Glasgow

We made it to Scotland alive and well. Our time in Glasgow went by in a flash! Much of it was spent in museums. On our first day we went to the Kelvingrove museum. The outside is impressive to say the least and the inside was even more so. There was a really cool natural history wing which had lots of stuffed animals that fed into an exhibit about extinct species. There was the skeleton of an Irish deer that was at least 13 feet tall! Most of the information seemed catered to children as everything was explained quite basically, but I learned a lot and it was all really interesting.

There was an ancient Egypt exhibit that was on long term loan from the British museum. The intricacy that still remained on most of the artifacts was incredible.

There was a wing about the Glasgow Boys,a group of painters from the late 1800's. their paintings were really cool because a lot of them had a very misty soft quality to them that made them seem almost ethereal. One of Alexis and my favorites was one nicknamed The Druids which I will try to add a link to if we make it to a computer. In each room there was something completely different than the last so the museum was able to cover a huge spectrum.

One exhibit that I found especially interesting was a collection of eight figurines from China, that represented the eight immortals. Each immortal could be prayed to, to grant strength or health or good luck. I was very taken by them, especially the only female immortal who holds a lotus flower and grants both mental and physical health.

There was also a fabulous wing of French impressionist paintings. There were some Monets. And I have to say, I know it's cliché but Monet has to be my favorite impressionist painter. The colors that he uses and the settings that he paints make me want to hop into the painting and stay there forever. To be fair to other painters, there was a Van Gogh, and some great Renoir's and some Matisse's (although I find his style a little too in your face). But really everything was exquisite.

There was a great wing about fashion in the 18th and 19th century that had interesting information about the bodices and other fashion tortures that women subjected themselves to.

Alexis's favorite piece in the whole gallery was Salvador Dali's painting depicting Jesus on the cross from a slightly overhead view.

The next day we hit the Huntarian museum and art gallery. The museum was notable for its Roman artifacts that made up the Antoine Wall in Britain. It is one of the UK's most important Roman monuments and was extraordinarily well preserved. I suppose there was one more notable piece. Almost everything in the whole museum came from the collection of a man named William Hunter who was an avid collector during his life and willed most of his money to the University of Glasgow to start a museum so the wealth of knowledge could be passed on.

The art gallery was nice too. We had originally gone in the hopes of seeing the Rembrandt exhibit, but it was quite pricey so we stayed in the regular exhibit. It was interesting, but in my eyes did not compare to the art we saw at the Kelvingrove.

After getting very lost and asking many people about the museum of transport, we managed to find it on the edge of the river, moved to a museum by the name of the riverside museum. Inside was a history of the evolution of transportation there were many cool old cars, trains, trucks, ambulances, and the way it was set up was really interesting. I don't think I could accurately describe it so I'll try to let the pictures do that.

All in all we had a fantastic time in Glasgow, our host, Breffni was fantastic and super helpful and accommodating, and I can't really even do the short time we spent there justice. However, Alexis might have more to say on the matter but we'll see about that later. And if not, we have stories from our trip to Edinburgh for later!

Cheers,
Liz