Last Day - Shopping and Having Tea

This morning I actually got up an hour earlier than I planned, which is a good thing.  I have to get up REALLY early tomorrow.  The plan was to visit the Barras market, then map out my path to the shuttle bus to the airport.

Waste of a morning.  I expected a cool market like in most cities in Europe (or even elsewhere in the UK) but Barras was a huge disappointment. It's in a rather depressed area of the city and most of the dealers there appear to be selling found items without much organization.  There was one building where it did seem that there was some pride of ownership in their shops, but the rest was just dirty and depressing.  I didn't last long there.

I headed back to Merchant City and resorted to stopping in a few cheezy tourist shops.  I wandered through one of the malls, and around Argyle and Buchanan streets.  I briefly toyed with buying a bottle of my Dalwhinnie whiskey, but decided not to (good thing, as I found I can get it at home for less at Specks).

 It was finally lunch, so I decided to have tea at the Willow Tea Room on Buchanan.

Yes, we've seen this photo before, but I wanted to take you back here and explain that this particular tea room is a re-creation of one of the tea rooms designed my Rennie Macintosh.  The original Miss Cranston's Tea Room on Buchannan was actually in the building next door here

And yes, we've seen this picture before too.  The building is pretty notable with it's stripey exterior.  However, this was not one of the tea rooms designed by Macintosh.  The new tea room is designed after the ones Miss Cranston owned on Ingram Street with the White Dining Room and Chinese (Blue) Room.  Bits of both rooms were in the Kelvingrove yesterday.

Along with this original chair from the White Dining Room.  Replicas of this particular chair were in the tea room I went to (and you could actually special order one if you wanted to).

It was actually quite busy, but I did get a table quickly.  I did not sit in one of the high backed chairs, but along the wall on a banquette.  I ordered afternoon tea.

This is actually after I attacked the food and demolished the cucumber sandwich that was also there.  There were 4 sandwiches (cucumber, smoked salmon, cheese, and egg mayonaise), a scone with cream and strawberry jam, a bit of buttered shortbread, and a strawberry tart.  I ate everything but the salad garnish.  I impressed the elderly English couple at the next table.

After tea, I bought a tin of their tea and a pair of Macintosh earrings.  Then headed out for more shopping and found myself on Sauchiehall Street.  Since I was there, I decided to find the REAL Willow tea rooms.

While still lovely,  you can see that the building is in need of a bit of restoration. 

It still does retain its Art Deco charm and most of its original fixtures.

And nifty decorative metalwork.  There are two floors inside, the ground floor (which I believe is referred to as The Gallery) is a gift shop and the second is the infamous Room de Luxe.   

I then headed out to the Queen Street Bus station and found the bus stop for the Airport shuttle.  I then traced my steps to the flat so I can find my way there early tomorrow morning.  It's a bit of a hike, but no further than how far I walked when I first got to Glasgow.  

So, I'll finish up this post, and organize myself.  Everything will be packed in the next couple of hours.  See you at the airport.