Scotland: Beinn Eunaich, Beinn a'Chochuill, Stob Dearg, Stob na Broige, Binnein Mor, na Gruacaichean, Ben Lui, and Beinn a'Chleibh (Munros 6-13)

In Scotland, during the summer, you want to spend as much time outside as possible (and as little time updating your blog) because the nice summer weather doesn't last forever! While there were a lot of exciting things going on around Glasgow this summer like the Commonwealth Games and visiting friends from the US, my friend Hazel and I spent a decent amount of time out in the Highlands bagging more Munros - which has now become an obsession of ours.

Beinn Eunaich & Beinn a'Chochuill
20 June 2014

This was was actually one I did myself. Hazel left for Greenland for a few weeks, so I was on my own and really itching to get out into the hills. The problem without a car is that you're reliant on the bus and train. Luckily for me, the train from Glasgow to Oban stops at the beautiful Loch Awe at the foot of four massive munros. I wanted to do all four, but having only gone hillwalking once on my own, I thought I'd at least get two in, so I started off down the road to the footpath up to Beinn Eunaich, which looked easy since it's a farm road heading into a water reservoir stored within the mountains, but it was steep and I was not prepared! I was doing the loop backward and started up the side of Beinn Eunaich which is this relentless grassy hill that ever so slowly arches its way to the summit - you know the kind where you think you're almost there, but then you see the summit still looming in front of you? But the climb was a breath-taking one with incredible views down over Loch Awe and the picturesque Kilchurn Castle on its shores. Well, eventually I made it to the top of this slightly cobbly top (989 m/3,245 ft) and was met with even more views down the other side (which to the north was a vertical dropoff!) over the waters of Loch Etive.

Great day for a hillwalk above Loch Awe. Looking north on the way
up Beinn Eunaich

The wind had started to pick up and bringing clouds in from the ocean. Nothing that really threatened rain, but low enough that the summits of all the mountains around me were shrouded in mist. I carried on down to the saddle between Beinn Eunaich and Beinn a'Chochuill, back into the world of visible distances, but then it was up, up, up to the next Munro. One the way, I passed an elderly man who'd walked in from the nearest town - a much farther distance than I walked from the train station - and was impressed he was still trekking on. I mean, he was old! Back in the clouds, I relied on the path being clear enough for me to see my way to the top of Beinn a'Chochuill (980 m/3,215 ft). It was dry and I had my lunch here, and the summit was high enough that the clouds going over the summit were thin, but it forced the rest of the clouds to flow between it and its neighbouring munros. Not being able to even see the rest of the 4-munro circuit, I decided it was best to head back to the Loch. After all, I had time to check out Kilchurn Castle and have a pint from the hotel at the train station! Overall, it was a nice day out in the crisp air, clouds, and two munros (nearly) all to myself!

(More to read below the slideshow!)



Stob Dearg & Stob na Broige
25 August 2014

Hazel finally returned from Greenland which made getting out to further-flung munros much easier with her car, and though the Matiz is a wee one, it got us where we needed to go. The weather was perfect for late August and we couldn't believe our luck and decided to head up north to the famous Glen Coe - probably Scotland's most recognisable valley (and home to James Bond's Skyfall, in the movie at least). I'd still never been and was pumped to go!

It took a few hours to get there, and another while carefully off-roading Hazel's car into the packed parking lot (did I mention Glen Coe is popular?). We started off to the trail heading up the ridge at the eastern end of Glen Coe - Buachaille Etive Mor. The walk up was brilliant! Right through a very rocky but gently sloping Coire na Tulaich. Having not been hillwalking for a few months, we were a bit nervous about whether we'd be in shape to do it, but the walk to the ridgeline was over before we knew it! We still had another few hundred meters to get to the summit, but we were there, enjoying the absolutely perfect views of the mountains of Glen Coe and over to Ben Nevis, Britain's highest elevation, looming a few ranges away.

Beautiful peaks of Buachaille Etive Mor, guarding the
entrance to Glen Coe. Who says that middle peak isn't a munro?
C'mon!

It wasn't much more effort to reach the summit of Stob Dearg (1,021 m/3,350 ft), and we were rewarded with one of the most breathtaking views I've ever seen. The summit is perched right at the end of the ridge and it quickly drops off on three sides leaving you with unimpeded views down into Glen Coe to the west and the immensely expansive Rannoch Moor to the east. There was not even a stitch of wind all day and the waters of Rannoch Moor lay perfectly still.

Back down the ridge we went, off to find the next munro, but there was a massive mountain between us and where the map said the next munro was. We were very disheartened to learn that not all mountains in Scotland over 3,000 ft are classified as munros as we trudged up the trail to the summit of Stob na Doire (1,011 m/3,317 ft) - which is boringly classified as a "munro top." Apparently, there is no exact definition of a munro other than that it must be over 3,000 ft (which Stob na Doire clearly meets), but a munro must also be its own mountain, standing prominently from any neighboring ridge or mountain. Stob na Doire was massive, but clearly not "a mountain in its own right" to be classified as a munro. We took a photo at the top anyway, in case the rules change in the near future and it earns classification as a Munro.

After Stob na Doire, it was almost a joke to reach the "summit" of Stob na Broige (956 m/3,136 ft) - almost 200 feet below the summit of Stob na Doire! But it still felt good to reach its top and look out over the road to Loch Etive. The weather couldn't have been better and after a quick bite to eat we started off down the mountains back to the car through a green valley lit up by the golden setting sun. It was a bit tricky getting the car out of the dirt parking lot as the ground was eroded where the pavement from the road ended, but we got her out and started the long drive back to Glasgow.

(More to read below this slideshow, too!)



Binnein Mor & na Gruagaichean
27 August 2014


We just couldn't get enough of the good weather and thought that while it lasted we should get out once more. The weather report called for clear skies, light wind, and no rain, so once again Hazel and I hopped in her "gran-mobile" and drove back up to Glen Coe. We wanted to do the Aonach Eagach ridge on the north side of Glen Coe, but after looking reports of its treachery, we decided against it until we had someone with us who could urge us along Britain's sharpest ridge walk. We decided to try some other ridge walks first before tackling that monster! So we drove through Glen Coe and then tucked east to Kinlochleven where we parked the car and headed off up to the Mamores peaks.

