Tuesday 29 October 2024--Ron is off to the Kelvingrove Gallery today. I hop on the Glasgow Subway (on spiffy new cars!) at St Enoch and ride around to the neighborhood of Govan, on the south bank of the Clyde. I walk past the statue of social activist Mary Barbour and into Govan Old Church, where there is a display of carved stones, in particular the so-called Govan Stones. These are hogback stones, medieval grave markers found in areas with a strong Norse influence, mostly southwestern Scotland and northwestern England. (Win and I saw two of them in Gosforth, Cumbria, in 2017.) The reason for their shape is not certain, but the prevailing theory is that they are supposed to evoke the roof of a Norse longhouse, or a meadhall in Valhalla.

The Govan-Partick Bridge opened just a few weeks ago, linking those two neighborhoods on opposite sides of the Clyde for pedestrians and cyclists. On the other side is the Riverside Museum, which wasn't on my radar, but it's free, so in I go. I'm pleased to discover that it's a museum of transport, housing everything from motorbikes to a steam locomotive.

I walk up to the Lismore for a pint, and am surprised to find there is live music. Isn't this supposed to be a grumpy old men's bar? Well, it's grumpy old men's music, I guess, a trio playing standards (Sinatra and such), with alternating singers--a man, who is pretty good, and a woman, who isn't.

I finish my pint, catch the subway back over to Buchanan Street, and meet Ron at the hotel. We wander around for a while, trying to decide where to eat, before settling on noodles again. Then we have our last few pints of real ale for the year at the Pot Still.