British Isles Travels-Glasgow, Scotland

This day we docked at Greenock, Scotland and planned to take the train 45 minutes into Glasgow to visit our first Scottish city. This was our ninth day of non stop tourism so as we ran to catch the train (a mile from the cruise terminal) in the pouring rain, we decided to give ourselves a break and stay close to the ship. Besides, on the way to the train station we passed by a magazine store (Jim’s favorite) and believe it or not, a SCRAPBOOK store (guess whose favorite??). If that wasn’t a sign... At this point I must describe the design of this Scottish town. To get from the cruise ship to the train station the Scots of this town direct you straight through their MALL. It’s a regular shopping mall, but that’s the only easy way to get to the train. Clever. The other amazing thing about Greenock happened as we started back to the ship. Jim and I were huddled together under one umbrella, when an elderly couple stopped us (under a shelter) and apologized for the bad weather and said they hoped it would not ruin our lovely holiday. We were covered with cameras so they could tell we were tourists, of course. Anyway, they showed us to their new library and said from there we could email our families free of charge. How sweet was that? So after returning to the ship we spent the afternoon napping and doing laundry; by now, we were out of socks and the laundry was only a few doors away. Restful afternoon. Travel Note: After years of cruising I can finally remember the difference between the port and starboard sides of the ship. When you are onboard a ship and facing the bow (front), the port side is the left side. Just remember that the words PORT and LEFT each have four letters. That makes the right side the starboard. This is important to know when planning a cruise because the view will be different depending on which side of the ship you are on. I wanted to make sure we saw the western coast of Ireland so we chose a starboard room, then found out the cruise went between Ireland and England and not around the western side of Ireland. So much for knowing what you are doing!! MA