I'm not sure we realised just how long of a walk this was going to be. The first few miles are just a constant slight increase up a long valley (though with nice views over Loch Leven and the town below), until the path dumps you out into a beautiful valley perched up between Binnein Mor (our first destination) and the neighbouring munro Sgurr Eilde Mor. While the day was just as sunny as the previous walk, the air was not nearly as still and we were being buffeted by very stiff and strong gusts of wind! We worked our way up to the ridge overlooking Coire an Lochain where we had spectacular views of Ben Nevis across the valley, and even though our legs were about to give out, we still weren't at the top! Out of 282 munros, Binein Mor is the 28th highest and we still had to get there. We met some nice Dutch tourists and caught up with a single hillwalker who was bagging his 200-and-something munro. He reassured us that Aonach Eagach's bark was worse than its bite, but that with the stiff winds, it was better we weren't on that ridge. We made it to the summit of Binnein Mor (1,130 m/3,707 ft) which is perched on a little point in the sky with very steep and long drop-offs on either side! Vertigo definitely set in a few times, especially with the wind, but once we sat for some water, we got over it pretty quickly.

Chilling out on top of Binnein Mor. Munro #10!

We didn't linger at the summit long due to the wind. It was incredibly brisk and chilled us even with all the layers we were wearing! But we did have a little celebration as this was my 10th munro! We found a little spot tucked away from the wind for lunch, but since the walk was so long, we pressed onward along a nice ridge to na Gruagaichean and enjoyed a good scramble up to the summit (1,056 m/3,465 ft) where we celebrated once more as this was Hazel's 10th munro! Ben Nevis just stared us down while we had the rest of our lunch. Time was getting on, and the sun was already setting and we still had to get back to the car and drive back to Glasgow! The walk down the ridge was nice and grassy with stunning views of Loch Leven and we could even see the jagged ridge of Aonach Eagach in the distance. But the nice grassy ridge soon gave way to a massive, steep, pathless, grassy hillside that we essentially bushwacked our way through before reaching the trail that would return us to the car. It was definitely one of the longest walks I've done so far (almost 9 miles), but it was definitely worth it!

(There's one more section to read below this slideshow!)



Ben Lui & Beinn a'Chleibh
14 September 2014


The weather's been changing a lot around Scotland as Fall starts to set in but the weather report suggested we'd have clear skies and cloud-free munros over the weekend, so my intrepid munro-bagging-partner, Hazel, and I went for it. We drove west to Ben Lui, which was described as one of the finest munros in scotland with amazing views, but we had the feeling, as we parked the car, that those views would not be for us today. Clouds were low and the peaks of all the munros were shrouded in mist. But we were here so might as well go for it anyway!

Carefully keeping to the path in the fog along the ridge to Ben Lui

We forded the River Lochy and trudged our way up through the muddy pine timber forest which was nice as there were a few waterfalls and the leaves were already changing colour. But soon we found ourselves in the massive bowl-shaped valley between Ben Lui and Beinn a'Chleibh, both covered in clouds and a brisk wind blowing through the gap between them. We headed up east along a long, steep, grassy slope that just kept going, and going...and going, until we were in the clouds. But the grass stopped and was replaced by broken boulders and alpine-climate plants. We'd reached the ridge that would take us to the summit, being careful not to lose our footing lest we trip and fall down the cliff into the valley on the other side, which incidentally is where a 4-person aircraft tragically crashed a few decades ago. We wanted to see if we could find the wreckage, but the clouds were too thick and we didn't want to go wandering off trail.

After a few fun scrambles and photoshoots, we made it to an open plateau with a cairn that we thought was the summit, only to realise we had a little further to go before reaching Ben Lui's true summit (1,130 m/3,707 - the same height as Binnein Mor, but ranked 29th). It was too cold and damp to linger there much longer so we headed down to the bealach and it was pretty much a hop, skip, and a jump up to the summit of the neighbouring munro, Beinn a'Chleibh (916 m/3,005 ft) which was cloud-free for a while. But there was no reason for it not to be cloud free - after all, Beinn a'Chleibh is the 281st highest munro out of 282! So, not spectacular, but fun to check it off the list nonetheless. Clouds eventually did roll in and we never really got a good clear view of Ben Lui all day. We ran into many people who were doing one or two more munros after Ben Lui and Beinn a'Chleibh, but I'd injured my knee running the day before so we decided to head back to the car, which didn't take long, and it was nice not having a three-hour drive back home. Not sure how many more nice days we'll have, but so far, nothing can stop us!

Scotland: Ben Lomond and Ben Vane (Munros 1 & 2)

Ben Lomond
 
Date: 15 April 2014

A few weeks back, Glasgow experienced a rare weather phenomenon: we had eight days of beautifully sunny and warm weather! The first of these days, we'd been coming out of rainy doldrums and being Scotland we weren't sure how long the sun would stay, so even though it was a Tuesday, a friend of mine from the University and I decided we'd take advantage of the weather while it was still good, made plans, and drove out to Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, taking a small one-lane windy road around the north shore of the famous lake to the foot of Ben Lomond - the southernmost of the Scottish Munros.

Scotland is famous for its brilliant hillwalking everywhere, but especially in the Highlands. Here, any peak that is over 3,000 feet above sea level is classified as a Munro - anything less is classified as either a Corbett (2,500-3,000 ft above sea level) or a Graham (2,000-2,500 ft asl). There are 282 Munros, and anyone who attempts to climb them all is called a Munro Bagger. Having never done any hillwalking in Scotland before (save maybe the walk to the Old Man of Hoy in the Orkney Islands), I figured what better way to claim my first peak than to hike up to the summit of the southernmost Munro as well as being the peak with the name of the National Park it is in!

The walk took us about six hours, round-trip, and while it was not a challenging hike, per se, it was a beautiful one, nonetheless. Ben Lomond is tall (974 meters, or 3,196 feet above sea level) and since you start very near sea level, the whole elevation is yours to climb. Well...climb is a bit of an overstatement. The walk up Ben Lomond is a pretty easy ramp along a well-marked trail. About three quarters of the way up, the ramp does steepen and the going gets a bit slower, but it's still not challenging if you take your time.

