On Death, or Day 30 in Oban, Glasgow, and London

Our 7:45 bus was an early wake-up call, but with our early bedtime last night, it was pretty bearable, made even more so by the cold breakfast and packed lunch from our B&B hostess. We had all sorts of treats hanging on our door this morning to enjoy later in the day.

We didn't have to run to this bus, for the first time in a while. It was a pretty, quiet (and pretty quiet) ride. We woke up before getting to Loch Lomond, so were able to see one area of the country that wasn't on our itinerary (but the surrounding national park is definitely worth exploring in the future).

This was one of the few travel legs that was planned out before we left from the US, since we had to get to London tonight for our flights in the morning (well, afternoon for Alex, but he's probably headed to the airport at early o'clock with me tomorrow).

 
We had a five-hour layover in Glasgow that was originally for sight-seeing. However, we got to Central Station from the bus terminal, and both of us just sat, a bit exhausted with travelling.

The snacks we still had left from Ben Nevis gave us a boost, and we headed to the cathedral in Glasgow, meandering through a few other pedestrian streets and squares in Glasgow on the way.

Our trip was made a bit more urgent by bodily needs, so we got close to the cathedral, and I saw a free exhibit and ducked inside without really seeing what it was.

Turned out the museum we used so indiscriminately for a bathroom was St. Mungo's Museum of Religious Life and Arts. Doesn't sound so interesting, but on the first floor was an exhibit on rituals of life and death in a variety of cultures.

The second floor was a temporary exhibit that was on death and the belief in afterlife. The artist took a research approach to the exhibit with people filling out questionnaires, speaking into a recorder, or getting interviewed. One of the most interesting videos was the artist's son (8 years old) interviewing a grief counselor. He thought of the questions himself, and they were really intense in their inquiries. The one that was most innocent was what is one thing you have to do before you die?

After a laugh, the interviewee answered that it is most important to live. He expressed that every moment he is living is like his last, so he gives it his utmost attention. This was a spark of a conversation between Alex and me, and taking about really, it's the balance of the past, present, and future that create a full life, not the exclusion of any of them for the maximization of another.

It then also seemed appropriate that we next visited the cathedral next door, with a very intense necropolis on the hill by it. We gazed a bit at the massive columns before heading back to Central Station.

We made sure to stop by Gregg's, our bakery of choice, for our afternoon nourishment.

The train ride went through some beautiful countryside, both Scottish and English. We dinnered on filled rolls, fried chicken, crisps, and other things in our packed lunches from the morning. Margaret was a good "mom" to us, but I think we're both excited to get back to our real families tomorrow.

We arrived at London Euston (on the north end of town, I think) at 9:31, 7 minutes ahead of schedule. A trip and a transfer on the Underground and a bus later, we were at the hotel at 12:37am. Doesn't seem like it should have taken that long, does it? Tomorrow will be my last day of "travel" blog before I go back to my typical blogging (aka, probably not daily).