On a visit to Scotland where Larry and I stayed over an
extra day at the end of a tour the hotel at the Glasgow
Airport had made an error in our reservation, were full,
and therefore could not give us a room, so they sent us
to Erskine to the Erskine Bridge Hotel which was
situated on the upper Clyde just before it becomes the
Firth of Clyde. Erskine which is a fairly new town –
originated in the 1970’s – is in the area of
Renfrewshire. Once settled in we left the hotel and
walked up a “path” (sidewalk) to the bus shelter where
we could catch the green and white 23 into Glasgow.
Soon we were heading past rows of houses interspersed
with long stretches of rolling hills. We got off the
bus in the center of Glasgow and walked down to George
Square where we visited the Visitor’s Center, took
pictures of the statues of Queen Victoria and Prince
Albert on horseback standing together facing out of the
square, and went into Queens station where there was a
charge of 20p to use the restrooms. (I remember back to
the days when I was a young girl when some bathrooms in
the U.S. required a dime to use the stalls. This was
abolished since it was seen as discriminatory against
the poor). We ate at Burger King (yes Burger King while
in Scotland) and then got on a Hop On, Hop Off bus.
(This means that for the day you can get on and off as
many times as you wish at any of its stops). We were
looking for the Waverly so got off at Kelvin Grove Park
and walked down to her mooring on the River Clyde only
to find she was off for fixing up. Right near there
though was a tall ship with tours available. Part of
the tour of the ship was a search for Jock the Cat.
Walking through the ship we saw basically the same types
of accommodations, etc that are found in other such
ships that we’ve toured in the U.S. The middle deck had
nothing in it, however, and gave a good sense for how
large the ship really was. One new and very interesting
piece of information that I learned here is that as
cargo is removed, ballast in the form of rocks is placed
in baskets and lowered into the cargo hold to keep the
ship trim in the water. I found Jock in one of these
ballast baskets on the lower deck. After leaving the
ship we made reservations for a speed boat ride on the
Clyde. While waiting for our ride I went into the gift
shop (to the amusement of the staff) for my reward and
certificate for finding Jock. I was given a drumstick
(lollipop). As the pilot was fueling the pontoon boat
he told us that it seemed the 5 pounds charge per adult
rider was too much, but that the “petrol” was 4 pounds
per gallon (that was about $10.00 in our currency at
that time.
Shortly we boarded with a family of one man, two women,
and four children. The two women and I were seated by
the pilot on one side of the boat with the two men on
the other side. The children were settled on a seat in
the bow of the boat and in the middle. We slowly
headed out past the tall ship and made a left hand turn
to head south down the Clyde. We go fairly fast - Larry
notes later that we didn’t get above 35 mph, but that
was definitely fast enough for me. There is a handle
next to us that we hold on to (tightly) as we speed up.
With my hair whipping into my face it was a little
difficult to see what we are passing. We stopped at
the mark where the river is influenced by the tides,
turne, and we sped to the north, stopping to see the
oldest steam ship (105 years old). It was quite small,
being just slightly longer than the pontoon boat that we
were on. We continued north passing under the arches of
car, pedestrian, and railroad bridges. The bridges are
wide, solid, concrete and stone structures, that create
a dark, soothing sensation as we passed slowly under
them. At one bridge we needed to creep through it
hugging near the side of the arch to avoid the shallow
water there. That was definitely not a soothing
feeling. We stopped again to look at a part of a ship
being built. They are built in thirds and then each
part is moved and welded together. We traveled a little
further up the Clyde still heading north towards
Kilkreggen for a short time and then turned around for
the ride south back to the tall ship dock. As we
debarked I decided to go over the boat’s center ridge.
I had one leg over it and was astride, but was having a
hard time getting my other leg over the ridge. When
Larry told me to come along, I answered that I couldn’t
get my ‘… other leg over’. The other adults broke into
laughter and told me that that was a very suggestive
phrase in Scotland. I did not get a translation of it.
I imagine because of the four small pairs of perked ears
waiting to hear. We finally all debarked without
further incident and I found that I needed to find my
land legs even though we had been on the water for only
about 20 minutes or so. We headed back to Kelvin Grove
Park where we saw several people bowling on the lawn.
It looked almost like shuffleboard with bowling balls.
They didn’t appear to have holes in them though.
Everyone was dressed in what we would call business
clothes - not a pair of jeans in the lot. It was
somewhat surreal to actually be at places we’d heard
about in song and story. We walked on down in a slight
drizzle to catch the Hop On, Hop Off and returned to our
origin in George Square and then back to back to
Renfield St. to catch the bus back to our hotel.
The Erskine Bridge
Hotel sits right on the Clyde so we walked on a pathway
along the river where there was a sign “Be Careful -
Deep Water - Watch Out for Golf Balls”. Where there
might have been golf balls remains a mystery to me since
we did not appear to be near a golf course at all. It
was just a little cool and, other than 3 young children
in rollerblades, very quiet. The Clyde was a piece of
black glass in the twilight with the structures along
and crossing the river casting even darker reflections
on the water. There was one especially beautiful area
where a power line tower with an Eiffel Tower shape and
open ironwork pattern was fully reflected on the river
with just slight distortion (and me without my camera).
Though we were quite close to Glasgow it was so quiet
and serene in this area you would not know there was a
big city within miles.
As we continued our walk we started to
see a shadowy shape that raised out of the water,
exhaled a watery puff of air and submerged again. It
didn’t travel very far before it repeated this
procedure. Even though it was twilight Larry could not
recognize what it was, and since his eyesight is better
than mine, I definitely could not either. We finally
come to the conclusion that the reason no one can find
Nessie in Loch Ness is because she has moved to Erskine
in the Clyde.
Judith
Lloyd