Glasgow

The City Chambers

Wednesday we spent the day in Glasgow. Brendan finished classes on Tuesday and his exams are not until next week, so we decided to have a family day in between. We were greeted at the train station by Lorraine Cord, a friend of the Marinier family, whom I had met 10 years ago when she spent Christmas with the Marinier’s.  Lorraine lives in Ayr, about 30 minutes outside Glasgow, but she knows the city well and had offered to show us around.

Plaque commemorating Sir John A. MacDonald,
who was born in Glasgow 

From the train station we 
headed towards Glasgow Cathedral, stopping along the way to take a few pictures (I warned Lorraine that we are a bit picture crazy – happily she didn’t seem to mind all the stopping!). We arrived at the cathedral only to find that it was closed due to “adverse weather conditions”. We’ve discovered in the last few days that this area of Scotland has quite a different reaction to “adverse weather conditions” than we do at home! I suppose it’s only natural – if a city is not equipped to deal with lots of snow, then things have to shut down. It did strike us as funny though, that a beautiful snowy winter day would be called adverse! Since we couldn’t get into the cathedral, we visited two nearby buildings: St. Mungo’s Museaum of Religious Life and Art (where we also ate lunch), and Provand’s Lordship, the oldest house in Glasgow. The house was built in the early 15^th century and was originally home to canons of the cathedral. It later became the residence of the Lord of Provan. Mary Queen of Scots is rumoured to have stayed there at one point, although whether the rumour corresponds to reality is uncertain (as seems to be the case with so many rumours!). From Provand’s Lordship we made our way to centre town to visit Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art. As might be imagined, the GoMA houses some very interesting and remarkably strange pieces of art! 

Glasgow Cathedral

Cemetery behind the cathedral

Liam meets Lorraine

After lunch at St. Mungo's

GoMa

Inside the GoMA

As dusk fell we wandered down Buchanan Street, stopping by the Christmas market and taking pictures of the festive lights. Buchanan is a wide pedestrian street lined with shops – it looked lovely all decked out for Christmas! We stopped at a kilt shop to see if Brendan might find anything in his size of the appropriate tartan. He would like to get properly outfitted while he’s here, but good quality kilts are wildly expensive, so we’ll have to do some serious deal searching! We didn’t find the right one at this shop, so we continued on our way.

Buchanan Street

Christmas market & skating rink

Brendan's artistic version of the market shot! 

We ended our visit at an old bank-turned-pub called The Counting House. After some drinks and appies and a nice visit with Lorraine, we caught the train back home. We thoroughly enjoyed our first trip to Glasgow and hope to visit many more times while we’re here. Lorraine is exceptionally hospitable and has offered to show us around again, and also to take us to some of the attractions around where she lives. I’m glad we’ll be able to spend a few more days together!

The Counting House

Liam on the train ride home

Since we arrived home fairly early in the evening, we decided to spend another night with movies and treats in the company of Brigid & Christy. Once again, a good time was had by all!