Good-bye Loudon Terrace

To catch up on the past few days:

July1-3  we packed up our flat while trying to provide some entertainment for our visiting friends
July 4-6 in Perth to start tour of Macbeth castles (more on this later)


July 1
Liam's Birthday!

We spent the day sorting and packing, but managed to squeeze in some time for cake!  Our friends Kate, John, Connor and Claire arrived in the late evening, so there was lots of late night chatting for the kids and shushing from the parents.

July 2
Our friends took our boys off for a soggy walk to the Kelvingrove Museum, while Liam and I packed and cleaned some more.  The next set of friends, Tanya, Jamie, Anna and Mckenna arrived in time for dinner and some more late night silliness.

July 3
Cormac and Declan escorted everyone to the Hunterian Museum, while we again cleaned and packed the flat.  But we were done by midday, so had lunch with the gang at Mother India Cafe and then tried to go to the Cathedral, but it was closed due to the Queen's visit the next day.  Pizza and salad for dinner at Zizzi ( a great place for a party of 12!), then off to see Romeo and Juliet in Botanic Gardens.   It was a great production -- outside under a tarp (necessary due to rain throughout performance) -- set in modern times with lots of violence, many sexual references and some drug use (a little inappropriate for the under 12 set we had with us).  The actors, especially Romeo, were excellent and ended up covered in mud by the end of the play (oh yeah, and all dead of course, except for Benvolio who in this production was creepily lurking in the background of every scene watching what was going on?!?).

 July 4
We start off to Perth and our Macbeth tour.   So, good-bye Loudon Terrace, our home for six months!! And onward to the Highlands!

A Tour of the Flat (Apartment)

After describing how great our sublet is in previous posts, I thought you might want to see the rooms for yourself.

Our flat is located in the fancy neighborhood of the West End, where there are many beautiful, old buildings -- some divided up into flats or bed-sits (1 or 2 room apartments) and some remaining as single-occupancy mansions. As I mentioned before, it has wonderful views of the church (the building was once the vicarage) and is a quick, one-block to a great commercial street. The basement and ground floor are one unit, and we have the second (or first, as they call it here) and top floors. So, when you enter the front door you come up a flight of stairs to the flat. On this floor are the common living spaces.

A large living room with a beautiful marble fireplace complete with some dog statues on the mantel.

The dining room -- we were having a few of Liam's colleagues over for drinks.

The galley-sized kitchen, notice the little washing machine tucked in by the oven.

The downstairs bathroom with a giant tub.

Grand stairs with very stained carpet leading to the next floor, where the bedrooms are.

The master bedroom, which also has a great view overlooking the church across the street.

Cormac's room with his latest acquisition from the perfect store (comics, figurines, and posters) -- the Gorillaz poster.

Declan's room which was the owners' study, so it's lined with bookcases packed with Chaucer and poetry tomes.

Our upstairs study.

The upstairs bathroom.

As you can see, some of the rooms are quite grand, while others are smaller. Overall, we are finding the accommodations very convenient and comfortable!!