» Week 21 -Karen’s Summary of Glasgow Travelling Europe With Kids

We’ve just finished our week at Glasgow and left in the sunshine only to drive into the rain! Rain was a major feature of the week but hey that’s Scotland!

Out apartment is very nice inside, with two double bedrooms which meant the kids had to share again, two bathrooms and a good size kitchen and living room. Plus a big TV and heaps of books for the kids to read.

On Sunday we went to church in the nice part of town – the houses were very expensive looking compared to the blocks of flats closer to the city. We had a little trouble getting into the church because we were 10 minutes late (Cossey style, but to say in our defence, there were traffic lights at every corner and they were all red) and they had shut the doors and we had to ring a door bell! Apparently they have to shut the door, otherwise the local kids come in during the service and run around the rest of the building causing a bit of trouble. Maybe they need a rad youth pastor who likes to work with community kids ..I could just see Sunday basketball downstairs while church is going on upstairs.

The lady who let us in knew Peter’s lecturer from Carey Baptist College, which was kinda nice. The sermon was excellent and the people very friendly (despite the closed doors) so we were glad we had persisted through all the red lights to find the place (we did have a big discussion in the car about roadblocks/red lights – is that God telling you not to go ahead or to be persistent, ie does lots of red lights mean we shouldn’t go to church. What about a closed door, should we keep trying of just go home? Luckily the doorbell was right there! Shame in some of life’s “roadblocks” the doorbell isn’t always so easy to find – perhaps the doorbell is simply prayer and trust). OK, enough sermon, how about the rest of the week?

The first place we went to was the Kellerman Museum which was an eclectic mix of Natural History, Scottish Art and History, Armour and Artic environments. There was a kids ‘olympics’ which Daniel and Amy got into – they particularly liked the archery! It was a great place to go to get out of the rain and we all enjoyed it.

Natural History Animal on Display.

Just walking around Glasgow was enjoyable. We liked it so much we went into town three times.

The last time we shopped for 2 hours trying to find Amy a jacket, which totally did in Daniel, poor boy.

He’s never been a clothes shopper and I’m afraid he hates it even more after Glasgow. It’s no fun now he’s no longer four and can’t run under and into all the racks of clothes. He use to love that..thankfully he’s also too old now to pull off the bras from the lingerie department and yell out at from across the room “What’s this Mum?” like he use to do when he was little.

Anyhow, the other time we went into Glasgow was much more successful – the Museum of Modern Art were having a kids painting day and Daniel and Amy got to paint on the pavement with spray bottles, cardboard cut-outs and rope. It was a lovely sunny day and PC and I got to sit and drink coffee while watching them express themselves. It was great!

Another rainy day we went to the Riverside Museum which was full of old cars, trains, trams and motorbikes. It also had a Victorian Street scene with lots of information about each shop.

The cobblers was interesting as was the subway and the dressmakers. Here’s a joke from a Victor Borge video we’ve been watching..

I found a ticket from 40 years ago in my father’s jacket pocket for the repair of a pair of shoes. I knew the shoemakers was still in business, though it had changed hands several times since my father’s time. I took the ticket in and handed it to the guy behind the counter, saying “I’ve come to collect these” Without looking up the guy took the ticket and said, “they’ll be ready tomorrow”.

Made me laugh…

The rest of our time in Glasgow was full of maths, spelling, history and writing.. the kids got some homeschooling done this week!

It’s actually School Summer Break over here in Scotland, but we keep teaching when we can because we have so many days off sightseeing (which are educational but don’t help us finish the maths book by the end of the year..). Anyway what kind of summer break is it when it rains all the time…

Which brings me to Peter’s explanation of why Hadrian’s wall got it’s name.. apparently it had nothing to do with Emperor Hadrian. It was named by some poor Roman General who couldn’t spell and it was a comment on his opinion of England…’Had Rain…’ poorly spelt as “Hadrian”

Don’t worry, Peter’s not taking the History lessons..