[mankuthimma]

Pollok Country Park

Today is the grand finale, our last day in Glasgow! Our destination is Pollok Country Park, as the name says, it is an expansive country side amidst the hussle bustle of the city.

We catch a train from Glasgow Central Station to Pollokshaws West Station.

Glasgow Central Station oozes old world charm mixed with modernity




We arrive at Pollokshaws West Station




The Pollok park was awarded best European park once upon a time.


Weather is absolutely gorgeous, as it turns out most often on the last day of a trip.


We take a trail running next to a stream and grassy meadows


Attachment 2156669



Pretty flowers create a riot of colours amidst the greenery





Bright colored tulips

A unique dark colored tulips


There is Pollok House, a heritage country house. It houses a fine dining restaurant where we had our lunch.



There was beautiful arrangement of flowers within its compound


A fabulous backdrop for the grand finale photos and the cameras go click! click!!


We exit the park around 5 in the evening and walk back to the train station


With a tinge of sadness, that our beautiful holidays are over, we wait for the train back Glasgow Central.


Next day, we start our return journey with a morning flight from Glasgow to London Heathrow.


Our flight to Bangalore is ready to take off from London.


Thus came to an end, our most memorable holiday till date!

I think we all can pat our back for a well planned and well executed holiday. Everyone had their share of joy and long lasting memories from this trip. That's what holidays are meant for! isnt it?

Epilogue

Writing this travelogue provided me much needed digression for few days from the COVID developments. At the same time, I pray for the healing and well-being of all those who are impacted by this pandemic directly and/or indirectly. I also thank all the front line workers and unsung heroes who are working relentlessly in various capacities to make others life better in these difficult times.
I thank team-bhp for providing this platform and infrastructure to write my notes and upload photos to my hearts content. I hope you enjoyed reading this travelogue as much as we enjoyed our trip!

Stay Safe ! Stay Healthy! This too shall pass !!

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[sam264_2000]

Beautiful travelogue mankuthimma! And amazing pictures too!! I have been fascinated about the Scottish castles since childhood and it is on my bucketlist!

[eyeman]

Wonderful trip thread. Thanks for sharing. Definitely cheered me up in these trying times. Going to add Scotland to my bucket list. Wonder when we will all be able to travel again. Sigh..

[BlackPearl]

Originally Posted by mankuthimma

I hope you enjoyed reading this travelogue as much as we enjoyed our trip!

Yes mankuthimma, thoroughly enjoyed your travelogue and it brought back lovely memories of Scotland. You have covered far more areas than we have been able to do in 5 trips to Scotland!

By the way, what does co-brother mean? I had never come across this term before.

How was it to drive the VW Transporter? I had driven it once and stalled it as soon as I started to drive as I was used to the torque of the Bolero at lower revs at that time. It took me a bit of time to get used to the VW engine and gearing.

A couple of pics of our rides during the last two trips to Scotland -

[mankuthimma]

Originally Posted by sam264_2000

Beautiful travelogue mankuthimma! And amazing pictures too!! I have been fascinated about the Scottish castles since childhood and it is on my bucketlist!

Originally Posted by eyeman

Wonderful trip thread. Thanks for sharing. Definitely cheered me up in these trying times. Going to add Scotland to my bucket list. Wonder when we will all be able to travel again. Sigh..

Originally Posted by BlackPearl

Yes mankuthimma, thoroughly enjoyed your travelogue and it brought back lovely memories of Scotland. You have covered far more areas than we have been able to do in 5 trips to Scotland!

Thanks so much guys! Yeah Scotland for sure is blessed with immense beauty. It offers so many things to do with much so much ease and convenience - be it wonderful people, excellent roads and the facilities enroute. It is a travellers paradise, photographers dream and drivers heaven - all rolled it one ! https://www.visitscotland.com/ has all the information that one may need. You may pick the ones that interests you.

Originally Posted by BlackPearl

By the way, what does co-brother mean? I had never come across this term before.

Its a colloquial thing I guess that we use to refer wife's sister's husband or in other words sister-in-law's husband

Originally Posted by BlackPearl

How was it to drive the VW Transporter? I had driven it once and stalled it as soon as I started to drive as I was used to the torque of the Bolero at lower revs at that time. It took me a bit of time to get used to the VW engine and gearing.

