Last night the weather forecast for today didn’t look promising, lots of rain was promised. We woke to blue skies. I checked our weather app and it all looked good until mid afternoon.
We set off after breakfast down the road to the Glasgow Cathedral, St Mungo’s. It’s a big building, with a copper oxide green roof and stone facade that has been blacked by the pollution of the industrial history of the city. A remarkable building all the same. Inside it has two rows of large columns supporting the roof that is so high above you. The naive has been stripped back to a bare shell to allow the hoards of tourists that flood the building room to move. There are items around the walls of the naive reflecting the Cathedrals and the city’s history, there are also 2 or 3 gift shops! You can buy all your cathedral needs in there, from post cards to “Outlander” t-shirts. ?
Beyond the naive, the Cathedral becomes a church, the crossing, transepts, choir and sanctuary are all set up for worship. The choir has colourful stained glass windows either side, a large pipe organ just near the crossing and windows high in the roof streaming in light. In the sanctuary we found an old bible displayed, it was 400 years old, an original King James VI bible printed in 1617. It had disappeared from the Cathedral for 150 years, but was found and returned about 100 years ago. We also had a look under the building, an area I thought was Called the Crypt in all old churches, but here it was called something else, the lower church, nowhere near as imaginative.
In the sacristy, just to the left of the sanctuary, there is a Scottish coat of arms on the wall, it features a unicorn and lion. But unlike the British coat of arms, the Scottish lion is on its rear legs, in a fighting position. All around Scotland you see this lion, a symbol of the tenacity of the Scots.
We then walked behind the Cathedral to the Necropolis, we could see it from the Cathedral, the silhouettes of the tombs and headstones looked foreboding. It was established in 1832, some 50,000+ people have been buried there and there are over 3500 monuments on the hill. It’s an interesting place to visit and get a sense of the history of Glasgow, and also get some great views over the city.
From there we headed down hill towards the river, stopping to admire some of the amazing street murals of Glasgow, whole sides of buildings have become the canvas for some/many very impressive public artworks. The subjects of the art span everything from Scotland’s native animals to notable Scots (Billy Connolly) and some more anonymous folk.
We eventually made it to the River Clyde, the heart of Glasgow through the Industrial Revolution. We had read that the river had been cleaned up a lot and was no longer the open sewer it was. Today, it was brown, dark brown, we had thought of putting our hands in it, but on review we decided not to!
The walk along the river was excellent, lots of people walking and cycling, so many bridges cross the Clyde. There is a lot of new works going on along the river, many not too sympathetic to the city’s history unfortunately.
We then walked up to the Pot Still Pub to try one of their celebrated pies! It is a Whiskey Bar, the best in Glasgow. While we were there a bucks party (we assumed) came in, their theme was a bull fight, the buck dressed as a bull and the others everything from toreadors to a female Spanish dancer. They amused us with their antics for quite some time.
We had dinner at a small place around the block from our hotel, Two Fat Ladies didn’t have room for us ?. We decided to sit outside, it was a pleasant evening and didn’t look like raining. But, just after we got our mains it started to sprinkle so we moved our table under some stairs, not long after it poured rain, lucky we moved. It didn’t last long and we walked home after dinner without getting wet, winning. ?
We drive to Edinburgh tomorrow and hand back the car, Ireland on Monday.
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