Beautiful views of Loch Lomond all the way up to the summit

My friend and I kept a good pace the entire way up to the top. We had to since even though the sun was out, the wind was a bit chilly, but the views from the walk of both the summit - which would be hidden by clouds for short periods of time - and the beautiful lake beneath us were stunning! There was still snow up at the top on the steep, north-facing slopes, and though we enjoyed it at first, we quickly steered away from it, realising that the possibility that any of the snow packs could collapse and avalanche down the mountain was pretty high!

By the time we got to the summit, the weather had cleared up enough for some good photos and the views of the Arrochar Alps across the lake and the Trossachs to the north were great! We had lunch up there shortly after 1:00 pm, but didn't stay long since we still had to descend. Rather than going down the same way we came up, we headed down a smaller ridge that ran parallel to the lakeshore, bringing us right back to the parking lot. Once down from the top, the wind died down a bit more and the clouds all but vanished. We stopped for a wee snack and watched a Royal Air Force jet fly through the lake valley below us for some sort of training mission. By the time we got to the car, it was nearly 4pm so we had one last little snack on the lakeshore before heading back into Glasgow.

(there's more below the Ben Lomond slideshow!)



Ben Vane

Date: 19 April 2014

Later on in the same week - again, the weather couldn't have been better - a larger group of my friends from the office and I carpooled out to the south side of Loch Lomond to climb Ben Vane, another Munro, 915 metres (3,002 feet) above sea level. While not as high as Ben Lomond, Ben Vane offered up some extra challenges. Mainly, we had to find our own path from the access road up to the path on the trail guide, and higher up the trail got quite steep and we zig-zagged our way up between large rock outcrops, scrambled over boulders and other rocks, and slipped our way over some small snow patches, all the while dodging sheep and trying to keep our feet dry while walking over purely soggy ground!

One of the many sheep that dotted the hillslopes on the way up Ben Vane - keeping a keen
eye on us as we summit the Munro. Ben Lomond in the background.

It was great, though. We started off at the Inveruglas parking lot on the shores of Loch Lomond and had to walk up a very long access road past a hydro power station. We couldn't find the trail from the access road up to the ridge we were supposed to follow to the summit so we just marched on up a big long slope, dotted with boulders and massive rock outcrops sticking up from the water-saturated muck beneath our feet. We had perfect views over Ben Lomond and Loch Lomond and with plenty of shaggy sheep running every which way, there were plenty of pure-Scotland moments!

Once we got to the top of the ridge, we followed its gradual path up to the base of the real mountain. Here, the path took steep hairpin turns with large steps up over rocks with a big outcrop every so often that offered a good place to take a break for a moment and steal some fantastic views of the surrounding Arrochar Alps!

The walk was a long and steep one - a bit more strenuous than Ben Lomond. It was one of those mountains that every time you think you reach the summit, there's more to go! The path eventually gives way to some scrambling up and around some rocks, down some rocks, and over some snow banks, but we finally reached the top and were rewarded with stunning views of Ben Lomond, Ben Ime, A'Chrois, the Cobbler, and Beinn Narnain. The schist rock that underlies the Arrochar Alps stuck out in many places at the summit, showing off its beautifully warped and metamorphosed structure, giving the whole summit an incredibly unique geologic feel!

The thing with Munro Bagging (at least from what I've experienced in the two hikes I've done), is that you don't linger at the summits for very long. We stayed up at the top for maybe fifteen minutes before turning right back around and heading down. But the whole walk was well worth it. We had a good group of people, a fantastically nimble dog, and stunning weather! And I can't wait to tick-off the other Munros of the Arrochar Alps off my list soon!

Scotland: Pollock Country Park II

Well, this is moving week for me, and before I go home to Michigan for a few days, I had a few things to take care of. In doing so, I had to make a trip to the Pollok Country Park once more. The park was voted Europe's Best Park in 2008 and today I took advantage of some nice weather to walk around the wooded park after doing my errands. It really is a beautiful park with miles of walking paths, bike paths, fields where highland cattle graze, woods, ponds, lakes, rivers, the Burrell Collection, and the Pollok House. You could spend an entire day there and if you're in Glasgow for any extended period of time, it's totally worth the visit (and super easy with the train from Glasgow Central).

The London Olympic Torch comes to Glasgow

Date: 08-09 June 2012

London will be hosting the 2012 Olympics later on this summer. Part of the Olympic pageantry, which I am a huge fan, involves the Torch Relay. The Torch Relay starts in Greece where the torch is lit by the power of the sun at the Temple of Hera. From there, the Olympic Flame is carried by symbolic torches designed for each Olympic host city and transported around to all regions, districts, landmarks, and sights in the host country before entering the Olympic Stadium on the night of the Opening Ceremonies where it is used to light the official Olympic Cauldron at the host stadium. While the Olympic Flame has been part of the modern games since Amsterdam in 1928, the Torch Relay was first carried out during the controversial Nazi-run 1936 Olympic games in Berlin. Out of controversy springs a fantastic new tradition, however, that allows each host country to showcase their cultures, landscapes, and histories with the rest of the world in the weeks and months leading up to the Games.

In the UK, the Torch started a number of weeks back and made its way from the southwest of England into Wales and Northern Ireland, stopping at castles, the mountains of Snowdonia in Wales, the Giant's Causeway in N. Ireland, and eventually back over to Britain where it made its way into Glasgow last Friday. Scotland and the UK have been having battling over a Scottish Independence Movement that is currently in full-swing and there was a general buzz of concern whether the Glaswegians would be as supportive of the Games being hosted in the capital city of the country from which many want to secede. The issue of the role of the Scottish nation in the Olympics was recently in the news as the London Olympic Committee told Scotland they would have to take down their National Flag at their National Stadium in Edinburgh while initial Soccer games were being played there. Scotland balked and the London Olympic Committee gave them permission to fly the Saltire, which they said they never forbade in the first place (the International Olympic Committee also said they never would have supported the removal of the Scottish National Flag, for the record!).

