I started my trip in Glasgow and spent several days walking around this magnificent city. Glasgow was my first European city which I visited when I was seventeen. It has a special place in my heart. This visit coincided exactly with the tragic fire at the Glasgow School of Art so it wasn’t just the cloudy skies that made the city subdued.
In spite of this sadness, the loss of the wonderful interior of the historic building, just lovingly restored after an earlier fire, the Glaswegian sense of irreverence and fun is everywhere. Across from my hotel was the Museum of Modern Art with its statue of Wellington on horseback. On his head were two traffic cones.
The city was going to raise the plinth on which Wellington and horse stand to prevent such adornments, but there was such an outcry that officials reneged, and Wellington remains with cones.
The taxis in the city also add to the frivolity–a welcome flash of colour in an often dreary climate.
I did some sketches, sometimes dodging the showers in a café…
and sitting on available steps…
Visited the marvellous Kelvingrove for a Charles Rennie Mackintosh exhibit…
and found the Hatrack, a delightful Art Nouveau beauty wedged into the street. This article describes the building as “Gaudi-esque”… I thought Mackintosh had designed this, but the article says it was designed by his associate , James Salmon. Either way, it is a delight!
After a marvellous visit with family, I took the train for a short stop in Edinburgh…
with a timely reminder from Sir Walter Scott in the Waverley Train Station…
