Wednesday 13th June

Up at 5.30 & off at 6.40 on our way to Glasgow as fast as we could go as we didn't know what the traffic would be like. Luckily we had a good run & only made a few misturns in Glasgow itself & were there by about 9.45. d*** was greatly relieved to lose the car as it had been quite hard work on a lot of the roads.

Took a taxi to our hotel & left our baggage before setting off to explore. We are fairly centrally situated But are running out of steam somewhat so had a look at some shops & the Museum of Modern Art which is a fine building in which quite a lot of questionable material is displayed. How some artists get so lucky is a mystery to us.

Checked in to our great room & had a (well earned?) rest.

After a reasonable meal returned & watched TV with a fascinating but complex story on the discovery of hormones on Channel 5.

Thursday 14th June

Woke to a wet & windy morning with dire warnings of worse to come.

Jane tried to get us an Uber ride but failed after an hour to win so off we trotted to the local Subway station where we caught a train to Kelvin Hall. The smart system is about 2/3 full scale in that the trains are smaller in diameter & length, as are the platforms, than the London Tube trains & it runs in a closed loop. From here we walked to the Kelvin Grove Museum & Art Gallery, a large Victorian gothic pile with galleries radiating from a high central Hallway with a huge theatre organ at one end.

Here we went to visit the Charles Rennie Mackintosh exhibition celebrating the 150th anniversary of his birth. He was an architect and designer who had total design control of many of his buildings, including the interior, furniture & fittings as well as the exterior. Mackintosh was trained at the Glasgow School of Art at the turn of the 19th century & his work is very striking in an art nouveau manner but often somewhat austere. The exhibition was good but was somewhat difficult to follow and needs an audio guide,

After a coffee stop in the great hall with an organ recital of popular works we took the train back & walked to the Cathedral at the east end of the city. This is an interesting mediaeval building built over an earlier one which now forms the crypt. Unusually it survived the Reformation relatively unscathed & is worth a visit.

Finally we set off to find the Tenement house back in the west & had a free ride on the bus as it was only 2 stops. This fascinating place owned by the National Trust is a preserved example of a 4 room tenement or flat occupied by a lady & her mother from 1911 until she died in 1975. It was then occupied by a person who retained its contents & sold it to the NT who heve carefully preserved it.

That was our last cultural act in Scotland & we returned to our hotel exhausted.

Tomorrow we are off to Southampton to stay overnight in Winchester with friends.