Up early this morning as the coffee delivery lady arrived at my bedside! Very nice start to the day! Showered and packed, we headed down to the bus stop and grabbed the 423 to Terminal 5. Our bags were dropped and then fast tracked through security.
We had access to the British Airways Club Lounge and we took full advantage.
A nice selection of breakfast items was provided in buffet style. Nicest lounge I’ve been in bar none. I assembled my first
"Bacon Butty" for the trip! At 8:15 our flight was loading so off we
went to the gate and quickly found our seats. We departed the gate on
time and in just over an hour of flight time, we arrived in Glasgow.
We had a bit of a wait for our bags but once we had them, a quick Uber request had us in a car within 10 minutes of ordering. Fifteen minutes later we were at our accommodation in St. Enoch Square called The Teacher.
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| Our hotel! |
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| Banners around the city |
We lucked out and our room was ready so we put our bags into the room, changed and headed out to Cathedral Park were the North Stratton Pipe Band was practicing. It was an 18 minute walk from our place so not too far.
The lovely sound of the pipes could be heard as we approached the park. Sounding good! We got there just in time to catch the last half hour of practice before they broke off.
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| Practice 1 - Tuning... it never ends! |
We had a good chat with Cody and also confirmed our ride to Perth tomorrow on the band bus with Alex MacIntyre. North Stratton will be defending their Grade 2 title at the European Championships on Saturday. (The bus will leave at 10 am). The band is staying at Collegelands so we followed Cody back to see it.
We then wandered back to the hotel room, picking up a few food & beverage items along the way. I managed to take in a nice nap while Kelly unpacked some of her items.
We went back out for a second band practice at 4:00 PM in the park. We stopped along the way for some face cloths as they don't seem to do that here in Scotland.
Band practice went well and they certainly have a great sound... lots of volume with 22 pipers in the mix. The last ten minutes was solidly sweet music!
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| Practice 2 |
Following the practice we relocated to the Babbity Bowster Pub just down the road and were joined by Cody and several of the bands drummers & pipers. They all ordered food and after seeing the Fish & Chips that Cody ordered and the Haggis Plate we decided to order the same. Fantastic food so we will be back for sure!
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| Pipe band hang out:;-) |
They all had a beer and then after dinner, headed back to Collegelands as it's competition day tomorrow in Perth.... and they need to be sharp. Kelly and I went back to our hotel and got ready for an early night ourselves. Still sleep depraved so looking forward to a nice sleep.
Some sites along the way.....
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| Buchanan Street |
We will join the North Stratton folks on their chartered bus in the morning to attend the European Pipe Band Championships. Going to be fun!
Steps - 13,282
Almost forgot... saw this and really liked it!
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| Range Rover Defender... nice! |
