On the road again with yet more wet weather. We took the ‘high road’ (read: the long way) to Loch Lomond. The road was fairly narrow and between the busses, lorries and caravans being towed by land rovers, it got a bit tight at times. The Scots will let anyone drive on these roads!



We drove past Taymouth Castle on Loch Tay along side Ben Lawers and further on we saw the Falls of Dochart at Killin. Further on we passed Loch Lubhair and then headed south until we finally reached the bonny banks of Loch Lomond.



We stopped for Balloch where I gathered some financial evidence of the price parity between Australia and the UK - £3.19 (30p upsized) for a Big Mac extra value meal.



We drove on into the outer suburbs of Glasgow and made our way into the city centre at a painful 30mph on a 3 lane wide main road! We finally found our way into the city centre and pulled up in a car park near George Square.

The square is almost as large as Victoria Square in Adelaide, except it only has roads going around it (not through the middle). The centre of the square is open and dotted with statues of famous folk such as Robbie Burns, James Watt and Walter Scott.



After visiting the TIC, we took a walk around the city and passed the Gallery of Modern Art; the old Tobacco Lords Merchant City Trail where many of the old tobacco buildings were now occupied by other modern businesses.

We found a big red Police Signal Box – this type of pre-cast concrete police box was first placed on Glasgow’s streets in 1931 and by the early 1940’s Glasgow had a network of 323 on-street boxes. This represents more than 10 boxes per square mile of the city, and almost one box for every 3000 persons of the city’s then population. The box provided police officers with miniature offices, and offered welcome shelter and a means of remote communications via telephone.



This style of box replaced the network of cast iron boxes originally placed on Glasgow’s streets in 1891. Prior to the introduction of the ‘999’ emergencvy phone system, the police box represented the only way for the public to remotely contact the police in an emergency. By opening a small door, a member of the public could speak into a microphone and be in contact with a police operator. The police box was also used to contact police officers on the beat by flasgint the light on top of the box when they wanted to talk to a nearby officer!

This style of box was also found in London and its image was popularised world-wide by the BBC’s Dr Who television program. By the 1970’s the London police had demolished all of its 600 boxes. Glasgow’s boxes were originally painted red and not blue like the London boxes.

We walked on and passed some amazing architectural sights in the form of old buildings and the mix of new ones blending in almost seamlessly. As we came around almost full circle, we decided to fetch the car from the park before heading up to the Tenement House, a National Trust display of what life was like in a tenement house in the 1800’s.

We headed back to Castle Street to the Glasgow Cathedral where we found another police box, blue this time. We parked nearby and walked past a statue of Norman MacLeod and then across the street to the Cathedral.



More amazing ancient architecture, impossibly high arches and fantastic stained glass windows adorned this huge cathedral. One of the most intriguing features of the cathedral is the transept-like projection known as the Blackadder Aisle. It was once thought to be entirely the work of Archbishop Robert Blackadder (1483-1508), whose arms appear at several points upon it. On the evidence of its architectural detail, however, it is now believed to have been started as part of Bishop Bondington’s plan, as a two-storied projection.



After a long drive back to Aviemore we stopped for dinner at the Cairngorn Hotel for a nice meal and half a pint of ale. The piper played his tune, so we retired for the night back at the cottage.