George Square in the morning, setting up for the nighttime festivities

The worries ended up being totally unfounded as thousands of people showed up to line the Torch Relay route in multiple different suburbs of the city and eventually into the City Center. There were flags being flown of all countries and people of all different nationalities out supporting their colors, including myself (though I really had to search hard to find a US-themed shirt or jersey or flag in Glasgow, eventually settling on a US Olympic Football jersey).

My friends and I went out to watch the Torch pass the University of Glasgow's Main Gate and then tried catching the subway into town to see it as it passed through on its way to a ticketed concert event in George Square, which we didn't have tickets to, but ate dinner nearby at DiMaggio's (Olympic Pizza special was awesome!) hoping to hear the music. We couldn't hear anything but went elsewhere to watch the Euro 2012 football matches for a little while. The concert ended fairly early and things began to be dismantled in George Square, which soon reopened to the public and we then got some fun photos by an awesome sculpture of the Olympic Rings.

Passing on the Torch in front of the University of Glasgow

Olympic Rings in George Square in front of the City Chambers

The next morning, the Torch Relay started off at the Riverside Museum on the tallship docked there, probably in honor of Glasgow's past and present ship-building industry. My neighbor and I woke up super early (6am) to get to the museum in time where I fulfilled my goal of getting my photo taken with the torch and to touch the torch, which is difficult to do in a non-awkward way because the torch bearers are not allowed to let go of the torch, but I succeeded in my mission! The torch was lit from little lanterns which house the flame when it's not being run along the route or when it's in transit by plane, or boat, or bus, or whatever. With the torch lit, the relay began and the bearer ran around the museum, past a bagpipe troupe, and off through Glasgow on its way up to Loch Lomond.

Me with the torch!

The Torch is lit on the Glenlee at the Riverside Museum

It was a brief, but very celebratory few days and I'm so glad I got to participate in the festivities, even as remotely as cheering on the flame as it passed through a city hundreds of miles away from where the Games will actually be. Photos from the festivities are below! Happy Olympics!

New Lanark & the Tenement House

New Lanark
Date: 20 May 2012

New Lanark, just about 40 minutes southeast of Glasgow (by car) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site commemorating Robert Owen, who provided hundreds of his cotton mill workers with decent living accommodations, free health care, free education and night classes, affordable food, no child labor or corporal punishment, and this was all in 1825 when he took over ownership of the mill from his father-in-law! (To put that in perspective, the United States didn't pass its first child-labor laws until 1916, has some of the highest education costs, no universal health care, and the cheap food is always the worst quality.)

It was Sunday morning and my friend Euan texted me to see if I wanted to take the drive out there. It was sunny, and I figured it was better than reading for Uni at home. You park up above the River Clyde valley and walk down a path into the mill and village below. The buildings are beautifully built, carved out of the ever noticeable sandstone that pervades Glasgow architecture, and many of the buildings are still lived in! Part of the mill burned down, but blueprints were found and it was reconstructed and now houses a fancy hotel in one of the most picturesque bits of Scotland I've seen (I mean, it's no highlands, but still beautiful). It actually reminded me a lot of Vermont and parts of the Winooski River valley.

We weren't planning on spending too much time at the site. Euan had been a few times before since he grew up nearby, and since it cost £8.50 to get into the Visitor Center and museum, I thought I'd wait until next time when the weather would likely not be as nice. So we walked around the grounds and the mills, past the gigantic waterwheel which ran the mill, the mill race that turned the wheel, the mill dam which fed the mill race with water, and then took a wee hike upstream along the river.

The land surrounding New Lanark is densely wooded, but there are plenty of trails for visitors to explore including one that goes up to a hydroelectric dam that Scottish Power uses for clean, green energy. Along the way, though, we passed Cora Linn, a beautiful cascade of waterfalls, as well as a second series of falls a little farther upstream. In recent geological history (we're talking 10,000 years ago!) this part of Scotland was covered by an ice sheet, or glaciers coming down off the highlands. The massive amounts of ice acted as a dam in the river valley, causing a glacial meltwater lake to form. Eventually, this dam burst, as so many of them do (thank you Vermont Geology!), sending water down the river valley and over cliffs. Since then, the falls have eroded back up the valley a bit such that the water flows over a series of smaller knickpoints rather than over one giant cliff.

Overall, we probably spent a little over two hours at the site, but since we didn't pay for anything, I didn't mind not being there longer, but I will go back at some point to learn more of the Mill's history.


The Tenement House
Date: 26 May 2012

Saturday was yet another beautiful day in Glasgow and as the afternoon wore on, I decided to head to a tiny museum in town that I've heard so much about called the Tenement House (part of the National Trust for Scotland). They don't allow the taking of photographs, so I'll do my best to describe bits of the house. Its premise is pretty simple: a woman by the name of Mrs. Toward, owned the property from the 1890s through at least 1960 (sorry, I didn't catch exact dates!). Mrs. Toward was a seamstress who disliked change and lived by herself, so after her death the flat was considered to be in spectacular period condition, much as it was in the 1890s, apart from the new-fangled electric lights which Mrs. Toward had installed in 1960!

The development of housing in Glasgow's history really shaped it into its present state, and many museums around the city spend some amount of time on the subject (like at the Peoples' Palace on Glasgow Green). Tenement housing was Glasgow's response to a quickly growing population in the 1800s as millions of people moved here to take on work in mills, factories, and other industries. With such a large population living in squalid conditions, public health took a turn for the worst. In the US, we tend to think of Tenements as slums and housing of poor conditions, which, frankly, they did here in Scotland as well. But in the later 1800s the city council of Glasgow decided to take charge of these terrible housing slums by demolishing them and then building new blocks of stone buildings in which an entry way (a close) leads to 3-5 floors of houses, each floor having three doors off of a landing. Essentially, Tenements in Glasgow are like Boston Brownstone houses; however, instead of individual, multi-level, houses being built next to each other, the houses are one level (which is why I live in a flat and not an apartment), and stacked on top of each other.

The newer tenements were a step above the older slums, but since there were public spaces, shared by all tenants - such as the close, the stairs, the back yard - strict rules were enforced regarding their cleanliness. If your close was not kept clean, everyone living off of it would be fined, for example.

