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| Descending into the Glasgow subway |
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| The train, so cute and short |
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| Entrance with big organ to Kelingrove Museum and Art Gallery |
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| According to the museum Haggis is made from this animal |
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| Christ of Saint John of the Cross |
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| Anna Pavlova dancing |
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| Charles Rennie Mackintosh mural |
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| We walked through Glasgow University to get to the Mackintosh House |
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| Back at the Willow Tea Rooms, the lady must think we are her best customers this week as she gave us both a small gift today |
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| Bagpipe boy busking, he was raking in the cash |
One thing I enjoy doing in a new city is trying out the transport options, Glasgow’s subway runs in a circle around the city with 15 stations and is the third oldest in the world after London and Budapest. It only takes moments to get a ticket and be on the correct platform. Lets stand-in the middle to figure out which way the train will come from. Rumble, rumble, the train is tiny and only aobut 50 metres long, quaint would be my description. But the cutest thing is the driver who has to stick his head out the window to check all is clear and leave the station.
An interesting bit of Glaswegian culture is the subcrawl, just like a pub crawl you get off at each station and have a drink at the closest pub. We have another type of venue in mind, in no time we are here, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. Now we are running up the steps, nothing gets us more excited than a new gallery. Deep breath, enter, wow, thats an impressive start, another deep breath lets practice JOMO not FOMO and on we go.
Some highlights include:
- Glasgow stories putting together all the bits we learnt yesterday
- using the Scottish wildlife displays to identify some of the birds I have seen
- seeing some fascinating examples of Scottish art including Lord Mungo Murray. a tartan-clad portrait and The Scotsman, a 1980’s take on myth v’s reality on being Scottish
- swooning at all the great art including Christ of Saint John of the Cross by Dali and Anna Pavlova dancing
The most interesting story was about the La Faruk Madonna an altarpiece painted by an Italian artist for a mud chapel in a POW camp in WW2. When the camp was disbanded the pairings were given to the British commander with gratitude for his fair and just treatment of the prisoners.
Overall summary, a trip to Glasgow is worth it for this museum alone!
Moving onto the Mackintosh house, the security guard immediately picks the Aussie accent and shares the story that his grandfather was an ANZAC at Gallipoli, who met his grandmother at a tea dance at the Ritz in London, After the war, he came back to Australia and qualified as a doctor then back to London to marry. His son ended up in Scotland and today we met the grandson, I like these links all over the world.
Glasgow’s favourite son is definitely Charles Rennie Mackintosh. He is an architect and designer that worked in s style we both really like, Art Nouveau. This style its very decorative and includes curved lines of plants and flowers. I think it is a bit unfair that Chaz gets all the attention as his wife, Margaret, her sister, Frances and many others did amazing work.
We visit lots of his work including Glasgow School of Art (unfortunately a burnt out shell about to be demolished) the Mackintosh house is a full-sized replica of Charles and Margaret's house, with the original furniture. Amazing that someone had the hindsight in the 60’s to pack up the contents and store them when the original building was demolished.
Back to the Willow Tea Rooms I will try Scottish Blend tea today, thanks hmm, and maybe I could fit in a Strawberry Tart. A fitting way to end another great day.
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