I knew Glasgow was a big city before we arrived, but it was much bigger and way different than I expected. I've been getting used to the small town life so I was a bit overwhelmed with the size of Glasgow. I wanted to wander around the city but I had signed up for two free tours that day so I didn't really get the chance to go explore on my own (or, should I say, with Kyle).
The first walking tour was interesting because we actually went inside lots of places instead of stopping in front of them like we did at St. Andrews. And fortunately the weather was being nice to us that day. I thought we would tour the entire city but we only had about 2 hours. So the tour guide focused on places of historical or political value.
Our first stop was the City Chambers which was built in the 1880s. The inside of the building was beautiful, with Italian inspired architecture.
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| View outside of the Merchants House |
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| Meeting Hall |
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| This was part of the building |
The third stop was just at the strain station. They had a Burger King in there which was the first one I've seen in Scotland. I don't really like Burger King but Kyle was drooling over a picture of a Whopper. I had to drag him away before he decided to spend 8 pounds on that nasty thing. (Plus it was only 10 am in the morning!)
The fourth stop was outside of the oldest standing tobacco exchange. We just stopped briefly to look at the building and the tour guide talked about its history.
The fifth and final stop was The Trades Hall of Glagow which is the 2nd oldest building in Glasgow and it's still used for its original purpose which is a meeting hall for tradesmen.We stayed here the longest because it was a free tour of it's own with guides that talked about everything.
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| Meeting Hall |
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| The Glasgow Seal |
After that tour Kyle and I went and had lunch at a pub. We both had delicious burgers that were surprisingly cheap. We had to be at the next tour by one so we went straight to the meeting site, which was the Glasgow square, right after lunch. The next tour was at the art museum. We had to take the subway there because it was farther away. It was my first time on a subway ever! The subway in Glasgow is referred to as the Clockwork Orange because it just goes in a big circle around the city. Once we got off the Subway we had to walk a little bit to get to the museum. We walked past the university there which was beautiful.
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| The subway |
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| Gates to the University |
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| The Art Museum |
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| At the entrance of the museum |
Once we got to the museum we were on our own to tour whatever exhibits we wanted to. The museum was massive! There were so many different exhibits that we just didn't have the time to see all of them. So, we stuck to the ones we really wanted to see like the Glasgow Boys exhibit.
"The exhibition features over 80 oil paintings, watercolours and pastels from public and private collections by such artists as Guthrie, Lavery, Melville, Crawhall, Walton, Henry and Hornel. Together they presented a new art, which had a major impact at home and abroad in the closing decades of the nineteenth century. The resultant works were, from c. 1880 to 1900, among the most experimental and ambitious to be produced in the UK.
Taking inspiration from such French Naturalist painters as Bastien-Lepage and also from Whistler, the Glasgow Boys produced some of the most revolutionary painting in Britain, drawing praise in London, Munich, Vienna and further afield. Their symbolist pictures were admired and emulated in secessionist circles in Germany and Austria."
I got this from http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/glasgow-boys/
(it was the best way to explain exactly what the exhibit was about.)
I really enjoyed this exhibit because I love the impressionist era and these paintings were inspired by painters like the French artist Monet.
The other exhibits we looked at were sculptures of royalty or Greek figures, an exhibit dedicated to animals, and also an exhibit featuring Scottish clothing and furniture from various decades.
I really enjoyed the art museum which made not being able to explore the city on my own okay. I probably would have gotten lost anyways, or spent way too much money on clothes since Glasgow has amazing shops!
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