4 months down, 5 more to go!

Howdy, folks! I guess it's about time for me to post another comment on our new Scotland adventure. I have a question for you, though. This is a really long posting. It seems that most of my posts will be long, because I want to tell EVERYTHING that we did. If you find long posts boring, or don't want to read them because they take up too much time, I'd like to know! There's no point in me writing a blog if no one's going to read it. So, please vote over on the right!!

But first, here's an update on me - today, I'm exactly 4 months pregnant! Feeling very good, no sickness at all, just a little sore from the bed here. Speaking of which, it's really horrible. For a while, we couldn't figure out what the problem was. I was waking up every morning with terrible back pain. I'm not THAT far along yet. So, we tried changing pillows, changing sides of the bed - nothing was helping. Then, I began doing my pregnancy workouts again, thinking that maybe a lack of exercise was contributing. But the pain only got worse! I could only walk outside for about 2 hours before it got so bad that I had to hobble home and take the elevator instead of the stairs, because my back couldn't support me anymore.

Well, finally we decided that it must be the bed - that was the only thing we didn't change. So we took all the covers and pillows and made a bed on the floor. 1 night was all it took. The next morning, I had no back pain whatsoever. It was like I had found the miracle drug! So now, my back doesn't hurt, I'm just a little stiff from the floor. And, of course, THAT is easily fixed by both my exercises AND walking around the city! I feel like a new woman!

OK - on to more interesting things. On Sunday, we tried to explore "The Pollock House" which is an old family estate that dates back to the late 1200's. I should say we DID explore it, but it took much longer that we anticipated to find it. We thought we were all prepared... we knew that the bus left form Central Station (10 minute walk) and we needed to get off at Auldhouse road. Simple!

Unfortunately, the buses don't leave from the front door of Central Station, nor from any side door, nor from the Ground level. This, we did not know. We showed up at the station, and couldn't see any buses leaving from anywhere. We walked all around asking people how to get to the bus stop, when a friendly Scot (most people here are very friendly, we've found) suggested that we go to the main downtown bus station - buses go all over the city/country from there. He gave us directions, and away we went.

We found our way with no great trouble (20 minute walk), and asked a clerk which was the best bus to take to the Pollock House. She told us that it didn't leave from the station, but that we needed to walk "that way" to a certain street where all of the city buses stopped, and take the #45 bus. So, we followed the way she had pointed(another 20 minutes), found the street, and after checking 5 bus stops, found the right one. Waited 20 minutes, boarded the bus, and now we were on our way to our destination! Or so we thought...

Inside the bus is a digital display telling you what the name of the next stop is. When you want to get off, you just push a button, the driver stops, and you get off. Well, we watched for "Auldhouse Road" and it never came. We ended up at the Pollock Terminal - apparently, Pollock is also the name of a section of Glasgow (this, we did not know either). We got off the bus, because it was the end of the line, and found our way to a huge, brand new shopping mall, and had lunch (really good roasted chicken and excellent salad). We consulted Matt's map, found where we were trying to go, and determined that it was only about 2 miles away, and there was a nice cycle/pedestrian walk way for most of it. Since it was mostly sunny, and only slightly cool, we decided to go for it!

About 45 minutes later, we finally and at long last found ourselves at the entrance to The Pollock house!! It was a nice old house, full of antiques, hand made furniture, original prints, stuff like that. We had a tasty treat from the gift shop called a "Tablet" which is pretty much like a Praline, but without the pecans. But the best part of the whole place, was the extensive grounds. There were gardens galore, wooded walks, stables with huge Draught horses, everywhere flowers blooming, even this early in the year! There are rhododendrons everywhere in Scotland, and we found one that was blooming a bright, scarlet red! It must be a different variety than the ones in the States, because we only get pink or purple - depending on the soil. We peeked into the greenhouse and saw vegetables starting to grow, and the soil was prepared for planting when the weather gets a little warmer. There were hedges everywhere - even a hedge maze for kids to play in!

It was a great day, and we had fun - even getting lost and misdirected. On the way back, we made a note of where the bus let us OFF at Central Station, so next time we know where to get ON. It was about a block up the street from where we were searching. Oh well... :-D