighting, heating) really well. There are three worship spaces in the building, and an undercroft with the tomb of St Mungo which has drawn pilgrims down through the centuries. It's the only remaining, original pre-reformation church in mainland Scotland.

However, the truly impressive thing is the wonderful stained glass windows. Probably about 30 large windows in total, and its really hard to get a picture that does justice to the scope of it all.

Back into the city centre for lunch, then we walked down to the Clyde, and along the banks for a fair hike. It's hard to imagine what it would have been like when 20,000 men were employed down there on any one day. The noise and activity would have been great. However, today there were only swans and ducks.

Nowadays they've redeveloped lots of it into parks, paths and waterfront apartments, exhibition centres (a la Jeff's Shed) and restaurants. We walked through Glasgow Green and visited the People's Palace which is kind of a museum of Glasgow culture and kitch, with pictures, film and artifacts from down the years, including a large painting of Billy Connolly and snippets of his shows.

In the park outside was a statue of James Watt, of whom I am a descendant, and a rock to mark where his factory was when he invented the steam engine. Observed a 2 minute silence to commemorate the family's contribution to humanity.

Took the bus back home and cooked some tea. After tea, just for something different, we looked at a slideshow of over 800 pictures that we have taken so far on this trip. Russia seems such a long time ago.