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Published: September 23rd 2006
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Glasgow
Museum of Modern Art Okay so it is pretty apparent that I am writing this blog much later than the actual events so hopefully I can still do the trip justice and make it sound interesting or at the very least not boring.
So we flew to Scotland on July 27 - another lovely Ryan Air flight where I spend most of the flight hoping that the plane does not fall apart (Ryan Air is a low budget airline which I am sure has wonderful safety standards but since I pay twenty bucks for the flight I tend to be a bit nervous). We arrived on time but did not get our luggage for an hour - it is official I have bad airplane luck. Kyle’s dad’s cousin George and his wife Phyllis were at the airport to pick us up. We all went off to a pub - The Ships Inn - for lunch and then to visit George’s sister Meg. We had a nice visit and then George and Phyllis were kind enough to drive us to our campground. Little did we know that the campground was over an hour away, so between them having to wait around at the airport and
Glasgow School of Art
Designed by Charles Macintosh then driving us so far to the campground we were feeling quite grateful and guilty.
The campground that we stayed in was Strathclyde Country Park - highly recommended for the cheap rate (£4.35/night for both of us) but a bit annoying for commuting to Glasgow. The campground ended up being in a large park with an amusement park, a loch, and opportunities to rent canoes, bikes, etc.
The next day we needed to figure out how to get into Glasgow and were told the easiest would be to walk through the park and catch a bus in the far side - this little walk took about an hour! After catching an express bus (that took us right past everything we walked by) we were finally in Glasgow.
I had once heard that the UK was as much if not more centred on a consumer culture than the USA, well on this day I learned the truth in that statement. First we cut through a large mall only to exit it on a HUGE pedestrian shopping street. It was a Friday, early afternoon and there were hundreds, if not thousands on people shopping with each and every one
Glasgow
Kelvingrove Museum of them holding multiple bags from multiple stores - no window shopping for these folks. Although I must say that at the sight of an excessively large bookstore full of english language books and a Starbucks coffee shop I think I got a little misty eyed.
We eventfully made it to the tourist information office and gathered our stacks of pamphlets only to realize that the Museum of Modern Art was right across the street - much to my delight and Kyle’s not-so-delight. One piece was a garden gnome named Willy made entirely of cigarettes - my absolute favourite piece.
The next day we headed for the Kelvingrove Museum. On the way there we passed the Glasgow School of Art -- an Art Nouveau building designed by Charles Macintosh. I am not a huge art nouveau fan but this building was pretty cool. The Kelvingrove Museum was newly reopened after extensive renovations. Well this museum had some of the oddest displays - the one that freaked me out the most was the room after room of stuffed animals (later I would find out this was a common museum theme). It was as though someone went around Scotland (plus
Kelvingrove Museum
As seen from the University some far away lands) shooting one of every animal they could find simply to fill up the museum. Odd, odd, odd. There was also art, furniture, and random displays of social movements throughout Glasgow history - sort of.
The next day we stayed around the campground/park. We ended up at the amusement park where the lure of the roller coasters was too much to resist - I should have fought harder. They really sucked! Oh well.
We spent the next day with Lorna (a friend of ours from Rona in Winnipeg) who was in Scotland visiting family. We went to see some of the collections of art, etc at the University, and we also went to the transportation museum at Kyle’s request. It was a rainy day so we thought that our evening was best spent indoors seeing Pirates of the Caribbean.
Our last day in Glasgow was spent pretty lazily meeting Lorna and her mom for lunch, buying tickets to Fort William, our next stop, and not much else.
Next entry: Fort William: Mountains - Grizzly’s = happiness
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