Glasgow.

Well, I've managed to present my day in Glasgow backwards. It's shaming. G had the foresight to give her account of her experiences in the Souks in the right order, why can't I think like that?

Never mind. Done now.

I think I did well to cover as much ground as I did after waking at 4am (on the day the clocks had changed so it was 3am..) driving 3 1/2 hours and once off the motorway having a row with Jane the satnav lady because she kept driving us up dead ends from which we could see the hotel but not reach it.

I went almost three times round the bus route because it only goes one way and I hadn't worked my stops out in advance. There are enough places I would still like to see to make another visit worth while. I didn't see the 'Barras,' an indoor and outdoor market where the vendors put their goods on barrows(or used to.) I was twice warned to hang onto my purse if I went there and not to enquire too closely into the provenance of items for sale. Somehow, despite the temptation of dangerous living it didn't appeal yesterday. I've spent too much time over the last years rummaging around grubby auction rooms and junk shops after books.

I would have liked to visit the People's Palace, an exhibition of life in Glasgow through the ages that, in what I have come to see as characteristic Glaswegian fashion, 'doesn't take itself too seriously.'

Everyone I spoke to was warm, outgoing, kind and funny. Maybe it was the sunshine. I've revised my sardonic view of Glasgow. Until now when I've heard it referred to as 'the dear green place' (the meaning of the name 'Glasgu' is 'green place' if its roots were, as is thought, Cumbric or Middle Gaelic) I've been accustomed to snort derisively. Not any more I promise. I wouldn't go so far as to join those who claim 'the only good thing that comes out of Edinburgh is the train to Glasgow' but I have found a new fondness for Scotland's other great city.