Taken at Springfield Quay with rows of holiday homes by the river - many left unattended and empty.
Bidding farewell to Edinburgh, we left early for Glasgow. Many people told us that there was nothing much to see in Glasgow but we decided to go anyway. The day was gloomy and cold. It rained all the way. It's not fair for me to say that Glasgow is uninteresting because we didn't actually explore the city. We stayed at Etap Hotel at Springfield Quay with very cheap rate, at 38 British pound per night for a room for 3 people. However the room and the hotel are clean and the people are friendly. What surprised me which my eyes couldn't believe, was the entrance to the hotel - very near dumpsters. We thought we made a mistake and drove around to find the hotel entrance. But that was the only entrance unless we drove to the sixth floor of the car park, I guess. The hotel reception is on the 6th floor.
Being very near a harbour, the scenery was quite pleasant.
Restaurants, cinemas, gambling house which is named 'Mecca' and riverside apartments are situated there. Unfortunately, for grocery we have to walk quite a distance to a supermarket in town. Since it was raining, we chose to rest our tired body by sleeping after taking a walk by the river.
The esplanade along River Clyde at the quay is pretty and good for walking exercise. The pedestrian bridge connecting the town to the other side of the river was attractive.
The pleasant esplanade by the river.
The pedestrian bridge connecting both banks of River Clyde at Springfield Quay.
The next day, 26 September, Jin and I drove out of Glasgow to Lock Lomond. We had heard and read how beautiful Loch Lomond is and we wanted to see it with our own eyes. The GPS couldn't register Loch Lomond and again it was stressful to me when we lost our way. We found a cab driver stopping by the roadside who was kind enough to log in Dumbarton in th GPS and told us that we would find our way to Loch Lomond by road signs. True enough we did. We had been lucky so far that every time we lost our way we found very helpful people to show us the right direction.
At Dumbarton, a small calm town, we stoppped at Dumbarton Castle but unfortunately it was closed under restoration.
Along the narrow path to the castle, we found blackberry shrubs bearing black berries. Unable to restrain ourselves we picked a few blackberries to taste. The thorny shrubs prevented us from going in further.
Dumbarton Castle was built on volcanic rock 335 million years ago. Originally of cooled lava blocking a volcano mouth, the softer rocks around it have been eroded leaving the hard rock where the castle was built prominently above the estuary. Over 1,500 years ago, the rock served as the centre of British kingdom of Strathclyde.
Jin at the Dumbarton Castle entrance.
The old cannon guarded the Castle.
The route to Loch Lomond was scenic with pretty villages and small towns. We reached Loch Lomond Shores successfully. Since the weather was sunny, there were a lot of visitors there. I wasn't very impressed with Loch Lomond, compared to Lake District, maybe because we didn't explore other parts of Loch Lomond due to time constraint. However it has beautiful, serene and gorgeous views.
At boat launching site of Loch Lomond Shores.
A playground at the mall in Loch Lomond Shores.
Stunning view of Loch Lomond with cruise boats standing by for passengers.
Jin relaxing at the lakeside of the mall in Loch Lomond Shores.
On the way back to Glasgow, we decided to detour to Stirling to see Stirling Castle and the town. Stirling Castle is part of historic Scotland where long time ago, kings, nobles and foreign ambassadors came to revel in the castle grandeur. But we didn't go into the castle, just stopped at the castle ground.
View of surrounding area of Stirling Castle. We stopped at the Castle ground without entering the castle proper.
At the ground of Stirling Castle.
We abandoned the idea of going to Killin to see the other side of Loch Lomond because it was getting dark and driving back to Glasgow would be a problem.
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