Hi, and Welcome back. As you know, Anne and I spent Hogmanay (new Year’s) in Glasgow. I’ve told you about the party and now I want to tell you about what we did in Glasgow,
We arrived the evening of the 30th and checked into our hotel, The Millennium. Then we went out to get some dinner. We found a wonderful Italian restaurant, La Vita, right around the corner in George Square. It was very crowded, but they were able to seat us upstairs on the balcony, as long as we were out in 1 hour 45 minutes, when they had a reservation for that table. No problem, we said. We had a good view of the entire restaurant. The food was very good. And considering how busy they were, the service was excellent. Then we walked around the Queen Square to see the Christmas Fair.
La Vita Italian 
Christmas Fair in Queen Square 
Christmas Decoration
The 31st we took a Hop on/Hop off tour of the city of Glasgow. Like most Hop On/Hop Off tours, it was a double decker bus, with the top open. It was too cold for that, however, and we sat downstairs. It was a wonderful tour but all the museums and attractions were closed because of the holiday. Fortunately, the Clydeside distillery was open and we went in to have a cup of tea and a bite. We bought some “raw whiskey”. That means before it goes into the cask to age. Kind of like moonshine.
Whiskey before the cask 
The copper still 
Anne’s Whiskey Doughnut
The rest of the tour showed historical places, modern places of interest and some important pubs.
Wait, all pubs are important in Scotland!
The Armadillo is not the actual name the architect intended. However, the Glaswegians (people from Glasgow) have a habit of naming things they way they see them.
House from 1474 
Minicipal Cemetary 
The Armadillo, a new concert venue
The Tennents Pub is famous as the last pub in Glasgow to not allow women.. as recently as the 70’s s women were not allowed. The women finally got fed up with this situation and chained themselves to the bar. That worked. In fact, since then, not only are women welcome, but all the managers have been women. Then: Find the Traffic Cone. Glasweigans like to put traffic cones in the most interesting places, probably after a trip to the pub.
Tennant’s Pub 
Inside Tenneant’s Pub 
Find the Traffic Cone
Finally, we learned an important lesson about Scottish justice. In a criminal trial there are three possible verdicts: Guilty, Not Guilty, and Unproven. Unproven means that “You did it. We know you did it. But we can’t prove you did it. Don’t do it again.” Hence the expression:
Getting off Scot free.
That’s it for today. Come back again for more stories of Scotland. Bye.