A Long Walk, Slight Morbidity and Loving the City of The Dead.

I wanted to use Tuesday to do some exploring just in Glasgow. Just in case jetlag attacked I wanted to be close to a bed. I dressed very warmly having learned my lesson on Monday; out in the relentless drizzle, I was grateful for all of it. 

First I headed north and east to the Clyde river and crossed on a twisting bridge over to the city center again. The architecture in that area of town really is fantastic, and there are many streets that are pedestrian only, usually they are main shopping streets like Argyle. I went into Central Station to have a look around. 

There is something about big, old train stations that is very romantic. Maybe it's all those old movies but they really have a presence. 

I bought a croissant and possibly the world's worst cup of coffee in the station wandering around looking at trains, travelers and shops. I'm trying to be careful with how much I spend especially on food. I'm not addicted to trinkets or clothing or shoes, but I will eat my way into the poorhouse with things like coffee and pastry (so I got the cheapest one to make it ok :)

With a warmer belly I went out into the rain again, this time closer to the river and found myself at St. Andrew's cathedral. It is a beautiful little church that has been very well maintained. Attached to the side is a brick courtyard with modern art pieces and a fountain.

"Love casts out fear" Most of the inscriptions were water related  to tie back to the fountain.

I really enjoyed exploring churches when I was in Europe last time and I still do. I think it's because they are still places. Nothing moves quickly or makes loud noises unless there is a service going on. Everyone is welcome and people will usually leave you alone. You can sit and think and enjoy the architecture to your heart's content. And when it's raining it's nice to go somewhere warm to dry off and wait out the heavier weather. Most of all I like them because nothing is expected of you other than you be quiet and respectful.

 I get frustrated with how people have to legitimize their presence in most places by buying something, and malls that barely have anywhere to rest because they want them up and spending money, and severe lack of public restrooms because of the bad things that can happen in them. In a church or cathedral you're just another soul and you will never be denied a bathroom if you need one.

After a few warm, meditative moments at St. Andrews I continued out, up and around, wandering my way through the older part of town. I've noticed there are a ton of pet shops around. Fish stores too that sell "designer" aquariums. Some are reptile or bird specific, and others are more general, but the point is, they are everywhere and who knows why. 

I saw a collection of trees in the distance and followed them down to the "Glasgow Green" A very large triangular park by the river, Most of it is wide expanses of  lawn with ornamental shrubs and trees lining the walkways. One such way lead to a very tall brick obelisk but it started raining hard again and the wind picked up so I scurried along to what looked like a large greenhouse on the other side.

The Greenhouse is called the "Winter Garden" and it's attached to a museum called "The People's Palace." Admission was free so of course I took a look around. 

I loved the gardens but unfortunately I didn't like the museum at all. It was a museum of social history and I wasn't prepared for how tough Glasgow's social history is. It's an industrial town and has held onto that identity over centuries. There were exhibits on overcrowding and inhumane conditions in turn of the century tenement houses. How women and children were beaten but just dealt with it as part of the social culture. The extremes between the super rich merchants in the Victorian era with their slaves vs. the extremely poor industrial worker. But what got me is there was an entire section devoted to the death penalty in Glasgow, the prison system and what you could and could not be hanged for pre-1964 when the penalty was abolished. Plus baby clothes for infants whose mothers were in prison and had given birth there. It rubbed me the wrong way.

Leaving the museum in a hurry, i consulted a map and walked north about a half a mile in the direction of the Cathedral, stopping in at another little church along the way. As I rounded the corner I fount myself in a section of the city I had written off after seeing it on the map. The Necropolis. "I've seen graveyards before." I told myself and prepared to walk right by to the cathedral but I was stopped in my tracks. 

The Necropolis is a very large hill connected to the Cathedral by a stone bridge. And now as I'm writing about it I'm having a hard time thinking of how to describe it and why I loved it so much. The place has the same kind of feel as a church, that sense of quiet and rest. There aren't just headstones, but huge monuments, the higher up the hill you get the bigger they are. I started at the bottom, in love with how not perfectly manicured it is, ivy cascades over the stones that are set into the walls and the stones themselves are extremely beautiful. Many are cracked, some have fallen over or are missing pieces and no one has brought in a tractor to lift them up again. It's just part of the entropy of the place. Monuments are erected, they sometimes fall down, words get washed away over time until eventually the stone is just a flat spot on the ground. 

Also, it's brilliant in terms of aesthetic landscape design. It successfully uses at least three techniques for good design and I'm going to geek out about them for a minute so just bear with me. 

The landscape is not just a flat field or hill that you can see everything from one spot. In order to discover everything the Necropolis has to offer you have to climb around it to the top. Also, the headstones are all different, no two are alike so it's impossible to get bored with what you're looking at.

Another advantage of the hill is the sense of looming that the crypts give. Everything isn't on one plane which makes the surroundings constantly changing, textured, and interesting. The emotion, given through design is very strong and impossible not to understand once you're in it.

One crypt at the top in particular drew my attention from the very bottom of the hill because of it's different shape and color. As I ascended the hill the crypt would get hidden behind a tree or landmass then appear again rewarding my efforts with a different angle. It drew me all the way to the top.

Here is an angle from below. From this vantage point I get to see the fence that I wouldn't if I only saw it from the front.

At the top I was rewarded with the full view of the crypt. 

Also, the size and and style of the markers changed the higher up I went. At the bottom they were mostly stones, in the middle, smaller crypts and at the top HUGE freaking monuments to the richest people in town. 

The place was so cool, I highly encourage anyone to visit. Though if you go by yourself on a stormy day when no one else is up there and have a highly active imagination, I am going to warn you about things like this.

That are more than a little creepy, especially because statues like this one are inside open mausoleums, and I had to get right up to the doors to see what was inside. Invariably a big gust of wind would blow me towards the terrifying statues and give me goosebumps like someone was 'walking over my grave.' Only I was walking over theirs!

Ok, enough morbidity. 

Things I Learned Today:

-Dora the cat thinks that my face/neck is the most appropriate place for her to be all the time.

-The UK and Continental Europe have different outlets.

- Glaswegians will almost always start a conversation with a comment on what the weather is doing. (that might be a UK thing though.)

-The subway is a circle in Glasgow, so if you miss your stop you just have to wait for it to come around again. Freaking brilliant idea.