Hop On! Bus
Today I took the Hop on, Hop off bus. You know, those buses that seem to be everywhere except when you actually want to get on one!
I enjoyed it but it was a bit cold and windy on the upper outside level. I was glad to have my new warm hat!
My first stop was the University of Glasgow. I went to the wrong museum and got stuck in frosh week madness, a huge line for Domino's Pizza giving out free slices and paper bags made for more crowding and trash. I finally found the Hunterian Museum but didn't realize it was the Hunterian Art Gallery I wanted, across the street, and had to wend my way through hundreds of 18 year olds. First I had lunch at a cute place called The Left Bank. The employee/guard at the museum almost joined me. He had never heard of the restaurant but looked it up for me since my Internet wasn't working, as often happens! He said, "I don't get out much."
The Art Gallery, which I walked uphill to reach in the blazing sun, had an interesting collection and was free. I listened briefly to a curator talk about the art in the special exhibit by a NY artist named Margaret Salmon who lives in Glasgow.
But what I really wanted to see was the reconstructed Charles Rennie Mackintosh house, admission price was a "concession" (seniors and students) price of £6, normally 10. It was nice and had well-informed guides (or whatever they're called here) to answer questions.
I "hopped" back on the bus and got off two stops later to see The Tenement House, very different here than in NYC. It housed a more middle-class woman and her mother and a lodger. I was there for the last hour and they started to close earlier than their 5:00 closing time.
Then I walked to the huge Mitchell Library and the guard at the entrance was brusque, telling me it's all closed, though it's open to 8:00! I talked to him a while and he finally let me go up to the 5th floor which was genealogy and history. I asked for some books on the McLeans and the very nice librarian (but who knows if she is one) brought me a fantastic book from 1889. I sat and read it without my reading glasses until my eyes hurt. Tiny print!
She explained that it was true that the supposedly gorgeous reading room was closed because the glass in the ceiling was falling down and needed repair.
What I missed
They had a café which was very busy, a few men sleeping nearby.
Did you know the Mitchell Library is the largest public reference library in Europe? It was the legacy of tobacco heir Stephen Mitchell and building it was funded in part by Andrew Carnegie.
Another curious fact is that the subway system here in Glasgow is the third oldest in the world (although it only has one line). My host didn't even know how much it cost because she never uses it.
Exhausted! My Fitbit says 11,660 steps! I bought a coffee gift card for my host and was at my host's home before she got there.
Short Quiz about Glasgow:
https://youtu.be/HxzWW_bq2YQ?si=54_WBckLPPu2QEkA
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