Glasgow, Scotland

 We woke to our first “all day rain” event.  Amazing that we’ve been here almost 4 weeks and we’ve had some spectacularly unusual good weather    

Today we decided to get an all-day subway pass and use the subway like a “hop-on-hop-off” tour bus. I had made a list of a bunch of things I’d like to see along with which subway exit to take. 

This is just a cool building along the way…. The first couple of stops were real busts.  The Contemporary Art Museum wasn’t open for an hour. So we just turned around in the rain and walked back to the subway.  

And the Mitchell Library was really just a big library in a cool old building. 

I’d read that it was a good place to see the old architecture. 

Yeah, a little bit to see, but mainly just a library. Oh well, back to the subway. 

I should mention, most of these landmarks/buildings on the list were at least 1/2 mile from the subway station so quite a bit of walking. In the rain. 

Next stop, St. Mary the Virgin cathedral.  My data said “open and welcoming to all”.  But the reality was that all the doors were locked.  Bummer. 

Another rainy but pleasant walk back to the subway. 

Next up was to see some little side-street havens- Ashton, Cressesll and Ruthven Lanes. 

They’re set up for nightlife for sure. Looks like they would be fun but we’re not really up for night partying, haha. 

Another beautiful but locked church. 

Walking back to the station we crossed this road. We both looked at each other and laughed about the pronunciation if you have a lisp😀

Rain was hit and miss. Some breaks were welcome. 

Next stop, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

Beautiful building and pipe organ. 

Very nice and diverse museum. This section with stuffed animals was filled with discussion panels about how they are displaying specimens taken 100 years ago since they already have them. They were apologizing I guess, saying they no longer condone such practices. 

We lucked out to see a pipe organ concert. 

The organist was very good. 

Was fun that they included a video feed of his feet and hands!!

We were a bit hungry from all the running around…stoped at a little shop and got some veggie Pakora balls. Not sure exactly what they’re made from but they hit the spot. Weird Fanta lemon soda. Good but very sweet. Like fizzy lemonade on steroids. 

I had read about the city murals. There are loads of them around the city.  Very nice. 

Even though I was getting a bit tired of all the activity, I really wanted to see the Glasgow cathedral. 

It did not disappoint. 

Even the basement/crypts were interesting. 

Beautiful exterior but the tower was enclosed in scaffolding so wasn’t visible. 

Last thing for my tired feet was to walk up the hill to the necropolis…just a fancy graveyard for rich people in the 1800’s. 

It was large and cool.  Obviously these people had money to spare. 

The mile walk back to the room yielded several more mural sightings.