School's out

How I found myself in Dumbarton on Thursday is a bit of a mystery!

Had to drop off stuff from the church to our local foodbank in Cumbernauld and wanted to get one of my car tyres checked out, so did that while I was in Cumbernauld too. Chores done, I just didn't take to the notion of returning home. It was late morning and I remembered that I'd been meaning to visit Dumbarton Castle for a while. Decision made!

There was a train out of Cumbernauld in just over ten minutes, so caught that. However, on the way into Glasgow it started to rain and that just got heavier as I travelled west. Stuff that, I wasn't going to walk around Dumbarton Castle in the rain (especially as the Historic Scotland app on my phone mentioned the 547 steps on the property).

Went for a coffee and lunch (spotting this mural on the way) and then spotted signs for the Scottish Maritime Museum. It was a veritable little treasure-trove of maritime history and, although a small and fairly specialised museum, I found it fascinating and a worthwhile - if unexpected - diversion.  The rain had eased off a little by the time I left, but it was too late to think about visiting the castle, so headed up to the station and caught the train back to Cumbernauld.

Home by tea-time, having had a totally unplanned but nevertheless enjoyable day-trip to Dumbarton. And I still have the castle to visit, so a return journey will need to be scheduled at some point.

The mural pictured is in the Artizan (sic) shopping zone and was painted by students at Dumbarton Academy. The extra photos were taken at the Maritime Museum.

Thursday was also the day that many schools in Scotland close for the summer holidays. As I have many friends who are teachers, one of whom was celebrating their last day at work before retirement, and classroom assistants, I look forward to seeing more of them over the summer.