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Recent News... Just for Pope Gregory... |
2001-11-26 - 11:40 a.m. U.K. Day 15: Boxing Bunnies The hotel includes breakfast with the room - so we lingered over tea and toast talking to Meng and Brian. They were heading out to Doune and Bothwell castles. Tara planned to shop and check out the Willow Tea room - designed by the architect Mackintosh, a favorite of Tara's. I think Matt and Q planned to drink. Courtney was doing some shopping. Anyway, it's my diary, so let's get back to me. We went over to Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum in Kelvingrove Park. Glasgow University is on the other edge of the park. Wonderful armor collection in the museum. So good, in fact, we had to go back to the hotel to download the camera pictures to make room for more. And, unlike the Ashmolean, they know how to display it. They had an entire display on armor closures - pins, hinges, straps, locking pins - how they kept it all together. Also, a nice display of several centuries of spurs, neatly labeled and in chronologically order - made it easy to see the evolution. Lots of wheellocks and guns. Upstairs had a nice collection of pictures, a handful of Italian Renaissance paintings, a few pre-Raphaelites. The funniest part was the wildlife photography display - prizewinners of various photo contests. My favorite was the boxing hares - literally, two snow hares up on their hind legs, punching each other. [Guy rabbits gets in the mood and courts the female by squirting, um, urine at her. If the female isn't in the mood, she punches the guy rabbit and that's how the boxing match starts. Put a whole new spin on the expression "Boff like bunnies." Personally, I'd always punch the guy.] We walked around Kelvingrove a bit, then wandered through Glasgow University to the Hungerian Museum - nice collection of coins. Cool display starting in the early Roman era and going through the 17th century England. The rest was a mixed bag of mummies and fossils and antique silver. But they had comfy, squish couches next to the Christmas tree looking out the 4th floor window on a lovely view. Perfect place for a long break on a rainy Scottish afternoon. After rounding everybody up, we made the unfortunately frustrating discovery that they don't serve food in Glasgow after 7 pm. At least not anywhere near us, not unless you have a reservation. (TGIFridays could take up at 11:30 pm.) We just wanted a quick group dinner so we could split for pubbing and/or movies. Almost an hour later, we gave up and ate at Pizza Hut. And they behaved like a real restaurant (how bizarro is that). Had to wait in a line to be seated and they took a while to serve food. By the time we were done, Courtney and Meng went out pubbing and the rest of us either went back to the hotel or over to Borders to acquire airplane reading material. (Reading fast is a pain in the ass on trips - I've finished four books and need more for the plane.) We went to bed just before midnight, thinking to get a decent sleep before up at 6-7 am to start the long journey home. Did I mention the hotel is in the heart of Glasgow? Did I mention it backs a disco? Well, I didn't know until the throbbing beat kept me up until 2 or 3 am. Needless to say, the last night of our trip was *not* fun. And I had weird, restless dreams for the 3 hours of sleep I did manage. � � � 
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