Mrs. Toward's flat was simple, with four rooms: a bathroom, kitchen, dining/family room, and a bedroom, all leading off of the entry way. Everything in the flat is as much as it would have been when Mrs. Toward lived there and most of the belongings are hers. It's a very neat place to go to see an old, coal-fired range which was never updated, a deep laundry tub with a mangle attached to it, an old fireplace and wood-carved mantle with knick-knacks that reminded me of my grandparents' houses, and large closets in which a mattress was placed. The dining/living room was rarely used except on special occasions. When I asked why, I was told that the door usually remained shut otherwise soot from all of the coal burning, both inside the flat and literally all over Glasgow, would ruin the nice furnishings. But I imagine it must have been used somewhat as one of Mrs. Toward's sewing machines, a piano, and one of the bed-closests were in there.

Otherwise, everything else in the flat was fairly sparse and used-looking. But why shouldn't it be? People weren't able to go out and buy something new when theirs broke, so they had to fix it, or figure out a way to get the job done without it! Everything in the house had a purpose like kitchen utensils, or toiletries, or medicines, or cleaning agents. The only real personal effects I noticed were some paintings and the knick-knacks in the living room with a nice set of china, used only for special occasions, I presume. You just didn't have the money to be filling your house with useless clutter!

It's too bad they didn't allow photos inside, the Tenement House, because I know I didn't do it justice! I was able to snag some photos of plaques placed in the close leading up to the house, just to prove I was actually there!

Glasgow Rocks Pro-basketball

While I didn't have to travel far to see any pro-basketball in Glasgow, it was a special event, nonetheless. A few of my officemates and I decided to pick up tickets to the last Glasgow Rocks game of the championship season at the Kelvinhall International Sports Arena. I knew, going into this, that it was not going to be anything like going to an NBA game in the States. The BBL (British Basketball League) has about 13 teams that seem to range in size, popularity, and skill level. The Rocks were placed 5th in the BBL going into this game, playing against the Durham Wildcats (ranked last...) so at least we could rest assured that we weren't going to see an upset.

Even though the arena was small (only eight rows of seats along one side of the court and behind both hoops), it was nearly packed, though I should mention was packed with lots of younger kids, most of whom were pre-teen boys excited to watch the Rockettes, Glasgow's 5-person team of bleach-blond, spray-tanned cheerleaders. Admittedly, they were fun to watch. You could tell they were having fun doing what they were doing, but I'll have to say they were a bit less committed to their booty-shaking choreography than, say, their busty and bootylicious NBA counterparts.

I've watched a lot of basketball growing up, though I have to be honest and say that I've....well, I've kind of forgotten a lot about the game. Mostly the penalties and fouls...don't really remember how those all work. But I wansn't out of place as most of the Glaswegians didn't know, either. The small arena was loud during a good play or a score, but during the rest of gameplay, you could have heard a pin drop! The Rocks played well, though definitely a bit more sloppy than the NBA skill-level. Interestingly, though, three or four players for The Rocks were American, and I'm willing to bet that they may be signed on to a NBA team in some fashion, but are playing overseas to gain experience and to maintain their abilities. With 7-minute quarters, the game went by quickly, but it was a good time. The Rocks are now qualified for the Playoffs, and, based on what I saw last night, will likely give a good showing.

I would definitely suggest going to a game if you've got an hour or two and you're looking for something different to do around Glasgow!

Glasgow's Spring Thaw

Rain is falling once more in Glasgow as I write this short post and cringe at the impending 10cm of snow we might get tomorrow. This past week, and two weekends, though, we've seen what I've been told is abnormally warm weather for a Glasgow spring. We had nine days straight of sunny days. It was amazing. Flowers and trees were in bloom, and everyone in Glasgow was out in any patch of green space they could find to lay out and get their yearly dose of Vitamin D. People were out running, biking, walking their dogs, and eating and drinking out at little cafes everywhere around town. I even got to wear shorts!

Last week, there were a few days were the British Isles were nearly completely cloud-free! (very rare!)

Because I am in both my brother's and my sister's summer weddings, I had to get measured for a tuxedo somewhere in town. Last Saturday, I took the subway to the City Center and got measured at a huge men's clothing store where there were probably about 30 men helping others get measured and fitted properly. In the corner were I was getting measured, there were a bunch of kilts on the walls and a few guys being measured for those. I'm not going to lie, I want one. I don't care if I only wear it for sporting events and formal occasions, but I want one! And it's time to dispel the portrayal of men in kilts as men in skirts or dresses. NEVER IN YOUR LIFE walk up to a Scottish man in a kilt and say something about his skirt. You will not live to see another day (especially if it's at a rugby match)!

I spent the rest of that Saturday walking around the City Center, meandering up and down streets I hadn't been to before and scouted out lots of neat stores, cafes, restaurants, clubs, pubs, and markets I plan on exploring more in the future. Instead of taking the subway back home, I took advantage of the weather and took the footpath along the River Clyde all the way back to Partick.

Throughout the rest of the week, I couldn't not be outside. I ran 8km last Monday to burn off some steam from an unproductive Sunday through the Botanic Gardens, along the River Kelvin, and through the Kelvingrove Park where I'm sure I passed at least 2,000 people out enjoying the sun. On the run, I also passed a pub called, The Big Blue, that was perched up on a bank over the River Kelvin, next to a beautiful bridge, and had a few picnic tables and chairs along the footpath. Definitely was going to check that out later in the week.

Tuesday afternoon, one of the postdocs invited people over to her flat where she had a grill and large patio and a number of us enjoyed a fantastic barbeque with burgers, beer, wine, crisps, chips, salad, and the best desert ever: chocolate-stuffed, grilled bananas (see photo below). They were delicious and it was suggested that I try these out on a beach in a fire-pit. A must-do for this summer in Muskegon!

The next afternoon, though not the warmest of the week, was so nice, I wore my shorts and flip-flops. I couldn't stand being stuck inside, so I left work around 4 and headed to The Big Blue, got a beer and a table and did a bit of reading work out along the river. On the way home, I was also determined to check out another beer garden in this church-turned-restaurant/pub/theater. It was fantastic.

