Scotland and England

Sorry for the lack of posting, getting a lot of internet time is not always an easy task. Spent last week in Great Britain, starting with Scotland. I stayed in Glasgow, which evidently was the poorer choice of the two major Scottish cities, although the city does have good character. The centre of Glasgow has some very nice architecture and some very nice little pubs, but outside the centre is quite run down and industrial. The people of Glasgow are the hard working type and I was there when the "old firm derby" soccer game was on between the two top Teams in Scottish Footy, both based in Glasgow. (Rangers beat Celtic 1-0 by the way). After Glasgow I went to Liverpool, a very nice town with plenty of things to do. The city is this years "European Capital of Culture" which has resulted in money to be pumped into the city centre. WHile in Liverpool I went to the Beatles Museum and went out to the famous Cavern Club where the Beatles really became popular and the name is a really fitting description of the place. The current club is in its third ownership since John, Paul, George, and Ringo played there and has been renovated to look as close as possible to what it would have looked between 1960 and 1963 (when they played there 292 times). I also got a chance to walk around the famous Albert Dock and see some of the Grand old Victorian buildings there that were once the corporate headquarters of famous shipping lines like Cunard. After Liverpool I went to London, a very beautiful (but expensive) city. There are many things to do there and many beautiful things to see. I managed to catch the changing of the guard and took a nice tour of the reconstructed Globe Theatre. The Houses of Parliament, the Tower Bridge, and Trafalgar Square were all compulsory visits. London is great and am now in Ireland and will tell more of my time here in the coming days.