Goodbye Britain

Day 16

I really didn't have much on my plate for the date and I was really slow at getting my act together in the morning. When I finally did get going I didn't go far, only about 10 minutes to the Hunterian Art Gallery. This is on the University of Edinburgh campus.

The first part was called the Mackintosh House. I didn't really care for it. The Mackintosh's were architects and designers that were very much ahead of their time. For some reason the staff was following me around and it made me very uncomfortable. What did they think I was going to do, stick a dining room table in my back pocket?

The museum also has a large collection on James McNeill Whistler. I've always wondered why most of his stuff isn't in the US. It turns out that he spent much of his adult living living in London and Paris. The large collection in Glasgow is attributed to his wife's Scottish heritage and a large following by a group of Glaswegian artists known was the Glasgow Boys.

I regrouped at the hostel for lunch and decided to walk to the Fossil Forest. Apparently there are about 2 dozen fossilized trees in a park. I walked and walked but never seemed to get anywhere. After about 2 hours I decided that I didn't even want to look at a bunch of really dead trees anyway and headed back.

People say that you are either an Edinburgh or Glasgow person. For tourism I would definitely pick Edinburgh. It's just beautiful and there is so much to see and it is very easy to take a large amount of day trips from there. If I had to pick one of them to live in I would choose Glasgow. Its a bit like New York with its diverse areas and I like that.

I'm very glad that I begun my trip with the UK. I'd been to 3 of the 6 cites I used as bases and it was all quite familiar. It was really a good way to get in shape for the trip. I'm very much looking forward to visiting Ireland. It will be almost completely new territory for me!