Seeing Glasgow

Bob thought we should again do an on and off bus and it turned out to be an inspired choice. The automated narration on the CitySightseeing buses is quite good and, after our ears adjusted somewhat to the Glaswegian accent (quite heavy), we were able to learn a lot. For instance, there is an area of the city center with street names still representing the shameful period in which Scotland was one of the triangles in the slave trade. There has been some movement to change those and the recording suggested it would happen in the near future. The Glasgow Green still allows an individual to graze their sheep. Of course, they pointed out some of the famous Glaswegians, like it’s founder, Saint Mungo (his name is everywhere), and scientists like Lister (claimed by both Scotland and England), and buildings designed by architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Like the previous cities we’ve visited in the UK, the old and new, side-by-side, is sometimes startling. By the way, many of the city’s oldest clocks have blue faces and gold hands because of an edict from King Henry VIII, who, following God’s command to Moses (Exodus 39) to make Aaron the priest ”garments of blue with gold bells”, said church clocks should be ”blew with the signs upon them gilt”. Higher education (undergraduate) is free in Scotland. Glasgow has three QS World University ranked universities in 2022: Glasgow (ranked 73rd), Strathclyde (302nd) and Glasgow Caledonian (1001-1200) (whatever that means).

These were some of the swankiest townhomes in the nineteenth century. Most are now offices for attorneys, architects, etc. Some have recently been renovated into million dollar homes.
The gorgeous University of Glasgow (attended by our niece, Sara). Fourth oldest university in the English-speaking world.
And then there is modern.
Locals call this the Leaning Tower (hard to tell in the picture but it is leaning slightly).

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