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0530
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(ICE) Rise and shine, DOH! It's 1230 in the morning to us, we're landing in Iceland in 20 minutes. Temperature at Keflavik is -6 C or 21 F. Dawn is almost here.
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0600
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(ICE) Touchdown at Keflavik Airport, just west of Reykjavik, the capital city.
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0700
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(ICE) The sun finally comes up! I thought it would never rise. I suppose our high latitude makes the sunrise and sunset much slower. Dawn lasted around an hour.
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0705
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(ICE) Icelandair jet at Keflavik - our plane to Glasgow
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0755
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(ICE) Take off from an icy Keflavik runway - they use special little 4 wheelers to get the jet started out onto the runway from the terminal
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1100
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(GMT) Landing at Glasgow airport - on the approach it was clouds, clouds, clouds, clouds, then poof, there's the ground and we plunked down on the runway. I have to say, the clouds are exactly as I expected them: very low and very thick.
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1200
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We made it through customs, and managed to find the rental car desk... we got lucky: he didn't charge me the extra fee for being under 25 yrs old. That just saved us around $200!
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1215
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Picked up the rental car in the lot outside the airport, it's a Vauxhall 1.8Lsi 5-door. A nice enough car, considering we'll be practically living in it for a week.
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1300
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After mental preparation, a few laughs, and a tidbit of luck, we manage to make it to the Glasgow Marriott downtown DRIVING ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD the whole time (10 miles).
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1330
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Tea Party! Our room is nice, though it should be for £90 ($140)! Holly is thrilled that a tea set and shortbread cookies are waiting in our room. We make short work of them.
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1330
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The view from our room at the Marriott
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1430
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We can't stay up any longer. Although I feel bad about sleeping when we're supposed to be touring the city, there's no other option when it comes to jetlag.
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1530
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We reluctantly stumble out of bed and head out into the city, while we still have a few hours of light to see some sights.
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1545
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Some streets in around the city center
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1600
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This is the main train station in downtown Glasgow, I believe it called Union Station. We made a shortcut through it on our across the city center.
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1615
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One more street scene, this one is close to the Tourist Information Center, a government run shop to get info about the city. You can also book a room ahead in other cities there.
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1630
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We made it across Glasgow city center, headed for the Glasgow Cathedral - it's obviously in the old part of the city, almost surrounded by gravesites, including the 'necropolis'. I understand this was the site of the medieval city which is now a vast cemetery. Access to the necropolis is across the "Bridge of Sighs" which we did not cross. We'll take a few snapshots and check out the inside.
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1720
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Some of the local cats, we found these prowling around after some pigeons on the campus of one of a relatively small university near the Cathedral. Last shot is from a square on that campus.
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1730
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The square in the center of Glasgow, by the TIC and some of the government offices.
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1735
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Some Glaswegians on their way to a formal affair.
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1800
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We made it back across the city center to find something to eat near the hotel. We settled on Yoon Fung cantonese and spent £26 there. It wasn't bad, but I've had better in the US.
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1930
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Back to the Marriott - the sun has set, but the sky remains bright for a while afterwards, must be the high latitude again. Man we are SOOOO tired! Sometime around midnight, I woke up to turn the lights out. I never knew jetlag could be so harsh!
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