Tuesday 31st July - Glasgow - Willow Tea Rooms and The Man

Tuesday 31st July

Cloudy and a bit drizzly later

Later that day!

We decided to walk back to the apartment rather than catch the bus and wanted to look out for The Willow Tea Rooms that Charles Rennie MacKintosh designed for his colleague Kate Cranston in 1903.

We went down Sauchiehall Street which is now a pedestrian precinct:

Had a coffee here part of the way down at Costa's and saw a group of old ladies out for a smoke and a chat:

We then went further down to find the Willow Tea Rooms designed, down to the teaspoons, by Charles Rennie MacKintosh, up on the third floor in the Watt Brothers building:

The Man

Later that afternoon as we walked down to Sainsbury's to get some stuff for tea we fell into a conversation with a man complaining about the rain. We had quite along chat about the drwabacks and benefit of rain and then he turned to do whatever!!

Tuesday 31st July - Glasgow - The Tenement House

Tuesday 31st July

Cloudy - drizzle in the afternoon - then cloudy again

Glasgow 

The Tenement House 

We walked down Ingram Street to the Royal Exchange with Duke of Wellington suitable "crowned".

 ... and left into Queen Street to get to Argyle Street to find the Hertz office under "The Highlandman's Umbrella - or Central Station overbridge:-

Once we explained our issue with the car - a dashboard notification about tyre pressure - we carried on up Argyle Street towards The Tenement House

Originally, very few tenements had internal sanitation or plumbing. A privy in the back court and hand pump for water in the street would have supplied hundreds of dwellers. 

Housing ranged from:

1. very small, single-room flats - "a single end" with no toilet or washing facilities. They shared common ablutions with other residents. Most of the people who lived in the Gorbals survived in these.

2. to a two room flat with a kitchen and a bedroom

3. to a four room middle class flat like this one which was relatively comfortable. It had: a kitchen, a bedroom, a parlour and a bathroom with a toilet. No electrcity, just gas lit by "Leerie" every evening.

The stairs up to the first floor;

At the top of the stairs was a plaque informing you about Mrs. Towards business:

The door to the flat. You had to ring the bell to get in:

It entered into a lobby with a beautiful old grandfather clock, a lovely old dresser, and a painting of her Grandfather. From here you get to the kitchen:

... a coal bunker:

a wash tub:

To a parlour, seldom used

... a handsome fireplace:

... with a piano:

To a bedroom with a recess bed:

... and her sewing machine by the window for the light:

... and last a bathroom:

... with a toilet:

Monday 30th July - Glasgow - The Bus Driver, Sweet Pea and Kinlay, Jacqui and Hector Laidlaw

Monday 30th July

Cloudy with sunny spells - cool

The Bus Driver 

and 

Kinlay, Jacqui and Hector Laidlaw

We really didn't want to walk all the way back to George Square so had a look on Google Maps on my phone and, using our new found skills, found that there was a No. 100 bus run by Garelochhead Coaches that would take us back for £1.90 each. I had another look on my phone and it said next bus at 1:30. So we sat in the bus stand and waited hopefully. The bus turned up 10 minutes early and to our surprise it was labelled as electric.

We were the only people on the bus, so while we waited we asked him about his bus. He was quite happy to chat and told us that it cost £200 000 - the cost of two diesel buses and could do 100 miles on one charge. Nobody else had arrived so we departed. He gave us the full guided tour commentary on the way back: best pubs, historic buildings, what to go and see and so on - he really made our day.

Before we went to meet Kinlay and family, we had to go down to the car to pick up the small gift from NZ that we had brought them. On the way this man walking passed us asked how I was looking after my "Sweet Pea". We then carried on this weird conversation about his family life - his kids had all left home and he and his wife were living alone in their flat - down to the car park. We then shook hands and he went on his way.

Later that evening we went out for dinner at the Cote Brasserie in West Nile Street - about 10 minutes walk from our aprtment ...

... with my cousin Muir's son Kinlay, his wife Jacqui and Hector his 15 year old son. We had great wide ranging conversations about all sorts of things. It was a very good catch-up with family.

