Glasgow, Scotland Day 2

Today was our second day in Glasgow. We started Good Friday off with the Glasgow Cathedral. It was beautiful inside. It is also supposed to have the bones of St. Mungo, the patron Saint of Glasgow. After the cathedral we went to the church’s Necropolis, then to St. Mungos Museum, and then to the oldest house in Glasgow. We then walked through a beautiful park to the People’s Palace. We had a fun late lunch and then strolled the city. This evening we went to the movies. Tomorrow we head to the Highlands.

 Glasgow Cathedral. This is the oldest cathedral in mainland Scotaland.  It was built in 1136.  It is also called St. Mungos (cue Harry Potter)

 This is St. Mungos bones and tomb.  We asked a guide about this and he said this (because remember - this church is no longer Catholic) "Well -there are bones in there.  Whether they belong to St. Mungo or not we are not to say".  It was hilarious

 Oldest remaining column in the church

 This was a filming spot for Outlander inside Glasgow cathedral. It is also the Nurses Chapel - a place of prayer for members of the Nursing Profession

 400 year old Bible

 After the church we visited the Necropolis.  52,000 people are buried here on 30 acres of land.  It was enormous and the tomb stones were enormous

 View of Glasgow Cathedral from the Necropolis

 We visited the oldest house in Glasgow.  It was actually bigger than I expected it to be.  It was free to visit

 For dinner we stopped at a cute little place called Chippies.  Finley had fried pizza.  She thought it was awesome

 This is the largest Terra Cotta fountain in the world

 The People's Palace.  The entrance was free

 In the evening we went to the movies.  We don't go very often in Switzerland becuase it is so expensive and most all kid movies are in German.  So tonight Finley and I saw Dumbo and Mat and the other kids saw Shazam.  We had a great time.

I wanted to add these paintings that we saw as we walked around the city.  I had read about them before we left.  They are "something to find" in the city.  They were fundiscoveries and just wonderful

Glasgow, Scotland Day 1

Today was our first full day in Glasgow. Unlike Edinburgh, Glasgow to us is more city and convenience and less old style buildings and tourist traps. We passed about 200 restaurants we would like to try. We started our day with a tour of Glasgow University (Arlington is also considering this college, so we pre booked a tour). It was beautiful. Then we went to the Hunterian Museum that is part of the University (free admission and really cool). Our next stop was the City Chambers for a tour ( it was beautiful inside). We saw the Duke Wellington statue and the Gallery of Modern Art ( they had a Warhol). We finally made it to a Scottish pub so I could try haggis ( it was delicious!) and then went to a show about moving art (it was different!). Very full day.

Fountain we saw on our walk to the University

 Glasgow University was built in 1451 and is the 4th oldest university in the English speaking world.

 Our guide told us that JK Rowling used this as inspiration for Hogwarts

 Our guide told us this is the oldest staircase of the University.  And actually the University used to be located somewhere else, but when it was moved to the city center, it was moved stone by stone

This was the home of William Thompson who was Lord Kelvin. He was a famous physicist that went to Glasgow University

 This is the library.  The LIBRARY.

 After visiting the University, we went to the free museum they had called the Hunitarian.  Displayed were these stones they discovered from the Roman period almost 2000 years ago.

 The museum was beautiful

  Big tower of the University

 

 This is the Glasgow public library.  It is enormous

 City Chambers.  We took a guided tours.  This was NOT something we could book in advance.  You can show up with one or their two daily scheduled tours and it is first come, first serve.  We didn't have any trouble getting onto a tour.  And it was free.

 This is the local government building of Glasgow.

 Inside the City Chambers.  It was quite beautiful.  

 Next we went to the Modern Art Museum.  The building was quite large

 This is the Duke Wellington statue. Capping the statue with a traffic cone has become a traditional practice in the city. Has been on his head since the 1980s

 Inside the museum we found a Warhol.  By the way - this museum was free.  Actually most museums in Glasgow are free

 My haggis dinner. We ate at a restaurant called The Drum and Monkey. Food was really good

 The Drum and Monkey

 Cool building

 The Shamanka Kinetic Theater. It was weird. But we enjoyed it because this artist got his inspiration from Jean Tinguely who is from Basel, Switzerland. We have been in the Tinguely museum many times

 This one is based on the book “The Master and Margarita” which is one of my favorite books