A Quickie in Glasgow

And by that we mean a quick trip.  What were you thinking??

A couple of weekends ago, the Scottish Exchange Teachers arranged a day out in Glasgow for the few of us available.  Although the plans started around 9am, we decided to join the group for lunch and an activity about which you will read later.

After breakfast and walking the dog, we headed off to our local train station, Haymarket, which is about 3 blocks away, so we really do mean local.  As it was Saturday, it was an off-peak day, so the train fare was reasonable and we were allowed to hop on any train heading for Glasgow.  As luck would have it, one was about to leave, so there was no waiting around for us!  It was a lovely trip and we were in a very sparcely populated car, so it was nice and quiet.  We arrived in Glasgow just as shops were opening up and Rick bought a great wool scarf which looks good with his brown jacket - he looks very British.  We strolled up Buchanan Street, the main shopping thoroughfare, and Bob found a store that sold things by his favourite designer, Vivienne Westwood, although he was too stupid to buy anything and now regrets it.

We met up with the rest of the crowd on Sauchiehall Street at the Willows Tea Rooms, which was designed by one of Glasgow's best known native sons, Charles Rennie Macintosh.  If you aren't familiar with his very distinctive design sense, give Google a spin.  The tea room is actually looking a bit dowdy, and we think because it is now such a popular tourist spot, they have crowded in too many tables, as manouvering through them isn't easy at all.  Not all of us were able to enjoy tea though, as a young couple who are new to the UK on exhange from Australia had their wee baby with them, and the tea room had no place for a stroller.  They said they didn't mind waiting for us outside, but it was unfortunate that they had to miss it.  They also missed the fact that the tea room only has one toilet - literally one toilet for all those people.  How odd.  In all honesty, we would advise aneyone visiting Glasgow to give this place a miss, although we did have a lovely chatty time because of the company.

After tea (ain't we just posh!), we headed over to a tenement building that features a flat in which lived a single woman who did as little as possible to change anything in it, so it is very close to original from early in the previous century as can be.  She lived pretty much as you see in the photos up until the 1960s, when she vacated the place.  We learned a few things. One is that, contrary to our obviously uninformed opinion, the term "tenement" isn't synonymous with "slum."  In the UK, a tenement is a building with comprises several flats, so technically our condo at home would be a tenement.  Some tenement buildings are quite upscale.  We also learned that, rather than having more than one bedroom, they had sleeping nooks - one off the sitting room and one off the kitchen.  The kitchen one was probably very popular in the winter time, as the stove would help keep it warm.  In one of the kitchen drawers, Bob found some knives that were identical to the ones at the cottage at Regina Beach that was lived in by his great-grandparents.  Oh, and Rick found out that, if you so much as touch a chair, you will be "corrected."  By the way, you are NOT allowed to take photos inside the tenement flat, so the ones that miraculously appeared on Bob's camera may not be always well composed or exposed!!  :-)

By this time in the day, it was getting late, so we said our farewells to eveyrone and caught the train back.  This was a slightly different route, so it took a bit longer, but it gave us time to nod off along the way.

All in all, a lovely day, and we came away from Glasgow quite liking it.  We had visited before, but now that we are more familiar with everything over here, we can really see what is on offer, and Glasgow has a lot.

Our train car to Glasgow.  If you count the heads peeking out above the seat backs, you will get an idea of just how uncrowded it was.  Coming home was much more crowded!

Rick riding the rails again!

Inside Glasgow Central Station.  People are staring at the big boards that will tell them which platform to use for their train.

A building.  Duh!  A lovely one, though.

We wandered down this narrow street, Morrisons Court, where people were just setting up for a market.

Sloans Bar, which is the oldest in Glasgow - 1797 - along Morrisons Court,

Argyll Arcade, inside which you can buy very, very expensive jewellry.  We saw many a watch we would have liked.

Princes Square shopping centre, which is quite fancy indeed, and is home to Bob's favourite designer.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glaswegians galore!

Looking back along Buchanan Street, which is pedestrians only and shopping heaven.

Willow Tea Rooms, with Rick waiting outside.  Across the street was a busker who was very talented, so Bob tossed quid his way.

The tenement building we visited.  Ironically, it was built "outside" of the center of Glasgow because the air was much fresher and healthier.  Now, just to the right of this photo, there runs a motorway, so the quality of air may have changed just a bit.

A diagram of some of the floor plans, on which you can see the sleeping closets.

A view of the bedroom.  Keep in mind that all this furniture is original to the owner, who only left in the 1960s.

Another bedroom view.

We aren't really sure why there is what looks like a mattress of hay under the bed.  Bob's camera may have been hiding behind a wardrobe for this photo.

Finally, an answer to why these places have a cupboard beside the fireplace!  They were used to store good china, which was a valuable commodity in those days.  That was definitely not one of our guesses!  In the foreground you can see a bit of a chair that was not to be touched!!

Parlour fireplace.

The parlour bed closet.  It is only the size of the bed.

We were quite surprised to find such a lavish bathroom sink.

An interesting display of bottles in the bathroom.  They are probably medicines that the owner took at one time or another.

A rather nice tub as well, although the bathroom was probably very chilly in the winter, so the tub probably saw limited use then!

A view of the kitchen.  It is hard to believe that she lived like this until the 1960s.

Everything including the kitchen sink.  It looks like laundery would have been done here as well, or else she liked to flatten her dishes.

Bob was struck by the quality of the wood used in the coal bin, as it reminded him of the one that used to be out behind the cottage at the beach.

The amazing stove, which is built in to the kitchen - not free standing as might be expected.  Toward the bottom is a small drawer that pulls out into which you place your irons to be heated up.  Very clever indeed!

The kitchen bed closet.

The flat still have gas lighting.  When you walk under the fixtures, you can feel the heat on the top of your head, or at least you can if you have a bald spot!  We were told that it is getting harder to find the filaments for these lights.

A quick peek at the parlour, complete with the untouchable chairs.