Prior to this, I had never driven a diesel car and I am not an expert driver either, but somehow I didn't find difficulty adapting to this car. It looked intimidating in the beginning though. But once I sat on the driver seat, it was as easy as driving a petrol car. Smooth gear shifts, good progressive breaking, great visibility all around, it was nice to drive. Clutch was bit hard for my liking. Since traffic was always almost sparse on the roads and with the strict speed limits, I had enough time at my disposal to change gears or brake well in advance. VW Transporter is a good highway cruiser, but I don't think it is go-anywhere kind of vehicle.

Originally Posted by BlackPearl

A couple of pics of our rides during the last two trips to Scotland -

Great looking cars in equally great locations!
You should try the Bealach Na Ba route to AppleCross, if haven't done before.

[docsr]

Thank you for a very nice writeup. The narration and the pictures are lovely.
I lived in Glasgow for some time, very very close to the Transport museum. Your article brought back very warm memories. Scotland is truly a beautiful place and the Scottish people very friendly and warm. Glad you had a nice family trip.

Unlike most other countries, entry to all Scottish public museums and art galleries used to free. Does that tradition still continue?

[kshastry]

Nice travelogue! Does British consulate provide visa only for the duration of the trip? Is it MULT or Single entry?

[HooghlyBoy]

Nice to see this Scottish vacation narrated in such detailed way.
In fact, this custom of greeting oncoming drivers in Scottish roads observed by you is also followed in Darjeeling's mountain roads.
Loved the way those Cars have been stacked in Transport museum.
Long live Team BHP & love for driving holidays !!!

[Youngindus]

Fabulous travelogue! You have inspired me to dream about our next holiday after the pandemic is over!

Before this, I never seriously considered Scotland for a full 2 week vacation, but now it seems inviting.

[Amsdoc]

Nice review of Scotland. I used to live there, in Glasgow actually, for almost a decade of my life. I love it there and Aviemore was a yearly trip for us.
I am surprised you went till Eileen Donan castle but didn't go to Skye! It is only a few miles beyond and it probably one of the best places in Scotland to visit. Next time may be!!
The statue in Glasgow with cone on his head is a funny story of Glaswegian quirkiness. Some drunk guy got on top of the statue and placed the cone on his head as part of some night-out shenanigans and the authorities were furious so they removed it after a few days. People kept putting cones back on and the city council would remove it. This kept going on very expensively for the city council. The good people of Glasgow then petitioned and rallied to have it put back as they thought it was quite a humorous thing to do, so the authorities finally decided to leave it on!!! Now it is a bizarre tourist attraction in its own way. Can you imagine such a thing in India? We are so stuck up on our past heroes that there would have been communal riots!
You can check out info on this:
https://theculturetrip.com/europe/un...-traffic-cone/

Anyways, thank you for posting all these photos to jog back lovely memories of my time out there!

[Jred]

Thank you, Mankuthimma! Brought back memories of my short stay in Scotland. Such an amazing country, with blessed landscapes. As Amsdoc mentioned, an hour's drive from Eilean Donan would have got you to Isle of Skye. There are some stunning views up in that part. May be next time.

And, how did you remember those difficult names? It was so hard for me to recollect those names.
Well written travelogue, make you want to visit!

[crazybiker46]

Originally Posted by mankuthimma

Preparation:

Edinburgh and Glasgow are like twin cities. Since we had good amount of time in Glasgow, we could explore Glasgow and Edinburgh. It was a 40 minutes journey between them and there were frequent commuter trains. There was no need to book the tickets online and could be bought at the station itself, again with a discount thanks to the family pass that we had.

.

Thank you for bringing back memories of my 2019 trip. I flew to Newcastle and then took train to Edinburgh and then to Glasgow and returned from there.

Booked AirBnB tours which are usually advertised by locals which makes it exiting and not by tour guides. My Glasgow tour was with a college student who brought his personal car for trip all over Glasgow.

