Day - 27 Glasgow
Quick facts:
Weather: Sunny H20 L 11 Winds SW 5 kph Humidity 92%. POP 0%
Planned distance: 0 km bikes staying at our Warmshowers’s host’s apartment while we toured Glasgow.
Route:Hop on Hop off bus tour of Glasgow
Good morning, Good day.
I woke up to a quiet house and enjoyed unrushed yoga in the living room as the sun got brighter and brighter in the sky. The first order of the day was to clean the Giant and degrease and re-oil the chain. In Vaiva and Stephen’s courtyard. Tbis is 3 flights down and 3 flights up so I wanted to get the job done early and have the rest of the day to explore.
I have been cleaning the chain, derailer and jockey wheel every day for the past few days so it is the grime from yesterday’s rain that I have to wipe off …. Plus check that nothing has rattled loose!
Off I went on the Scott Rail train into Glascow Central. A 20 min trip. I did note that “my” train back would be heading to Neilston! The round trip cost was £2.30 or something like that. The one way ticket was 30p more. I guess the City Fathers don’t want piles of Glaswegians clogging downtown streets because they have no train fare home .
The Central Train Station was the typical melee of people with luggage having no clue where they want to go and crisp businessmen who just want to get to the office. It is a very nice station with good facilities. Unfortunately there has been a garbagemen’s strike so the “bins” are overflowing and Glasgow isn’t showing itself off at its best. Despite this, I am very impressed with what this blue collar city of trade unions, strikes, worker unrest and protests for women’s and workers rights in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s has turned into.
Industry changed and society changed; in 1980 the Glasgow city leaders recognized that they had to rebrand because the traditional industrial jobs were disappearing whether they protested or not.
Culture, arts, sports, education, shopping, design, architecture. Facilities were built to support these enterprises and the city turned itself around. As I said. I am impressed.
I headed out to pedestrian walks and busy streets bustling with people. Buskers were singing among the mix of tourists and homeless on the closed pedestrian only downtown streets. Soon I was at the square where I met my Hop on Hop off bus. It was busy. I got on the second one that arrived and it took a stop or two before I could get a seat on the upper deck.
Donna the tourguide and Stephen the driver took me on my On Off Bus tour. Donna was the colourful commentator. She was heading home after our tour and going to a dinner party with lady friends where she said there would be a nude butler. A quick Google search shows there are choices. This might have been the first fun fact I learned today about the city.
On to more mundane facts:
I was waiting opposite George Square.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Square
The large City Chambers building was opened by Queen Victoria in1888 and is the city offices. The war memorial is on this square. Two hundred thousand soldiers left Scotland for the 1st WW. Twenty thousand didn’t return.
We passed the Glasgow Royal Infirmary (1794) which is the hospital where Dr Lister took steps (1856) toward cleanliness to stop the spread of infection. His name is forever remember in the products with “Lister” in them. I think of Listerine.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow_Royal_Infirmary
Lord Kelvin who invented the Kelvin temperature scale, was an engineer at U of Glasgow and has left his mark in science.
Glasgow has all sorts of « firsts » and « oldest » and « busiest » adjectives used to describe things.
For instance one highway bridge is said to be the BUSIEST in Europe. How is that possible?
I do believe the theatre’s claim of being the OLDEST functioning theatre in Scotland from that period. That seems plausible.
Another believable one is that Glasgow Green is the OLDEST Scottish park being established in 1400.
Glasgow is the second largest shopping city in the UK behind London. This is very likely.
Glasgow City Centre shopping
Gallery of Modern Art
Performing Arts Centre
Large concert venue
A symbolic crane, now a point of interest for tourists on the riverbank.
The bus passed by a large park. One of the quiet unsupposing monuments is a small boat, a memorial to the Irish Immigrants who lost their lives coming over the Irish Sea during the potato famine.
Obilesque. OLDEST tribute to Nelson after he was in the battle of Trafalgar.
The LAST hanging was at the square in front of the Tower. Dr Pritchard killed his wife and mother in law. Eighty thousand apparently came out to watch him hang .
Central station 40,000 panes of glass painted black during WWII. The paint wouldn’t come off! Had to replace all the panes…
Kingston Bridge named after Kingston, Jamaica. Built for 20,000 vehicles per day. Now takes 150,000 vehicles per day. This is the one Donna said was the busiest bridge in Europe.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingston_Bridge,_Glasgow
A mural called “Planting for our future” depicts a little boy planting a wind turbine. There are wind farms being built all over Scotland.
There are a lot of beautiful bridges in Glasgow. Sqiinty bridge has an official name but everyone calls it Squinty due to the fact it isn’t straight. It is a lovely pedestrian and cyclists’ bridge.
Clydeside Distillery. My new found knowledge is that It takes three years and one day for single malt whiskey to be made.
Someone called Mitchell left his fortune to be used for “something for women” It was decided to build a library. There is the Statue of Minerva goddess of wisdom on the cupola of the large and impressive library building.
Kelvin Grove Park is a beautiful greenspace between the Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery and Glasgow University.
I spent hours at the museum and wandering the park and campus. Fortunately I hopped off the bus at exactly 1:00. There is a huge pipe organ in the grand hall of the museum. It was a beautiful sound. I was most fortunate to have been able to attend.
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum opened in 1901. The entrance gallery has an eclectic mix of two elephants, both important to the city, a Spitfire aircraft swooping over the elephants, and dinosaurs. Displays and learning are geared to toddlers and octogenarians and everyone in between.
Apparently the oldest pedal driven bike in the world.(1845)
Monet; Van Gogh, Picasso are just some of the art pieces in the collection along with the Glasgow Five and many more.
I left the gallery and planned to go to the Botanical Gardens down the road but Google said they closed at 5:00 so I wandered back up to the university of Glasgow instead. In fact the buildings and greenhouses may have closed at 5:00 but I likely could have wandered the grounds.
Graduates celebrating with their colleagues at University of Glasgow.
I hopped back on my bus ans headed back to Central Station passing Tennent Bar 1984. The last pub to not allow women in. Sometime in the 1970’s women chained themselves inside the pub…. Since then apparently all the managers of Tennent’s have been women.
http://www.scotlandspubsandbars.co.uk/location/tennents-bar/
The bus dropped me back off at George Square with all its statues and glory.
The walk back to Central Station was as interesting as it was this morning with some of the buskers still working.
Hopefully this photo captures some of the vibrant atmosphere of a aunny Saturday afternoon in Glasgow. It was nice to experience it.
I went back to Central Station and stopped to listen to a young piano player using one that is positioned for anyone to play. He was playing a classical piece that contrasted to the bustle around him. I wondered if he was a student who didn’t have a piano of his own at home.
I caught the train back to South Glasgow and met Vaiva and Stephen who had spent their Saturday outdoors training for a half marathon, and Ralph who had connected with friends in Glasgow and given a presentation online to a group he is affiliated with, explaining our trip and fundraising goals.
Our day ended eating pizza and comparing stories.
You know you are in good company when the top book on the coffee table is about cycling for two years and has a cover photo of Vancouver, Canada! Thank you so much Vaiva and Stephen for facilitating such a lovely day
Safe travels.
Lorraine