This weekend was a fun one for me because it was really the first time I took the time to get out and see new parts of Glasgow. When I visited last December, everyone kept telling me that I had to visit the Kelvingrove Museum and Art Galleries. So after a quick haircut at a neighborhood barbershop (a very social place, and when I said I was from Michigan, the guy cutting my hair asked if it was in the South. We got a good laugh out of that and they liked how I could point to where I'm from on my hand), I made the short walk down to the Museum.
The Kelvingrove Museum is one of the city-owned and operated museums, which are regularly open and absolutely free to the public, which is fantastic because it's a beautiful museum! The old and ornate sandstone façade welcomes you into the main hall where right above your head, on the second floor, is a huge, breathtaking pipe organ in a carved wooden housing. There was a sign on the organ bench advertising a concert at 1 pm, and I got there with a few minutes to spare. What a surprise!
In the meantime, I headed upstairs and asked a docent where a good place to start my first tour of the museum would be. He gave me some advice and within seconds I was staring up at the original canvas painting of Christ of St. John on the Cross (thank you, Wikipedia). I followed the upstairs corridor around to a room full of Scottish artifacts and items belonging to such Scottish heroes as Robert Byrnes (Scotland's native poet and most renown national hero) and Mary Queen of Scots. One o'clock came around and and I picked out a good spot to watch the organ concert which aptly started off with Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (and it just shook the building!):
I wandered around a little while longer on Saturday at the museum, but soon went home. On Sunday, though, I got back out there and hopped onto one of those cheesy double-decker tour buses to get my official tour of Glasgow. I'd heard great things about the tour and was excited to learn a lot about the city. It was well worth it since you pay for your ticket, which is then valid for two days and you can hop on or off the bus at any of the 15-some stops. The morning was super sunny and warm-ish (6°C), so I dressed for that weather, but was later wishing I at least brought a hat since I sat outside the entire time to get some good photos without the smudges from the windows. Well, it eventually got really cold and I think I contracted either a chest-cold or pneumonia. The bus also went a little too fast for me to really absorb the info the audio tour was providing. An example went something like this (I'm going to paraphrase):
Look left as we pass through the intersection and you will see one of Glasgow's oldest buildings. It's architecture makes it one of a kind and when it was built it was beautiful and really cool.So I had my camera ready and the bus just flew through the intersection and I have no idea what I was supposed to be looking for! This is all besides the point. The fact is that it's a great way to see the city.
I even hopped off at the Glasgow Green, which is the oldest park in Glasgow and took a little tour through the People's Palace, a city-run museum covering all facets of Glasgow living from the early industrial days, to the tenement housing and city history. The housing bit was interesting because Glasgow's population in the late 19th century grew to huge numbers and the city was quickly overcrowded. The renovation of many neighborhoods and clearing of the old city tenements was one of the first major crackdowns on crime, poor living conditions, and disease control in the world, and was met with anger by thousands of people who believed the real reason the tenements were being shut down was to make room for housing that was out of their budget. Finally, there was a little exhibit on World War II and I learned that Glasgow had been severely damaged by German air raids and parts of the West End of town (my neighborhood) were bombed beyond repair. Attached to the People's Palace is the Winter Gardens, a tropical greenhouse with a nice little café and tons of lush vegetation. The Greens themselves are beautiful and spacious and are used for public events throughout the year from sporting matches to fireworks displays.
I got back on the bus and we passed the oldest house in Glasgow (the oldest building is the Cathedral) and made our way along the River Clyde where we crossed over the Squinty Bridge, Glasgow's newest motorway across the River Clyde, and over to the Science Center which I will have to return to eventually because not only has an IMAX theater, but the tallest structure in Scotland - the Glasgow Tower - is also there. Not only is it the tallest structure in Scotland, but it is also the only free-standing structure in the world able to rotate a full 360°!
Right across from the Science Center is the Clyde Auditorium, a massive building designed to represent the hulls of ships, but is now cleverly nicknamed, The Armadillo. The Armadillo is built on reclaimed land that was once the Queen's Dock, one of over 62 ship-building facilities along the 20-mile stretch of the River Clyde. Adjacent to the Armadillo is the Finnieston Crane which was once used for ship-building, though is now just a landmark to days gone by in the city. But those days are not that far in the past because just downriver were some more cranes that are actively being used in the building of parts for two new aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy, and it is also the dock where the majority of the Navy's destroyers are built. And not too far away from the Science Center, on the other side of the Clyde, is the new city-run Transportation Museum - a fantastic and fun getaway where you can explore all sorts of old trains, subways, trams, cars, and other modes of transportation from all periods of time. Though it's kind of disorganized (massive vehicles everywhere!), I'm looking forward to going back and focusing on one mode of transportation. It definitely reminded me of the Henry Ford Museum at Greenfield Village near Detroit!
By that time, I was cold and really ready to go home. Take a look at some of the photos I took below, but before I finish this post off, there were a few other fun facts I learned on my bus tour:
- Glasgow is the third largest city in the UK and in its heyday was the "2nd City of the Empire" next to London.
- The Glasgow Underground is the third oldest in the world and was originally pulled by an underground cable, which the driver had to clamp onto in order for the train to gain speed and the release the cable when it was going fast enough.
- At its peak, Glasgow was the main entry port for over half the tobacco coming to Europe from America because it took ships 20 fewer days to sail into Glasgow than into London. Tobacco magnates from Glasgow owned most of the land in tobacco growing states like Virginia.
- The Glasgow Cathedral is the only church to survive the Reformation and is the oldest building in the city.
- Glasgow has been cleaning up its buildings and image since smoke and soot poured down on the city during its industrial peak. Even the insides of buildings were covered in soot. Only after removing the soot and grime did many people realize that the stone buildings were of two main colors: a rose and a gold (see the photo below of Glasgow Uni and the Kelvingrove Museum for a good example!)
Here are the photos:
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