Yanwath

As enchanting as Durham is as a medieval town and a university town, it was time for us to leave. Having the Merc I must say made the whole thing a lot easier. It had plenty of space for our bags and us, and we were able to watch the scenery and chat from time to time. The drive was easy and in a friendlier car, I found my driving confidence had increased substantially, where I could actually relax and enjoy the trip.

We've been to Glasgow before. we wanted to come back. In 2022, we found the place touched us and we felt to return to discover more of its charms. And charms there are aplenty.

It has lots of history, including the fact that it was touted as the British Empire's second city, an epithet they probably wear uncomfortably these days. But it does suggest this workling class town in its hey day was a bustling city. I read in the museum that it grew tenfold in ten years in the mid 1800s if I recall, from 77,000 odd to 770,000 odd.

The city is of full of Victorian architecture. Grand buildings to suggest the grandness of the Empire. Some of them are truly awe-inspiring, but they also hide the fact that tobacco and coal were often commercialised with poor labour and even slave labour.

We had a lovely day with our friend Ray who accompanied us to the Cathedral Church of St Mungos, Glasgow's main saint. There is even a St Mungo's lager of which I partook on night one at the Times Square pub in the river end of the Buchanan Street Mall.

Unlike the Mall in Newcastle Australia, the Mall in Glasgow is still very much alive. It is long and wide and bustling with people; locals, visitors, tourists, buskers, beggars, large department stores like Frasers and boutique shops selling specifics like Penhaligon's who sell colognes and perfumes. Chris bought a new cologne there. I felt happy seeing a mall being used by the people to such effect, walking, talking, standing, watching, listening, lauging, dodging others coming the other way.

Our trip to St Mungos was special. It is a beautiful cathedral, erected between 1136 and 1484. The site was an ancient pilgrimage destination containing the tomb of the 6th-century Celtic missionary to Strathclyde, St Kentigern (or Mungo). But then that whole Reformation thing happened and Scotland broke away from the Church of Rome in 1560 forever changing the nature and practice of St Mungos. It has a beautiful timber ceiling of exposed beams instead of a vaulted ceiling like we've seen in other great cathedrals.

Part of that lovely day included a stroll through the Glasgow Necropolis. The necropolis, a word from the ancient world for 'city of the dead', is such an intimidating descriptor in the modern world. Christianity used instead the word cemetery, from the Greek for 'put to sleep' to suggest the dead are only sleeping awaiting a resurrection.

However, I must say, Glasgow's famous Necropolis, perched on the gentle slopes of a hill is peaceful and quiet and under the skies. There are many fine tombs here, some huge and massive with Latin inscriptions or flowery language, others just gravestones slowly weathering. Although not his tomb, there is a splendid statue of the Scottish Reformer John Knox with Bible in outstretched hand atop a huge pedestal looking out over the city.

Another day, another pint of Scottish beer or a cocktail occasionally. Our hotel, the Central Station Hotel, overlooks the railway station and has entrances to it. Above the station, we sometimes sat perched at Champagne Corner with our drinks and just watched the people coming and going on the trains.

We had a wonderful trip to the Kelvingrove Gallery and Museum out in the University of Glasgow precinct. The massive Gothic towers of the Hunterian Museum where we visited last year looked down on us as we walked through the Kelvin Grove nature walk along the Kelvin River. Clearly, Lord Kelvin was and remains an important figure in Glasgow history.

The Kelvingrove Gallery and Museum is likewise inspiring. Its building is faux-Gothic on the outside, tall spires and turrets and cones, and on the inside, large stone galleries with tall ornately painted ceilings. We took in some of the natural history collection and a little of the Eygpt collection too.

But of the whole thing, it was the stunning pipe organ that they have there, beautifully decorated in the main open gallery that leads to all the others. The Kelvingrove organ is said to be one of the finest organs in the world. For many years, they have held a free public concert at 1pm Monday to Saturday, and 3pm on Sundays. By the time 3pm on Sunday came around, we were pretty dead on our feet, so we had already returned to the sub-way to go back to our hotel.

But on the Monday, we returned and sat through a fabulous concert that went for about 40 minutes. The organ really is incredible, its soft tones and massive voices, echoing around the cathedral-like vaults of the galleries. The organist had chosen an easily accessible program that started with Charpentier's Te Deum adagio (the trumpet voluntary used by Eurovision every year), followed by Franck's Panis Angelicus in the middle along with some Mozart, and finished up with the Radetsky March by Strauss. It was a fun concert performed by an extremely renowned Scottish organist/pianist/academic.

Glasgow has a lovely feel for us. I think it would be a great place to live if you were to live somewhere in Scotland. I'll put a few pics up in this footprint and the next.Baca selengkapnya