In spite of having loads of work, and some of it very near its deadline, I want to catch up on putting some visual reminders on this blog of my journey eleven days ago that took me from Glasgow to Oban by bus.
It was a gloriously beautiful early evening -- see for yourselves:
By about 6:15 PM we were on our way out of Glasgow (the bus leaves Glasgow Buchanan bus station at 6PM). Glasgow is a fast-growing, rapidly developing city -- vibrant, metropolitan, global, Mediterranean, Asian – and very Scottish.
The ubiquitous wheeliebins or trash containers at the end of a stately area of Glasgow's "West End".
On the fringe of the city, a huge plot of land that must once have been a landfill site -- the stench was unbelievable, and the vast area was littered with plastic.
Twenty minutes later we were already well beyond the Erskine Bridge - an eye-catching cable-stayed structure that reminds me of the road bridge in Pereira, Colombia... -- hey, we live in a globalised world where structures resemble each other all over the world. See for yourself:
(Cable-stayed road bridge in the city of Pereira, Risaralda, Colombia, Sept. 2004 -- this bridge spans a heavily populated ravine and is actually more of a cable suspension bridge than Erskine Bridge.)Back to my bus ride from Glasgow-Buchanan bus station to Oban: You know you're in Scotland when you see views like this, of Loch Lomond, for example:
and of Loch Long (I think):
... beautiful old humpbacked bridges like this one (there are quite a few of them dotted all over the place, all designed in the 19th century by the same engineer, Thomas Telford; the most famous example must be the Clachan Bridge a little south of Oban, aka The Bridge over the Atlantic -- see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clachan_Bridge).
... and views of Loch Fyne:
We stopped briefly at Inveraray. The driver had a smoke and a chat with a few locals. This gave me time to step out and take a picture of a stunningly beautiful white-blossomed Japanese cherry tree:
