Stratford, Glasgow Sept 3-6

Sept 3, 2014.

At 12:30 we took a train from Totnes to Reading, then train to  Leamington Spa, and finally to Stratford, arriving 7:00.  (We were originally ticketed to Oxford, but the hotels were booked and/or too expensive.  We were able to get trade the tickets in.)

Dinner at One Elm, a pub recommended in Geraldine’s best pub book.  Not for tourists, a lively local place.  Food disappointing.  Fish and chips maybe not  too fresh and pork/chorizo combo greasy.

Sept 4  Stratford-Upon-Avon.   (Technical problems.  Our photos unusable.)

We followed the prescribed tourist route.  Birthplace, site of bigger house, home of daughter Susannah Hall  (she married the local physician), and Trinity Church, where Shakespeare was baptized, married, and buried. We saw no plays as by the time we decided to go it was all sold out.

 

A carving from the misericord, Trinity Church:

 

 

 

 

Shakespeare's tomb:

 

 

We ate well.  Lunch at Giggling Squid (Thai)

Dinner at Lambs on Sheep Street.  4 starters.  Fried haloumi, carpaccio, duck & pate.   desserts  meringue and sorbet.  A memorable meal.

Sept 5.  Train to Glasgow.  We left Stratford upon Avon by train.  In the category of nice people - our cab driver stayed while we sorted out the tickets and carried one of our bags up the stairs and over the bridge and down to the other platform.  A nice woman who noticed Leslie struggling with her suitcase picked it up and carried it over.

We changed trains in Birmingham, pulling our suitcases to a different station.  We are now in Glasgow.

We are staying at the Grand Central Hotel, above the train station.


 

Train station gate:

a sort of attic:

The stairwell:

We had an hour before closings. We used it to see the “Lighthouse,” a building designed by local architect Charles Rennie MacIntosh.  It now houses a small museum devoted to him.
 

MacIntosh left some drawing of projects that were never built.   Small scale models have been built with computer assistance:

MacIntosh also designed furniture:

The one chair we could sit in was quite uncomfortable.

Dinner at Urban, a trendy pub.  feta and olive tart, goat cheese, hamburger more like meatloaf.

Sept. 6, Saturday.

We begin at the Glasgow Necropolis, which has a lot of imposing, decaying funerary monuments:

They make a good transition to the Cathedral, which is next door ...

.... and which has even more funerary monuments inside.  Bruce liked this one, dedicated to a physician whose monument in the Necropolis was eroding severely.   The figures are pictures of health:

 

 

 

The Cathedral is dedicated to St Mungo, a.k.a. St Kentigern.  The former appears to be a nickname used exclusively in Scotland.  He is said to be the bastard son of a princess by rape.  The myth is that after becoming a priest, he visited the home of a holy man Fergus.  Fergus died.  Mungo put him in a cart pulled by two wild bulls whom he instructed to take to the place chosen by God.  They took him to the site of the current Cathedral of Glasgow.  Mungo died in 603.  His tomb is in the cathedral.   He is the patron saint of Glasgow.  He does not seem to have been a very active saint, but he became a rallying point for Scotland.  The current cathedral was dedicated in 1136 and consecrated in 1197.

The Cathedral is beautified by fairly recent stained glass.  For example, the barbers guild provided this panel:

 

This Millennium panel was sponsored by several high schools:

Below the Cathedral is an ecumenical Museum of Religious Life and Art, with a pretty good Zen garden:

We had lunch here.  "Stovies," a sort of potato stew.

With the help of Glasgow’s remarkably helpful bus drivers, we made it next  to the Hunterian Museum.  This Museum is built upon the eclectic collections of William Hunter and is part of the University of Glasgow.
 

Some interesting items:

These carved stones, are found at various places in Scotland.  They are about three inches in diameter, and have no known purpose.  They are believed to date back to neolithic times:

Sometime in the early 17th century, the Jesuit mission in Beijing was commissioned to make a map of the globe for the Emperor.  The resulting product is fascinating for its illustrations of fauna.   How has this come into the possession of the Hunterian Museum?

Turkey and beaver:

Furry critter with tail feather:

Across the street is the Hunterian’s art collection and a townhouse interior that replicates Charles Rennie Macintosh’s residence.  He lived there with his wife , Margaret McDonald.  She was an artist and some of his designs are joint projects.

The piece over the fireplace was made with gesso by McDonald.  She also did metalwork.

Dinner in the hotel room.  M&S sandwiches.