We mentioned before that there were no words for the Burrell Collection. Part of the beauty of the gallery is the fact that there are windows in the ceiling and in some rooms, down to the floor. Backed by woods and a long view down rolling hills in the front, it seems as if the art — textile, wooden, stone and metal — lives and breathes on its own. It’s truly gorgeous.
This is in direct contrast to the artwork at The People’s Palace. The social history of Glasgow is — industrial, Union organized, strident, sad, funny and — earthy. It’s Glasgow, at its best and worst. The museum is full of slogans and signs and history echoes in the militant shouts of the suffragists, the Union marchers, the teetotalers and everyone else who has tried to change the ways of this city. There’s a very large section about the pride of industry that is the city’s iron working past, there are models of ships built here that went out and sailed in various feats of war and commerce. There is, of course, whiskey. And stout. And a section on poverty in Glasgow which is painful — in many ways, not a lot has changed in reference to housing and standards for the very poor. At least most people have a bathroom in their home now — as late as the mid-nineties five percent of people did not!
Today’s adventure was the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, an organ concert by none other than our Choral Society organist, the gent with the hyphenated last name (Yardley-Jones sounds SO classy!) and then a visit to The Tenement House in Garnethill — which is on top of Glasgow and a LOOOONG walk uphill. (Unfortunately, it’s also a National Trust house, so no photographs, but we hope these suffice!)
Those acclimating themselves to a new time zone often find that the second day is FAR worse than the first, and this is definitely the case with N&K, only N. — well, N. has the guidebook and the burning desire to make the most of his vacation, so he’s pushing on through it. (K. is taking cat naps and drinking coffee.)
In an effort to keep N&K awake, T&D brought out their canasta cards — and since N&K are the ones who taught us to play, we thought it would be fun to play mixed partners. Even half-asleep, K. wiped the floor with N&T…! Oh, well. At least there was a gorgeous sunset.
More adventures to come!
– D & T
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We are practising our canasta! I love it! We will have to play soon!