Hope you have visited the beautiful Dean village



My trip happened during edfringe time, so got to see lots of performers all over the world

Originally Posted by Amsdoc

The statue in Glasgow with cone on his head is a funny story of Glaswegian quirkiness. Some drunk guy got on top of the statue and placed the cone on his head as part of some night-out shenanigans and the authorities were furious so they removed it after a few days. People kept putting cones back on and the city council would remove it. This kept going on very expensively for the city council. The good people of Glasgow then petitioned and rallied to have it put back as they thought it was quite a humorous thing to do, so the authorities finally decided to leave it on!!! Now it is a bizarre tourist attraction in its own way. Can you imagine such a thing in India? We are so stuck up on our past heroes that there would have been communal riots!
You can check out info on this:
https://theculturetrip.com/europe/un...-traffic-cone/

Anyways, thank you for posting all these photos to jog back lovely memories of my time out there!

I had a good laugh after seeing "VLC player" on top of the statue

[Aspirational]

Awesome travelogue. I felt like personally being on the trip in Scotland. This has to be at the top of my potential destinations, once the Covid situation settles.

[mankuthimma]

Originally Posted by docsr

I lived in Glasgow for some time, very very close to the Transport museum. Your article brought back very warm memories.

Unlike most other countries, entry to all Scottish public museums and art galleries used to free. Does that tradition still continue?

Thank you so much! Nice to know that you had lived in Glasgow. The area around Transport Museum is really nice.
Transport museum had free entry. Kelvingrove Art Musuem had ticketed entry, but we were not interested in art museums. So didnt go inside. Camera Obscura museum and Edinburg castle had tickets. Apart from these, everything was else free. There were not even toll on the highways and parking also was free, though we didnt drive in Glasgow or Edinburgh.

Originally Posted by kshastry

Nice travelogue! Does British consulate provide visa only for the duration of the trip? Is it MULT or Single entry?

Thanks a lot! We had got 6 months multiple entry visa.

Originally Posted by HooghlyBoy

In fact, this custom of greeting oncoming drivers in Scottish roads observed by you is also followed in Darjeeling's mountain roads.

Thanks a lot! Thats nice to know such customs are being followed in Darjeeling too! It is a good feeling that roads are meant for cooperating each other rather than competition

Originally Posted by Youngindus

Before this, I never seriously considered Scotland for a full 2 week vacation, but now it seems inviting.

Thank you so much ! Yes, 2 weeks are must to explore different parts of Scotland. Hopefully you will get to do it once it is safe to travel again.

Originally Posted by Amsdoc

Nice review of Scotland. I used to live there, in Glasgow actually, for almost a decade of my life. I love it there and Aviemore was a yearly trip for us.

Thanks a lot. Great to know many bhpians had made Scotland their home. how lucky ! I am glad that my story brought back wonderful memories of your stay there.

Originally Posted by Amsdoc

I am surprised you went till Eileen Donan castle but didn't go to Skye!

On that day, it was already around 9 PM by the time we reached Eileen Donan Castle. But in general, we couldnt fit Isle of Skye in the itinerary, we couldnt possibly cover everything, instead we preferred to do offbeat destinations around West Coast such as Loch Maree, Torridon, Shieldaig

Originally Posted by Amsdoc

The statue in Glasgow with cone on his head is a funny story of Glaswegian quirkiness.

Thanks for the trivia behind the cone. Well explained.

Originally Posted by Jred

Brought back memories of my short stay in Scotland.

And, how did you remember those difficult names? It was so hard for me to recollect those names.
Well written travelogue, make you want to visit!

Thank you so much ! Very good to know that you also had stayed in Scotland. I feel happy that my purpose of writeup is served up if it can stoke up good old memories of many bhpians.
Good question regarding remembering the names Its not that I remembered everything. Few things were in memory which came back as I started writing the travelogue, few things I had taken photos of the information displays, few things I could refer the files in my backup where I had captured few notes and the last resort was google maps and wikipedia

Originally Posted by crazybiker46

Thank you for bringing back memories of my 2019 trip. I flew to Newcastle and then took train to Edinburgh and then to Glasgow and returned from there.

Hope you have visited the beautiful Dean village

I had a good laugh after seeing "VLC player" on top of the statue

Thanks a lot! I can see you had a great trip from your photos.
Dean Village, Yes. We were supposed to visit, but ran out of time. We didnt want to overtax ourselves, just took it easy and came back to hotel that day.

VLC player is a good interpretation of the quirkness of the status

Originally Posted by Aspirational

Awesome travelogue. I felt like personally being on the trip in Scotland. This has to be at the top of my potential destinations, once the Covid situation settles.

Thank you so much! Yes, you should definitely plan a trip once it is safe to go out.