August 28, 2023 - Glasgow, Scotland

 The last couple of days we have been running around Glasgow seeing the sites and checking out a few restaurants.  It's been fun and we have tried to not overextend ourselves.

One thing to note, we made airline reservations to fly home to Gainesville on October 18.  It seems like we are winding down, even though we have over 6 weeks left.

While we were strolling through the University of Glasgow campus, a walk for curing cancer was taking place including a choir of around 30 singers helping motivate the walkers.  One of the songs they sang as we strolled by was "Jolene", written and recorded by Dolly Parton.  You can't make this stuff up.

• The Tenement House - An authentic time capsule of life in early 20th-century Glasgow.  The National Trust for Scotland bought this property from the last owner, a single, self-sufficient woman named Miss Agnes Toward, in 1965 and kept all of the original furnishings.  They even replaced the electric lights with gas lights to reflect original lighting.  We associate the word "tenement" with run-down residential units, but in the UK, tenement is the typical term for working class flat or apartment.  This apartment was very nice and well furnished.
• University of Glasgow - UG was the inspiration for Hogwarts in Harry Potter and you can see it as soon as you enter the grounds.  It was fun walking through the campus.  "The University of Glasgow is a public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in 1451, it is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities."  
• Glasgow Necropolis - Everyone we asked for suggested places to visit said we had to visit this graveyard.  It is on the top of one of the highest hills in the City so the view from the top is impressive. The graveyard is from the mid 1800's. The entire graveyard is massive, with large monuments throughout.  "Fifty thousand individuals have been buried here. Typical for the period, only a small percentage are named on monuments and not every grave has a stone. Approximately 3,500 monuments exist here."
• Glasgow Cathedral - The cathedral is located across from the Necropolis, which kind of makes sense.  It is imposing, dark, and a little spooky.  We walked through the main church and into the below ground sections expecting to see ghosts at any time.  "The first stone cathedral was dedicated in 1136, in the presence of David I. Fragments of this building have been found beneath the structure of the present cathedral, which was dedicated in 1197, although much of the present cathedral dates from a major rebuilding in the 13th century."

Entrance to The Tenement House

Sooz was impressed by the kitchen scale

The kitchen stove used coal.

A shelf in the bathroom

Glasgow central train station

The main entrance to UG

The UG Cloisters - "The Cloisters (also known as the Undercroft), which connect the East and West Quadrangles, have appeared in many films and TV shows including Outlaw King, Cloud Atlas and Outlander."

This courtyard reminded us the most of some of the scenes from Harry Potter.

Sooz miraculously transported herself through the locked gate of the Necropolis and left me on the outside looking in

Entrance to the Glasgow Cathedral in all is dark and gloomy glory.  A restoration project is underway on a rear portion of the church

This is looking back toward the entrance to the church.  You can't tell from this picture, but the panels of stained glass above the doorway is spectacular.

This is looking towards the rear of the church.  Stairs down to the lower sections are on both sides of the rear area.

Sooz in the below ground section thought she saw a ghost, or maybe a pidgeon

Below ground.  The arches reminded me of the cloisters at UG

I did not use any lighting or flashes for these pictures, but my camera picked up a lot of light, more than is visible in real life.  In person, it was much darker.

We were amazed my the workmanship from the 12th and 13th centuries that went into in the cathedral.  This is a picture of the ceiling in the basement, made of large blocks of stone.  "The stone used in Glasgow Cathedral is a type of sandstone called whinstone. Whinstone is a hard, durable rock that is found in many parts of Scotland."

This picture is a more accurate showing of how dark the basement is.