Trip with the Fam Jam - Glasgow and Carlisle

Since my last post I had my birthday, went to one more formal, this time at St. Hugh's and term ended. That's about all that happened. It was full of hard work and not much time for anything else.

My mom and my brother, Barry, came to visit me, but they flew into Glasgow instead of London. While they were here and we went to see Scotland, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen, along with northern Britain, Carlisle. The trip will be divided into three posts so that they're not too long. The first one, this one will be first four day, Glasgow and Carlisle. The second will be Edinburgh and the third Aberdeen and back to Glasgow.

Barry and Mom were supposed to land in Glasgow at 9:30am on Sunday March 15th and I wanted to meet them at the airport, so I headed to Glasgow on Saturday. It was a five and a half hour train ride from Oxford to Glasgow, but I only had to change trains once which was nice. Sadly, it being Saturday all the nice seats next to the windows were reserved so I got stuck in the seats in between the windows so that it was hard to see the lovely country side. I got to sit next to the window for the last hour of the train ride which was nice. I saw lots of sheep and what they call "mountains" here, which look like big hills! I'm only teasing, but they were pretty small mountains compared to what I'm used to. They were still lovely and snow capped. When I got to Glasgow I went straight to my hotel and didn't do anything for rest of the night except go to the grocery store and buy supper and fruit. The next morning I woke up and headed off to the airport. It was much more complicated then I thought it would be. There's no train to the airport, so I had to take the bus. An airport bus stopped right outside the hotel, but it didn't begin running until later in the day. I walked the 30 minutes downtown to catch the bus pretty much back the way I came. However, all that matters is that I got to the airport and safely got Mom and Barry, but we took a taxi back because they were tired and I didn't think I could figure out the bus again!

At Glasgow I stayed at the Argyll Hotel. Well, Mom and Barry did too, but they had their own room. I stayed in the Clan Buchanan room, so everything had their tartan on it and their history and motto was posted on the wall in a frame. It was very interesting. Barry and Mom, didn't have a themed room sadly. After we dropped their stuff off we went and explored a nearby museum, the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. The building was quite interesting and so we the exhibits on things to do with Scotland; however, like a lot of general museums there were your token general displays about the formation of the Earth and stuffed animals. We didn't stay too long because Barry and Mom were pretty much falling asleep standing up, so we decided to go for a walk. We wandered around Glasgow pretty much just being lost. We eventually made it to the water and found a bridge and a building my Mom wanted to see. After that we headed back towards our hotel, kind of just guessing how to get there. On the way back we saw this pub called the Grumpy Goat which was painted this baby blue and looked really interesting. We went inside for supper and it was so good! I had mushroom risotto and then cheese cake for dessert. I was so full and happy after that meal. Barry and Mom both said theirs were really good too. You know it's true because when we came back to Glasgow at the end of the trip that's where we went again for supper.

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

Where we went for supper 

Carlisle Castle

We headed back to the hotel to sleep and the next morning headed off to Carlisle which is technically in England, but we wanted to see Hadrian's Wall and from the internet that seemed like the best place to go to see it. When we got there we dropped our stuff off at the hotel and decided to wander around for the rest of the day. They have a castle in Carlisle which I looked up and really wanted to see, but sadly we were there before tourist season began so the castle was only open on the weekends and it was a weekday. We still walked around the outside of it and it was pretty amazing. It would have been nice to go inside.

Carlisle Cathedral

Following that we went to Carlisle Cathedral which was very spectacular. Part of the outside was under construction, but it was still really nice to look at. It had all the surrounding buildings still were the clergymen used to live. We went inside and it was a very nice cathedral with pretty stained glass. After exploring the Cathedral we got an early supper and headed back to our hotel room because the next day we were going to go to Hadrian's Wall.

The next morning we got up and went to catch this tiny bus that went through the country to get off close to Hadrian's Wall. There were two stops we could get off at: one in this small village and another by the Roman Army Museum. We got off at the first one thinking it would be an easy walk to the Museum after; however, we were wrong about that! When we got off the bus there was a sign pointing to go down this small path to a field which looked empty. Barry and I stood there as Mom went and looked over the hill which had train tracks on top. Barry and I eventually followed. I got mud all over myself. Some how Barry remained clean. He seems to have a knack for that! On the other side of the train tracks there was part of Hadrian's Wall, an old mill tower. It was really cool to see something so old just there right next to train tracks and a field of sheep! You could still see the outline of the tower and some of the rooms inside along with the wall coming off of the sides. It was really an experience! I could go into great detail about who Hadrian was, a Roman Emperor, but if you want to learn about him here is a link instead: Hadrian's Wall

After that we then had to find our way to the Roman Army Museum which felt like quite a trial. There is a Hadrian's Wall path we could follow, but sometimes it wasn't clear where it was going, so we ended up walking along a small country road for an hour. We kept trying to go on the path, but it all seemed to go back the way we came. It would have been nice to have a map of the Hadrian's Wall path to follow, but all that matters is that in the end we made it to the Museum after a long walk, many sheep, and a steep hill at the end! Museum Link

The Roman Army Museum was interesting. It gave a brief overview of the Roman's attempts to invade England and then Scotland, and gave the history of the Wall, how it was built, why, and what it looked like. After spending time in the Museum we went to see the largest remaining section of the Wall, and let me tell you. It was worth the long walk! We had to climb up another hill, but as we reached the summit this wall rose out of the ground! It was still quite tall, some parts are tall as Barry and not many shorter then Mom. We followed it for a good ten minutes before we reached the end! It was really amazing how something that old with so much history was still standing there. I was able to image the glory and intimidation with which Hadrian's Wall once stood. It is things like that which make me want to study history and give me the desire to learn more!

We caught the bus at the bottom of the hill in the parking lot and made our way back to Carlisle where we had some greek food for supper and headed to sleep. I know I can say this for the all of us when I say that Hadrian's Wall was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. Just the size and the organization to build something like that is magnificent!

Next post will be on Edinburgh! Sorry it has been so long since my last update! There has been lots of travelling happening followed by a ton of work!