Here we are outside

Monday 30th July - Glasgow - Doon the Clyde & The Riverside Transport Museum

Monday 30th July

Cloudy with sunny spells - cool

Glasgow - Doon the Clyde 
& 
Riverside Transport Museum, 

This morning, as it was a nice day, we decided to walk down the Clyde Walkway to the Riverside Transport Museum - about an hours walk, but passed some interesting buildings and bridges on the way. Here we are at the beginning of our walk on a nice morning.:

The Clyde Arc - nicknamed by the Glaswegians "The Squinty Bridge"

And some really interesting buildings.

 "The Armadillo". It was going to have an official name, but again the locals got in first.

... and this, that looks like the aliens have landed The Hydro

Across the water we could see the Science Museum and the Tower that can revolve a full 360 degrees depending on the wind direction

... and just underneathe the Waverley Paddle Steamer (?). We were thinking of doing a trip down the Clyde in this but it meant a whole day just on the boat so took a photo instead:

Finally we got to the Riverside Transport Museum - in itself interesting as a building

First we had to have a sit down and something to eat.

The inside we found all sorts of curiosities:-

A BMW - true!

Del Boy's car from "Only Fools and Horses"

A beautiful old Rolls Royce Phantom

and head on:

A huge steam locomotive from South Africa

... inside the cab

Out at the back was a fully restored Tall Ship "SV GlenLee" anchored by the Museum. Here it is reflected in the glass windows.

Sunday 28th July - Glasgow - Sightseeing & Kelvingrove Art Museum & Pat the Muscian

Sunday 28th July

A wet drizzly day and cool

Glasgow - Sightseeing, Kelvingrove Art Museum & Pat the Scottish Folk Music Musician

We just had to walk a short way down Ingram Street to George Square where the Sightseeing bus left from. A wet drizzly day but the bus was good and out of the rain with Neil Oliver doing the commentary - recorded, not live!




It was a great way to get an overall impression of the city of Glasgow.
We got off at Stop 16 The Kelvingrove Art Museum - an amazing place.



We had lunch first and then went to visit the Charles Rennie MacKintosh exhibition.
Reminded me of the Beardsley drawings that I used to have.

The May Queen by Margaret MacDonald was amazing



We then went to an exhibition of Scottish Folk Music by Pat

This was next door to The Laidlaw Gallery. 

Quote from the Kelvingrove Museum:-
"Other major donors included Lord and Lady Laidlaw. The son of a Banffshire mill-owner, Laidlaw was educated at Merchiston Castle School, Leeds University and New York City's Columbia Business School."

Pat played really well for an hour and a half and we watched the whole thing. He was great!

Here he is playing Mary-Ann's favourite "Wild Mountain Thyme"

And then he played amongst many other memorable songs "Brochan Lom" from The Hebridean Weaving Lilt"

At 3:00pm there was an organ recital that we went to:

Saturday 28th July - Glasgow Sherif Court

Saturday 28th July

Showery windy day

Glasgow Sherif Court

This city is where I was born in 1944 - work it out. We are here this time for four days to try and get the feeling of the place.

At about 9:30 this morning we were all packed up and ready to go. It was difficult saying goodbye to Ian, Kristy, Emi and Kai, but there are plans afoot!

We drove along the M8 to Glasgow which took about an hour and found our way to Ingham Street which is in The Merchant City part of Glasgow. We parked the car temporarily, using the parking App RingGo on my phone:

There was an amazing mural of wildlife behind the carpark. A lot of people were coming there to photograph it, including me:

Across the road was the Ramshorn Church:

It is an A listed building with an ancient graveyard behind it:

Then we had a walk around to find Sherif Court, 149 Ingham Street, Merchant City, Glasgow.

We followed Derek's instructions and found the apartment

It is really nice quite light and airy.

Here is the lounge

The Kitchen

And the bedroom

This is the view from our window:

This is the view down to Brunswick Street beside our apartment:

We went for a short walk down to the local Tescos Express to buy supplies. Here is a view down to the end of Ingham Street towards the old Royal Exchange, now an Art Gallery:-

... with The Duke of Wellington with the world Famous road cones on his head as a permanent display. The Glaswegians have a rather irreverent attitude towards authority and take a pride in it.