17th August 2019
Glasgow is a port city on the River Clyde in Scotland's western Lowlands. It's famed for its Victorian and art nouveau architecture, a rich legacy of the city's 18th–20th-century prosperity due to trade and shipbuilding. Today it's a national cultural hub, home to institutions including the Scottish Opera, Scottish Ballet and National Theatre of Scotland, as well as acclaimed museums and a thriving music scene.
The berth for Glasgow is at Greenock. Greenock is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council area in Scotland and a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. It forms part of a contiguous urban area with Gourock to the west and Port Glasgow to the east.
Today berthed in Greenock, not too far from Glasgow. However just to be contrary we stayed on board for the morning, usual pastimes (still very short of trivia wins, one or two very good teams keep pipping us to the post !) and an early lunch.
We are off to Edinburgh this afternoon and our excursions doesn’t include a meal.
Early p.m. down to the pier to join our excursion group going to the Edinburgh Tattoo. All aboard a rather suspiciously elderly looking bus. Then the fun started, a couple of broken seat backs, a number of inoperative seatbelts and no air conditioning for starters (and yes it was surprisingly uncomfortably hot on the bus). A general uprising among the passengers got through to the tour rep but he tried setting off to see if moving improved matters. Didn’t help that the driver missed the port exit and had to reverse, not a good sign. No improvement, so back to the port, off the bus with promises of another bus in 10 minutes. To cut a long story short every fifteen minutes bus arrival promised in another 20 minutes, etc. etc.
Just about two hours later (after a couple of heavy showers) cheers all round as a very nice modern bus arrived in the nick of time. All aboard and off we went. Luckily a clear run through to Edinburgh and arrived with moments to spare. What seemed a shambolic queueing system actually worked and we were in our seats just as the Tattoo started, whew.
The Tattoo was spectacular and our seats amazingly positioned (did I mention we had premiere seats, thanks to lots of on-board-spend from Cunard), we were just below what was in effect the royal box. The weather played ball too, Just one minor shower, hardly had time to get coats on.
Music provided by the military from many nations, with dancers to lighten the proceedings. All very good but all eclipsed by the Scottish Pipers and dancers, especially the lone piper up on the castle battlements.
After the show miraculously, considering the number of people in the streets of Edinburgh, the Edinburgh Festival and the Fringe being on at the moment, everyone was back at the bus in pretty reasonable time despite it not being where it had been promised! The run back to the ship was also efficiently achieved. Back on board Victoria only 20 minutes after she should have sailed, and we weren’t last.
Cunard very apologetic for the shambles and had already arranged a partial refund of the cost of the tour.
And so to bed, excuse my French but we were knackered.
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