Glasgow

We have had the opportunity to visit ye ol' Scotland a couple o' times since moving to Belgium and we got to go again this past weekend.  This time we visited the city of Glasgow.

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland with over a half million people.  Scotland has a total population of about 5 million.  Scotland is, of course, one of the countries of the United Kingdom.  The others are England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

photo by ephotopix

Here you can see Glasgow in the southern half of Scotland.

The main square is called George Square, named after King George III.  George was king of Great Britain and Ireland and lived from 1738 to 1820, and incidentally was the king when America  gained its independence.

The square is home to several bronze sculptures. I have no idea who this statue depicts, but the seagulls love him.

And they aren't particular either.  This seagull is perched atop the statue of Queen Victoria in George Square.  

The huge building in the background is the City Chambers which opened in 1888.  It serves as headquarters for the City Council.  

There are free, guided tours each day, but sadly, not on weekends, which are the days we were there.

This and the photo above, found on the internet, certainly show a beautiful and ornate interior. 

This is the Glasgow Cathedral - not Catholic, yet it was free to enter.  It's actually Church of Scotland and is only called a cathedral because it was once Catholic.  

It was built in the 12th century, before the Reformation, and is one of the few churches to survive the Reformation.

This is called the Necropolis - meaning "a large and elaborate cemetery of an ancient city". It's a Victorian cemetery, established in 1832, with 50,000 individuals buried on its 37 acres.  You can see the view of the city in the background.

Glasgow may be most famous for its university, the University of Glasgow, established in the 15th century.

The campus, home to about 23,000 students, was beautiful, immaculate, green and perfectly manicured.

This is the Kelvingrove Art Museum.  It's free to enter and boasts of having a real Spitfire (that's a war plane built in 1944).

This is the Gallery of Modern Art.  The building was originally built in 1778 as the home of a wealthy tobacco lord.  The statue in front is the Duke of Wellington.  The traffic cone is said to symbolize "the city's light-hearted attitude toward authority". 

This is the People's Palace, a social history museum telling the story of the people of Glasgow, who, by the way, are called Glaswegians.  Behind the museum is a greenhouse known as the Winter Gardens.  It is exactly what its name implies - a winter garden.

In front of the People's Palace stands the largest terracotta fountain in the world.   This huge fountain ,called The Doulton Fountain, was gifted to the city by Sir Henry Doulton in 1888.  

Some of the fountain's detail.  Henry Doulton was an inventor and manufacturer of pottery.  You may have heard of Royal Doulton?

This is the Botanic Gardens. Created in 1817, their purpose was to supply the University of Glasgow.  It has 23,000 sq ft, but this is all we saw of it because by this time our feet were too tired :)

It surprised us to find the weather in Glasgow was really beautiful - mostly sunny and cool . . . buuuuuut since it rains nearly every day, this one was no exception :)

Glasgow, Scotland, U.K.

If you're interested, here's a short slideshow of our trip to Glasgow.  After ye click on the arrow to Play, ye can make it full screen by clickin' on the box in the bottom right hand corner.

Cheers!