Glasgow to Milngavie

Arrived by train in Glasgow, Scotland yesterday morning. Once off the train we began the task of trying to figure out how to get to the Glasgow Youth Hostel from the train station. After Dad was accosted by a homeless guy for money (in which Dad's reply was: I only have American money which will do you no good) we figured out which bus stop to head to and which one to ride. This would have been pretty simple had it not been pouring down rain when we arrived. Getting on the bus was easy enough but once on we figure out they didn't tell you which stops were coming up so we had no idea which was the correct stop to get off at. Thanks goodness for kind locals because the lady sitting behind us told us she would tell us where to get off and another lady told us where to walk from the stop. Through the rain we found the hostel with no problems.

Chad and I in front of Glasgow Youth Hostel

Mom and Dad in front of the Glasgow YH

The hostel, as you can see, was a very nice place.  It has previously been an old hotel and was a maze of hallways and rooms.  They had a nice lounge, a TV room, game room, dining room, self-catering kitchen and much more.  It was a great place to stay and didn't cost much. We figured out this neighborhood we were in had to be quite "posh" since this was parked just a few doors down. 

Ferrari parked down the street (this was taken on the fly as we thought the owner was watching us)

We spent most of the time at the hostel making reservations for accommodations for the walk and was able to get half of the trip scheduled. Had the weather been better we would have liked to walk around Glasgow a little bit but there was steady rain all day. We had a late dinner and then headed back to go bed to be rested for the walk to Milgavie (Mill-guy) in the morning. Our room was called a quad room, but we had no idea what kind of room we were going to be in until we arrived. 

Mom and Dad making up their bunks in our quad room

The room was pretty small and beds pretty uncomfortable and for four people with four backpacks and three large bags things were pretty cramped. We made do, the other amenities and neat public rooms made up for the smallness of our own room. 

In the morning after getting situated with our bag carrying service (our bags will be moved each day to our next location so we don't have to worry about them while walking) we headed off through Glasgow's Kelvingrove Park to a path that would take us to Milngavie.  The West Highland Way doesn't officially begin until Milngavie but Dad thought it would be "neat" to walk there instead. We did see some cool things during the first part, but we also walked through some nasty trash filled places too. It was a good intro to what the new few weeks will feel like. Mom had a mishap with a rusty barbed wire fence that required some first aide. She slipped while trying to avoid a large muddy puddle and her arm hit the fence and barb went straight in. She got a pretty nasty puncture wound and we did our best to disinfect and clean it out.  We will have to keep an eye on things for the next few days to make sure nothing more serious develops. The rest of the way went smoothly and we had lunch at the Tickle Trout Pub and then walked the remaining 2 miles in Milngavie. We quickly found our B & B which is amazing and has a lot more room than our hostel room.  I think we will sleep well tonight.  Tomorrow we officially begin! I will post again at the next internet access site.  Thanks for reading!