Glasgow 💞

Wow.  

What a wonderful town!  I am so glad that Sam and Joe are making a life here.

I have some random photos of Glasgow that I want to post up here. 

Glasgow University,  one of the oldest in Europe.

We thought you'd feel pretty smart if you got to roam these halls every day.

Note the Unicorn.  Scotland's spirt animal. 💥 Score another point for Glasgow.

The murals around town are fantastic. 

This one is a favorite.

The bars are glorious.

Literally.

Sometimes the pavement rivals Portugal's beautiful streets.

We found a Police Museum near our place.

Alistair, our guide and the curator, gave us a tour complete with lots of great Scottish stories.

He assured us that the first police force was formed in Glasgow in 1800 NOT in London in 1868.  Please make a note of that.

This experience meant a lot to us.  How fortunate that we were just down the street!

There's also a beautiful conservatory. 

It's the perfect place to go to brighten a cloudy day.

You might even find yourself a country and western band.

But the highlight of the week was the triumphant graduation!!

We are so proud of Joseph Arthur Ulvilden Anderson and what he accomplished and how he navigated the journey to this Masters Degree.

We'll be back for sure.

Edinburgh

November 26th

*Jaime's birthday!*

Joe has been a great tour guide for us this week.  He obviously loves it here and has found his niche.

Actually this is at the University of Glasgow, one of Europe's oldest universities -  but don't Joe and Tony look good together?

So.  Back to Edinburgh.  

 Joe took us on the train to the Christmas market.

It was a rainy, blustery night and people were OUT!

That is Sir Walter Scott's huge memorial surrounded by holiday carnival rides and pop up shops.

The lights are so fun.

These roses are in the intersections of a Pedestrian walkway.

And we were treated to a full moon for our saunter.

It was such a fun day!  We were too tired to even go out for dinner, so we dined in house.

Haha.

We wish you a Merry Christmas!

Glasgow Southside

November 25th

Day 82

Today Joe and Sam had plans for us.

First,  breakfast and coffee in our neighborhood. 

But then we got distracted by...

The Barras Street Maket!!

Joe and Sam met a friend and Tony and I dived in.

There were treasures EVERYwhere!

This made us miss our other kids.

This beauty was pretty hard to pass up, but our suitcases are full.

Joe and Sam took us to their favorite brunch place, oddly called SCRAN.  The food was delightful and the coffee even better.

We headed South to the Pollak County Park.  It hasn't begun to rain yet, so it was a great day for a walk.

Tony, Joe and Sam in the manicured garden of the Pollak Estate.

There's a huge public space here where we walked through the woods.

And we walked until we met the Pollak Fold of Highland Cattle!!!

Just ... YAY!

Joe remembered to bring carrots, so we were pretty popular.

Joe's favorite baby.

My new best friend.

What good tour guides these guys are!

Tonight we are looking for haggis.

Well, I'm not, but Tony is. 

GLASGOW!

November 24

Day 81

St. George Square is ready for Christmas!

This was a VERY welcoming bar window. We have found that the bars and restaurants are packed this weekend.

What a fun and vibrant city.  People are out enjoying themselves and screaming with glee on the rides!

Since it's dark at 4, we have plenty of time to enjoy the lights!

That's the city hall.  There's a rotating light show on its front face.  We all decided the red lights were too demonic, so you get the pretty one.

 Joe needed a suit for graduation AND a reception at Parliament in Edinburgh for his new job, (more to come) and he insisted that Tony and I get some rain gear for the week.  We spent a couple of hours catching up and looking for bargains with hoardes of shoppers.

And there are those who are just tired of all of it. (Note red arrow.)

It's quite a shock to be here with temps in the 30s after leaving temps in the 80s!   But it feels like home 💗.

Abu Dhabi

Look at that beauty!  ❤️

There is a wall of street art all along the port exit road.  I could fill a post with just that!

Abu Dhabi is a very new city, most of their modern buildings were built since 2005.

Abu Dhabi's Leaning Tower.

This is a pricey hotel, or a Palace..I can't remember.  What I do remember is that there was marble on the street.  Yes.  Where you drive.

In this artwork you can see the face of Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan.  He oversaw the growth of Abu Dhabi.

But what I really want to show you is the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. 

The Mosque has a focus on tolerance and cultural awareness. 

We walked through an underground mall, in case you didn't have the right coverage/dress to enter the Mosque.

That was a little weird.  Tony went to Tim Horton's for a donut.  I got a juice at Starbucks....

So we finally got to enter this beautiful place.

This Mosque is covered in Flowers. 

They are inlaid with precious stones, lapis, carnelian, jasper and mother of pearl.

You can also walk on it.

Swarovski chandeliers, French stained glass.

The carpet is the largest hand knotted carpet in the world , made in Iran.  It is over 60,000 Sq. Feet. 

A 7 ton chandelier.

Precious water and a tourist or two.

Next we went to the most relaxing airport in the world to get to Glasgow!

That is a water feature that you can sit on the other side of it and listen to the sound of a flowing river. These line the main floor.

It's just beautiful.  You can't stress out!