Eilean Donan Castle (day four)

Eilean Donan Castle

A famous castle in a beautiful setting.  It's privately owned and sometimes inhabited.  It gave me the creeps to imagine living there.  Not very appealing but for the view.

 

Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness (day three)

Urquhart Castle ruins

Loch Ness boat cruise

 

Loch Ness

 

I'd been there before on a previous trip via a day tour from Glasgow -- but I didn't have a boat tour.  It might not seem it in the photos but the water was very rough that day.  Fortunately we travelled with the waves along the loch and back into our bus.

Loch Lomand and Glencoe (day three)

Loch Lomand

Piper at Glencoe

Glencoe

Our driver, Bob

 

It's amazing how close Loch Lomand is to Glasgow.  If you take a left turn you go up and over, past Rest and Be Thankful and arrive at Loch Fyne and Cairndow.  We continued north instead to Glencoe and Inverness.  The piper had his case open for tips.  The bleak beauty there is fantastic.

Kelvingrove Museum (day two)

Kelvingrove Museum,

Organ recital

Mental health care in Glasgow

Mary Barnes,

art therapy patient

William of Orange

 

We had about an hour to explore the Kelvingrove Museum, recently reopened after renovations.  It was closed on a previous trip but I'd been there the time before that.  An exhibit on Glasgow caught my eye.  There was information about mental health issues in the city.  The asylum for lunatics giving way to Mary Barnes, a nurse and famous early patient of art and psychotherapy.  And then information on the sectarian split between Protestant and Catholic.  William of Orange and all that.  Again reminds me of Grannie and, shall we say, her rather set views on religion -- as witnessed by us kids at the cottage.

Robbie Burns Country (day two)

Burns Memorial

Brig O'Doon

(not the same as Brigadoon!)

Ruined church and grave yard

where Burns' father is buried

Burns Cottage where he was born

This was our first day trip, south from Glasgow to the region around Ayr.  There's a new visitor centre there near the Burns Cottage.  The Scots seem to do this very well -- new clean modern visitor centres with multi-media exhibits, lunchroom, washrooms and gift shop.  Very nice.

Glasgow School of Art (day one)

Charles Rennie Macintosh building,

The Glasgow School of Art

Main entrance

Main entrance detail

I soon found out that you can't enter the school building except with a tour.  This is because it's a working school and the students get precidence.  Makes sense.  I had an hour to kill before the next tour so I found a coffee shop nearby on Sauchiehall Street.  I also spent time in the gift shop -- as I did on every stop!

The tour guide was a third year architectural student who had a lot to say about the unique and amazing aspects that Macintosh included in his design.  Lots of wood, usually dark.  Little details of tiles and colour.  Lots of light from windows.  An air flow system for heating and cooling (using ice!).  Window seats.  An indoor garden.  The library was beautiful with specially designed furniture.  And on and on.

Glasgow (day one)

Glasgow Cathedral

 

Glasgow Cathedral

St. Nicholas Garden

Provand's Lordship House,

oldest house in Glasgow

Glasgow Street

The plane was met at Glasgow Airport in the early morning on Saturday by the tour guide Patricia and our bus.  (The driver changed for Saturday and Sunday until Bob arrived on Monday when we left Glasgow.)  There were only 16 in the group at this point -- and a full sized "coach."  Four more joined us on Monday to make 20.  Nine couples, a divorced grandmother and me.

We began the tour with a tour of Glasgow.  Patricia was with us the entire time.  She was calm and helpful and funny -- and gave us information about every part of the trip.  She's from Edinburgh as is Bob.  Once we got into the hotel we were left on our own for the rest of the first day until a welcome drink and dinner.  I headed off to the Glasgow School of Art.