Glasgow City Centre: Shops and Art

Late start to the day, but pretty good weather - not much wind to speak of and no rain!

We took the subway into to a couple of stops before the city centre to walk to the Glasgow School of Art - a building designed by Glasgow's favourite son, Charles Rennie Mackintosh. They have a really good shop there with cool items, many made by the school's students and graduates. There was a really nice model of the main building too, with information panels about the school's history.

Following the streets through the city centre, we ended up in a shopping mall strip, reminiscent of Pitt Street in Sydney as the locals were doing Christmas shopping it seemed, of a weekend. I ended up purchasing pair of waterproof/windproof pants from a camping/outdoors store. There are times when I like being a relatively short/small person: on the plane flying over, walking through historic doorways (they built them shorter then), and when shopping. I can fit children's clothing, which are generally less expensive compared to adult clothes.

After more walking - you'll notice we are doing a lot on this trip - we found ourselves in George Square near Queen Street train station, where there was a "Shindig in the Square", a Christmas Market-y thingy like we saw in Edinburgh. On the main stage were a group of children playing traditional Scottish music - one of the girls was singing in Scottish Gaelic, for the brief amount of time that we were listening. Instruments were fiddles, a cello, harp, piano accordion and pipe. I like Scottish music. One of my favourite bands is a Scottish one, Capercaillie, who sing a mix of English, Scots Gaelic and also do instrumental music.

We didn't stay still long, as it gets chilly standing in one place for too long so we hunted up some grub in the form of Angus beef burgers, the Aberdeen Angus beef being rather famous. Afterwards we headed to the Gallery of Modern Art, which had some interesting exhibits. I liked some of the community artwork on display. The building was neo-classical and ornate too.

Walking to another part of town, we wandered up to the old necropolis (cemetery) near Glasgow Cathedral, a Gothic-looking and atmospheric building, although that might have just been the late afternoon light. There were some pretty good views of the city from the top of the hill - some parts we hadn't seen yet. Near the cathedral was St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art, which housed some really interesting pieces from all different religions.

Dark had fallen, so we got back to the centre of town, walked around, but got fed up with the crowds and decided to head back. The restaurant we wanted to have dinner at had a really long queue, so we decided to return tomorrow. Had a slapdash dinner and quiet evening.