Glasgow #2

This morning after breakfast we did our washing at the nearby laundromat, ably managed by a kindly lady who seemed to be doing about 10 jobs at once, including keeping an eye on stray tourists who might absentmindedly leave things in the washing machine.

Feeling much restored with a bag full of clean clothes, we strolled through the gardens to the Kelvingrove Museum.  It was a mixed bag of an experience. It is always a challenge for Museums to determine which audience to pitch for. This one seemed to go for the 10-12 year olds, and the captions on all the exhibits were well meaning but rather fatuous attempts to engage that age group. From what I could see, they were more interested in chasing each other or playing with the hand driers in the loo.

There was plenty of interesting stuff in there though. We we're interested to get a feel for Scottish art, and there were rooms devoted to The Glasgow Boys and the Colourists. But fairly hard to get a coherent narrative from what was on show. One thing we particularly liked was the Lafaruk Madonna, a tryptich painted by an Italian who was held as a prisoner of war during World War 2 in what is now Somalia. The painting  was done on flour sacks, and adorned the walls of a mud brick chapel. It was striking - Fra Angelico like angels and Madonna and child, but with the stark landscape of the camp as the background.

After lunch we caught the metro into down town Glasgow to have a look around, and for Anne to get some runners to supplement the ones which have become seriously waterlogged.  The Glasgow metro runs in a loop. The trains going one way run on the inside or "inner" track, trains going the other way on the "outer" loop. Which is perfectly logical and straight forward if you know that. But I didn't know that, which led to an exchange something like Me:"what platform does the train for Buchanan Street leave from?" Attendant behind plate glass "Outer" Me: "?Pardon?" Attendant:"OUTER" Me:"Sorry?"Attendant:"OUTER!" etc.

We shuffled up and down what seems to be the main shopping mall of Glasgow for a while. I particularly liked the clothes shop that had as it's window decoration hundreds and hundreds of old singer treadle sowing machines - I guess paying tribute to Glasgow's past as a textile and garment production powerhouse.

We caught the metro back to Kelvin Bridge, and walked past the eponymous bridge, with it's intricate wrought iron work,  itself a great example of Glasgow's past as a manufacturing hub.

For dinner we'd booked into a nearby Scottish Tapas restaurant that the taxi driver who drove us here had recommended. I was a bit dubious, to be honest, but it was fantastic, each tapas unique, Scottish, and delicious. And relatively cheap too. Best meal of the trip so far award to the Ox and Finch.

Tomorrow we are off early in the morning to catch the train to Fort William, which should be a change of pace. We have enjoyed Glasgow though. On the Kelvin bridge there is a rather strange coat of arms, with the motto "Let Glasgow Flourish". Amen to that.