And then on Friday, after work, a few of my friends and I went to the pub next to our building to enjoy what might be the last bit of sun for a while. Pints in hand, they helped me decide to go outside and do something nice on Saturday, which I did, in Edinburgh. And I'll write about that tomorrow :)

Jupiter and Venus align over Glasgow

I was walking home at dusk the other day on an unseasonably warm night and a few bright lights in the sky caught my eye. I heard through the grapevine that some planets were getting ready to line up, but I wasn't sure which, though I was pretty sure that's what I was looking at. The night sky was a deep blue color and you could still see the fringes of daylight setting behind a thick front of clouds moving toward the city.

My friend, Sara, who lives in Saskatoon, has been taking a lot of awesome nighttime photos in northern Canada and inspired me to grab my camera as soon as I got home and try to take some good photos of the conjunction of Jupiter and Venus (as I later learned that's what I was looking at).

Around the block from my flat is a little park that I thought would be a perfect place to take some photos. It was, except for the fact that even this late in the evening lots of kids were playing on the playground equipment and I'm sure some of the parents were wondering what this guy (me) was doing with a nice camera at a childrens' playground was doing. A little self-conscious about my photos and not wanting to draw undue attention to myself, I made sure to be focusing my lens up at the sky!

Anyway, here are the few photos that actually turned out somewhat nice. I definitely need to invest in a tripod, though, as the rest of the photos I took were pretty much just a bunch of squiggles in the sky. I'm hoping that we'll get another solar storm in the near future, in which case, I will try and get to northern Scotland and maybe glimpse some aurora borealis!

Glasgow City Crest

I just wanted to post something here today to celebrate my being in Glasgow for a month! St. Mungo is the patron saint of the city and founded a religious site here way back in the day. There are four emblems that are found on the City Crest that are also symbols associated with Glasgow elsewhere, including little logos on the bus stops. They are a fish, tree, bell, and bird. Each of these symbols are said to be related to miracles St. Mungo performed. What they are, I'll have to get back to you. There is also a little poem that children are taught in school growing up related to the symbols of St. Mungo and I've put it below the photo of the Crest.

Here is the bird that never flew.

Here is the tree that never grew.

Here is the bell that never rang.

Here is the fish that never swam.

Glasgow: the dear green place

*I'm trying out a new way of sharing my photos. There is a link at the bottom to my photo album.*

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!)

Anyway, I hope this fulfills the need for anyone wondering where I'm living to have a brief history of some of the sites of my new city. I'm excited to see more places, visit museums, and get to know it a little better in the next weeks.

Here are the photos:

It's the little things

Most things here in Scotland are not much different than home in the US. People speak english, the cuisine is not wildly exotic, and going to school here is the same as going to school at home. But there in lies the problem. If things were extremely different, I could use the, "What do I know? I'm just an ignorant foreigner," excuse, but because things are just slightly different, I get really really anxious when I'm out and about.

For example, the monetary system here is exactly the same as in the US: there are 100 pence in 1 pound, similar to 100 cents in 1 dollar. But here there are 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, £1, and £2 coins and there are three major banks, each having their own designs for the various notes (£5, £10, £20, etc.). The £5 notes from one bank are worth the same as from the other two, but they just have a different design on them. Then, throw into the mix the fact that England produces their own notes - which are still the same value as the Scottish banks' notes. When I'm at a store or quick restaurant, it seems like everyone else just whips out exactly what they owe, but needless to say, it takes me a little bit longer to make sure that I'm paying the amount I should be. And that makes me a little anxious.

Even walking around is just different enough that I really have to pay attention to what's going on! In the US the traffic at a stoplight usually allows one direction of traffic (let's say east) to move at the same time as the oncoming traffic (west). And, simultaneously, pedestrians walking parallel to the traffic motion can cross the street. This continues until the moving traffic gets a red light and then the stopped traffic can start moving in the north and south directions. Here in Scotland, traffic moves in one direction at a time. For example, first all the northbound traffic gets the green light, then the eastbound traffic gets their turn, then the southbound, and westbound traffic. Only after all cars have their turn at the green light do pedestrians get to cross the street. But since all directions of traffic are stopped when pedestrians cross, you are allowed to walk diagonally across the intersection. Of course, this isn't the case at all intersections, so I need to watch out for that. Add into all of this the fact that traffic drives on the left-hand side of the road so sometimes I'm not entirely sure which way to look before crossing a street! I grew up always looking left before crossing a street first and then right because the immediate traffic comes from the left when you drive on the right-hand side of the road. So it's amazing how unnatural it feels having to make that conscious effort to look to my right first if I don't want to get hit by bus driving by!

And then there are gelatinous foods. Yes, while most of the food is similar to what is in the States, things here are just called something different, but I remember getting confused looks when once I mentioned peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. You see, jelly in the US is not jelly here. When I say jelly, the Scots picture jell-o. So our jell-o is their jelly; our jelly is their jam; our jam is their jam-with-bits. And even when I get things right and say peanut butter and jam, they still think I'm kind of crazy! But they love ice cream and jelly (the jell-o/jelly), which I think is intriguing and will have to try. I've mentioned that I like my jelly (the jell-o/jelly) with bits of fruit in it or marshmallows and they like the idea of bits of fruit, but don't quite understand the marshmallow piece of it. I also mentioned that Jell-O and Bill Cosby are frequently associated with one another, but apparently he was not a spokesperson for jelly over here, so that association is met with blank stares. What we call pudding in the US is also definitely not a common snack over here; yet, they eat pudding all the time. It's just that the word "pudding" is used to classify any type of dessert food. Thus, restaurants will have a pudding menu but there will be no pudding (US-kind) on it!

So what all this boils down to, really, is that I'm getting along fine with the big changes of moving far away from anything immediately familiar and into a big city where you kind of have to keep an eye out for suspicious behavior while walking down the street. The little things, however, slow me down just enough for me to notice and feel like I'm inconveniencing the native Glaswegians. So if I do, well...just give me some time and I'll come around!

