Scotland - Day 11

So today marked my last day in Scotland. The weather in the morning was fitting – gray, chilly, and rainy. I made my way from Oban to Glasgow, skirting Loch Lamond, which is supposed to be a favorite holiday spot for Glaswegians, but it looked dreary to me in the weather, so I didn’t make any stops.

It took me a little while to navigate Glasgow to find my car rental drop off, but I did so without too much fuss. Unfortunately, a series of mistakes led me to pay for an extra day. I’m rather irritated about it and plan to write a letter because I feel I was treated poorly. I was almost through my checkout when the attendant mentioned I had not filled up the tank.  I had simply forgotten in the stress of navigating the city, so I asked how much it would be to have the rental service do it, and she said 48 pounds. Gas is expensive here, I had 3 quarters of a tank, and that’s about 75 US dollars. I said I’d rather fill it up myself, so she kindly gave me directions to a “nearby” gas station.  It took me a while to find it, including several wrong turns, but finally I did and topped her off/ However, upon my return (probably 45 minutes later), I was told I was now outside the grace period and now had to pay for an extra day. I couldn’t believe it – I’d arrived on time and had not even been warned I was risking the fee if I didn’t speed back. Between topping of my car and the extra day’s fee, I ended up paying close to 45 pounds, which is almost what I would have paid to do nothing, but at least then I would have been spared the stress of wandering about downtown Glasgow and would not have lost nearly an hour of my afternoon to explore Glasgow. I was so taken aback; I only protested a bit – the attendant indicated she couldn’t do anything anyway because it was automatic in her system. But in fact, she hadn’t even really told me I was be charged an extra day – I had to ask, because the amount seemed higher than I had originally been quoted. I imagine she hadn’t called it out because she was embarrassed. I don’t blame her, although I would have appreciated a warning.  I think it’s a ridiculous corporate policy that is entirely antithetical to customer service. I can’t imagine nickel and diming a customer like this. It would have been different had someone been waiting for the car or were they very busy, but neither were true – it was a lazy Monday afternoon, and they had a surplus of cars sitting around.

In any case, I took a cab to my guest house and then took off by foot in search of food. I eventually stumbled upon a crepere, where I picked up a crepe with pesto chicken and emmenthaler cheese, which I ate in the central square of Glasgow, George Square. I then followed a self-guided walking tour layed out by my traveling companion Rick Steves. Other than some nice walking malls, Glasgow is fairly bleak. It’s hard to put my finger on it, but it simply doesn’t have the charm of many European cities, although it certainly does look European.  Rick Steves had warned that Glasgow wasn’t terribly exciting, which is why I had only left an afternoon for it, so perhaps I was biased, but it seemed true to me.

Along the way, I happened upon what I think is the only gothic cathedral in Scotland.  Apparently the rest have been torn down by religious movements over the centuries.  No trip to Europe is complete without visiting at least one of these magnificent beauties.

Glasgow Cathedral

By the time I was wrapping up my walking tour, I finally started to feel truly homesick and was excited to get on a plane to head home. Interestingly, my cab driver had mentioned to me that a movie starring Brad Pitt had recently been filming in Glasgow, which they had made up to look like Philadelphia. It’s seemed to me a sign that it really was time to return to Philly. (The movie, by the way, is supposedly a high-brow zombie movie – I know, what!? – and is apparently using a highly lauded script that has a similar feel to Children of Men).