Starting from scratch in a new land

Trip Date: January 30, 2012

I've done it! A few months ago, I took the opportunity to make an exploratory trip to the University of Glasgow in Scotland to think about starting my PhD in the geosciences. After my first day here back in December, there really wasn't too much convincing that needed to be done. Even in the pouring rain and chilly temperatures, I thought Glasgow was the natural next step on my life's journey.

Fast forward two months, and after waiting weeks for my new passport, getting my student visa, selling my car, and making the painstaking decision to use 60,000 of my frequent flyer miles to buy a ticket, my bags were packed and I was on my way here, to Glasgow, where I am now writing this blog post from my bedroom in the city's West End.

I have to apologize for not writing anything sooner (I've been here for almost two weeks now), but there has been a lot going on. Not being one to live an unplanned and disorganized, I agonized about not being able to set up a bank account, or find an apartment, or get a mobile phone before coming over. Finding a flat before coming here was difficult, mainly because I will only be here for a few months before moving to Australia for a year for school, and no one really wants to agree on such a short-term lease agreement. And you can't do much else, like buy a phone or get a bank account without a mailing address, so on my first night in town, I met up with a nice guy, Craig, to view a room in an apartment he owned.

From photos I saw online, the room looked really nice, but walking over to it was sort of my first glimpse of my new city and I was unsure of how a room that looked nice could be in what seemed to be a dodgy part of town. It's just amazing the types of misconceptions and cozy perfect little worlds we become familiar with. Glasgow is not a neat and pristine city; after all, it got its start as an industrial merchant and maritime city that was second only to London in the British Empire. Like all industrial cities, Glasgow has fallen on hard times, but has been making a comeback in recent years. The people who live here love it and like in cities such as Detroit or New Orleans, that love for the city forces you to enjoy the personality and people of a city rather than its outward appearance. Back to me looking for an apartment, it was a great space and not wanting to wait and look for other places to live, I told Craig that I'd love to rent the room, so we negotiated and came to an agreement.

I didn't stay there that night, as all of my things were at another postgrad's and her husband's apartment - they were so hospitable to allow me to stay with them until I had some other living arrangement figured out. So the next day, my goal was to shop for a bank account and get a mobile phone. The bank situation really wasn't too difficult, and within a few hours my first morning in Glasgow, I was all set with a basic current account (aka a checking account).

I met with my advisor that morning to go over a few other details and he helped get me situated in my desk which is one of twelve in a communal office space in the Gregory Building on campus. The School of Geographical and Earth Sciences is fairly large at the University and comprised of human and physical geographers and earth scientists. The School's main offices are in the main University building, in the East Quad - built in 1860.

The central focus of the main University building is the tower overlooking the cloisters of the East and West Quads

Unfortunately for me, historical preservation of the building required that no laboratory space requiring fume hoods could be put into the East Quad, so that's where all the physical and human geographers have their offices while the earth scientists' offices are in a much more boring (architecturally) building. But it's a good work space. When I need to get work done, I can; but it's not like a dead zone where no one talks. Very conducive to studying! I then finished registering with the University to make sure that they know I am here and that my living stipend will actually be deposited into my current account (which it did!).

Later that evening, I moved all of my things into my new flat, which really didn't take long. It's kind of amazing/sad to know that I was able to pack so little. On one hand, it's nice that I am not weighed down by tons of useless little knick-knacks. On the other hand, I did have to leave some things back in Michigan like photos of family and books. But most of the important photos are on my computer anyway, and once I get a more permanent place to stay either in Australia or when I return to Glasgow, I will be able to set up my life a little more.

Apartment? Check. Bank? Check. Office? Check. There was just one last item on my list of things I wanted to do: get my phone.

I love my iPhone. There is no getting around that. In fact, last February, after I had my iPhone pick-pocketed on my way to the Berlin airport, and even though I was feeling wretched from food poisoning on my return flight, I stopped at AT&T just to get a new one. But it's more than a phone to me; it's a camera, access to e-mails, iPod, and my mobile life-line back to my family and friends in the states. So I figured that since numerous cellular companies carry the iPhone, it would not be a problem getting a SIM card for it. Well, I think I was on one of the wildest goose chases of my life!

The problem with my phone is that it is "locked" - I can't use it to access the cellular networks over here unless I got it unlocked. But before a phone can be unlocked, it's internal computer code must be altered through a process called jailbreaking (which, by the way, is all perfectly legal if doing this for personal use). The first store I went to said he couldn't unlock my phone because it is a 4G and apparently he could only unlock 3Gs. I thought that was wrong, so I brought it to a mobile phone store and they said it was possible to have my phone unlocked, but that they could not legally do it. So feeling a little defeated, I went home that night and browsed Reddit for a while until I found what seemed to be the most reputable method of unlocking my phone. An hour later, it seemed like I was successful. Now I just needed to wait until the next day to buy a SIM card and plug it in.

The next day came around and I stopped back at the cell phone store and bought my SIM card, which the clerk advised may take anywhere from 2-24 hours to pick up the signal from the network. Needless to say, every hour for the next 24 hours, I was checking my phone and turning it on and off to see if my unlocking was successful. I was not in luck. I did a little more research online and found something that said that my network carrier back in the states were the only people who could successfully unlock my phone. So I bought some Skype credits and called AT&T, explained my new living situation, and asked if they had the capabilities to unlock my phone, to which they replied, "No, I'm sorry. We can't do that, but Apple can." Luckily for me, Glasgow has an Apple store downtown, so half an hour later, after buying an Underground ticket, I found myself at the Apple store being told, "No, I'm sorry. We can't do that, but your US network provider can."

I was outraged. Everyone kept telling me that it could be done, but that they could not do it for me! Furious and frustrated, the next day I went to the O2 store near campus (O2 is the network provider for the SIM card I bought). I asked the guy behind the counter if he knew anything about unlocking iPhones. The guy was very nice and took a look at my phone, tried using a different SIM card to see if the one I bought was faulty, but it was not. He then told me of a phone shop downtown (a hole-in-the-wall place where mobile phones and pay-as-you-go phone plans were sold). I was told that if the folks at the downtown phone store couldn't help me out, no one in Glasgow would be able to. And soon I found myself back on the Tube going downtown, trying to find this phone shop. Much to my chagrin, it turns out the phone shop I was looking for closed down about a month ago. Again, out of luck.

I turned back to the internet that night trying to find a solution to my problem. And then it came to me; the answer was as clear as day. Different iPhones, operating on different versions of the iOS operating system, are programmed with different "base codes." Hackers have found ways to unlock iPhone 4Gs with some base codes, but not others, and lo and behold, my phone's base code is one that has not yet been unlcocked. I would not be able to use my iPhone here in the UK. Still upset, I decided it would be best for me to trade in the phone I have for an earlier version with less memory, get that phone unlocked, and then put the SIM card I bought into the "new" phone. I found myself back at the mobile phone store, and was ready to pay another £150 for a downgraded version of my phone. I asked them, "When I go to Australia in a few months, will I be able to get a SIM card there and use their cell network?" And they told me, "No, as soon as you put a new SIM card in your phone here, it sets the base code and won't work down there." Dead end. Fine. End of Story. I realized it was just going to be too much of a hassle to continue this quest (not to mention expensive), and I was sick of not being able to get in touch with people I met because I didn't have a phone.

So really, what this all boils down to is that I spent a good three or four days trying to make the impossible happen and ended up just getting a cheap brick-of-a-phone that will have to suffice until hackers successfully unlock my phone's base code. Only then will I be able to use my beloved iPhone to keep in touch with the world.

Life has been a bit simpler since I ended that quest, and I'm learning to live back in the dark ages without a smartphone in my pocket all the time. As I near the first two week mark of my new life outside the US, routine is settling back into my life, and even though I've had to start from scratch, my life is slowly returning to a state of normalcy.

I haven't really taken too many photos yet, mostly because I haven't had the time to really go out and do anything worth photographing. But I promise, they'll come. Sooner or later, they will come. I have more stories from these first two weeks, too, but I'll update those in the next few days. Until then...

Glasgow and the Necropolis

Dates Traveled: November 28 - December 3, 2011
Part 2 of 3

The next few days were uneventful in the sense that I did not really do a whole lot. I did meet with students from Uni Glasgow and chatted about student life at the University as well as with colleagues to discuss the project I'd potentially be working on. I thought about trying to get downtown on the 30th, but public workers were all on strike, so trains were shut down and buses were limited, so I decided to stay near the West End of Glasgow, near campus. I grabbed a sandwich for lunch from a grocery store and wandered into the Botanical Gardens nearby. Though the main building was closed due to the strike, a secondary greenhouse (or glass house) was open and I found a bench and just relaxed for a bit.

Inside one of the glass houses at the Glasgow Botanical Gardens

 

 

 

 

 

That afternoon, I met with a bunch of current students who really gave me a feel for what living in Glasgow and working at the University was like. They were great and answered a lot of questions I had. And then later in the evening, I got more of a tour of the department by two students who then also took me out for a brew and more chatting at a local eat-and-drinkery in an old theater that has since been converted into a very spacious restaurant and bar. Very cool little alley off the main road called Ashton Lane with lots of little restaurants, bars, and a movie theater - clearly a local hang-out for anyone in the West End.

Ashton Lane at night

It was back to the hotel for me after that and I worked on my presentation for a little bit before nodding off to sleep. The next day (Thursday) was more open for me, schedule-wise, and since the strike was over, I decided to make my way downtown. The weather cleared up, so it was sunny, albeit chilly. I walked to the downtown area from campus. It's kind of hard to get a feel for a city with such little time, but Glasgow definitely seemed to be a lively city. I didn't really see a whole lot, but I at least walked through the main shopping area, past the city hall and plaza, and then up and over to the Glasgow Cathedral, which is a site! The Cathedral is formerly a Catholic church and is one of the few churches to have survived the Protestant Reformation. When reformers came to the church, wanting to tear it down because of what it stood for, the citizens of Glasgow protested and successfully saved the grand structure. Across from the Cathedral is the Glasgow Necropolis - one of the most unique cemeteries I've ever seen. In Glasgow's heyday, this was the burial place for the wealthy entrepreneurs and merchants and other Glaswegians in high-standing. The Necropolis is famous for its Victorian architecture in the numerous and marvelous tombs, crypts, and mausoleums. Originally planned as a park and garden that would "improve the morals and tastes of Glaswegians" (according to an information placard), the Necropolis still exhibits its original grandeur.

Kelvingrove Museum

University of Glasgow Main Building up on the hill

Clever speed sign. Couldn't find any for other speeds, so I don't know if they also rhyme

Glasgow city hall

George Square, the plaza in front of the city hall, is getting all prepped for Christmas festivities

Glasgow Cathedral

In the Necropolis, this is the grave of the author of the nursery rhyme, Wee Willie Winky!

View of Glasgow and the Cathedral from the Necropolis

Grave markers up on the Necropolis

Mausoleums on the Necropolis

More of the Necropolis

Main window of the Cathedral

Glasgow Cathedral from the front

The sun began setting and I needed to get back to the hotel so I could finish working on my presentation, so I hopped on the Glasgow Underground to get back to the West End. Down in the tunnel, waiting for the train, I was expecting to see an industrially boxy train come rolling into the station or maybe even a newer, sleeker train slide up next to the platform. But when the train did come through, the first words that came to my mind were, "Oh, that's cute."

Refurbished in the late 1970s, the Glasgow Underground hasn't changed much. Very small cars that you really have to duck to get into. It's a fun little ride that gets you from Point A to Point B.

Friday was my last day in Glasgow, and it was full of meetings, tours, interviews, and my presentation, which went really well, considering I haven't really presented my research since I was in Australia earlier this year! Saturday morning came early and I took the Underground back into town and hopped a bus to get out to the airport to return home. It was a short trip to Glasgow, but it was so positive that I'm really looking forward to potentially being able to spend more time there in the future! So much to do and see and I really didn't have the time to do it all. I'll be coming back for sure someday - and it may be sooner rather than later, but that decision has yet to be made.

Before actually getting home to Michigan, my flight dropped me off back in Amsterdam where I had a 24-hour layover and will write more about that tomorrow!