Day 6 - Glasgow and Sickness

Day 6 - Glasgow and Sickness #westhighlandway2024

Getting ready to get some breakfast, unfortunately fever still seems to be there and was especially bad before a shower and some DayQuil, might also try to find a clinic here to see. In theory we have a food/walking tour later and possibly were going to check out a distillery

But the room is just such a step up, kind of crazy

Went to get some brekkie, the place was cute and portions were quite generous, got the full Scottish with some black pudding

Right now walked to a pharmacy to get a couple better meds and think Farah will go hibernate at the hotel until 5:30 and I'll go exploring but the city is adorable

I've been released k to the world all by my lonesome, hoping the rest is what she needs for a couple days from now, will meet back up later to eat/walk. For now in the modern art museum and booked a walking tour for 2, George Square is pretty

Some other cool shots from around the area

The GoMA, I have to say I generally like at least some stuff in modern art museums but not a lot clicked here

This one was kind of cool though

Also kind of dug this other one though it was more a spatial/audio one that doesn't translate well

In case you missed it in the GoMA shot this Wellington statue has a cone for a head

I've been walking mostly aimlessly for a little while now just raw dogging the city, no headphones, some photos, some messaging so I guess not so much but mainly trying to take it all in, really like the downtown core vibe

There's also these really aesthetic alleyways in lots of places

There's also a ton of street art murals, there's even a mural trail I started to use once I noticed

And some more

Now heading back to do the city center walking tour

Snuck into a uni building to use the bathroom 📚🫡, city is much more alive now than when we went for breakfast when it was giving COVID financial district.

Assorted images of he innovation are with more modern things and then a cute pic of a solitary dude enjoying the park

Couple more shots I liked

And now starting he walking tour

It started with slamming Edinburgh so you know it's a native giving it

Apparently a lot of the money to build the Victorian buildings came from the Atlantic slave trade as sailing from here could cut almost a whole month of trip time

Part of the reason he unicorn is the national animal of Scotland is that England's is the lion and they wanted an animal that could beat it "using magic or whatever"

Glasgow coat of arms "The bird that never flew, the tree that never grew, the fish that never swam" etc

First level, famous folk like Galileo and Darwin, then Greek gods, then the last level in the triangle is for Queen Victoria as a last minute job because they hadn't done anything to recognize her. Statue on top related to the statue of Liberty

Lore of Glasgow, first ever recorded unmarried woman with a child, tricked by a prince dressed as a woman who raped her? This is intense. Prince went back to Wales, she was sentenced to death, pushed off a cliff but she was found alive, set adrift, also survived.

Seaside community welcomed her, baby was fine, baby was nicknamed Mongo, very very dear one, became St Mongo, founder of Glasgow l

Sorry St Mungo, the bird is the same one in the crest, part of the lore

Mural painted on a city council building on a whim, artist was gonna jail him but the council looked at it and was like "damn, it's lovely", instead commissioned him to do a bunch of other ones around the city

Only 7 years old, done free hand, part 2 coming up only 5, apparently only took like a week to do

Kind of neat that I saw a lot of these when randomly walking but now I get the *context*

This one is part 2, the baby but grown up, the same robin, skull on the sleeve somehow a reference to Catholicism 💀

The broken plaster there made them almost not do the painting on the wall but the artist, "Smug", was like no worries, I can make it work

Drive-by near building on the way to the next guide spot

Provands Lordship, 1471, one of the few medieval buildings left since most got remodeled during Victorian times

Dr Joseph Lister (aka Listerine) worked in this hospital, he was one of the first proponents of antiseptics. Once they were was a crazy smell, a miasma really, he found a cholera pit (where they dug to throw bodies of disease victims, around 100 dead bodies here)

Glasgow cathedral

Also known as St Mungo's cathedral as his bones lie here. About 1267. Oldest building in mainland Scotland. Blackened by soot during the industrial revolution

Color of these restored windows is what it would have looked like before the blackening

The inside of the church, really cool, if there's one thing catholic churches nail (besides the obvious one) it's the design language

Really just 💯, also very KH vibes

Lamposts low key tying it all together

Think this is the necropolis in the background

In 1560 the reformation of Scotland happened, before that it was predominantly Catholic, John Knox was a protestant, launched mobs of people to destroy Catholic places of worship, relics, graves etc. people made a human barricade and stopped them saving his one cathedral

One Tardis per Scottish doctor apparently

Came full circle to come guy, apparently it was a prank, and the council kept taking it down but someone would put it up, so it's a long running inside joke. It's not always back up for the tours it seems

Tour over, might get a coffee and go back to the hotel

Back at the hotel to chill before the 530 eat and walk tour!

Times Square TGI's needs to step it up

Starting the eating/walking tour now, this guide apparently came from Spain but stayed in Glasgow for a while

It started in Nelson Mandela Place which was called that to troll the South African embassy which was on that road to force them to receive mail with his name at the height of apartheid

First place, a local craft beer place, had a scotch egg and a really funky mango/passion fruit/vanilla sour beer which was really quite unique, enjoyed it a lot

Second place, a steak place, got some steak frites and IronBru which is somehow the most popular soda here, tastes very artificial sort of like Frescolita in Venezuela...

Third place was some really good scallops with a cider and a fennel apple salad, seems like there's some pride in Scotland about their seafood

Last place was dessert, a sticky toffee pudding and a cranachan, a traditional dessert which is like cream and berries as well as a scotch and a nice berry cocktail

Overall pretty cool tour with a fun guide, turns out she was Basque from San Sebastian which is family related! The group skewed a bit older (and richer) though, would have been nice to meet some people. We're still hoping on the hike itself we'll get some consistent hike buddies

Milngavie (pronounced mul-GUY fsr) tomorrow! Not sure what the plan is before then, maybe a hop on hop off bus to not over walk the day before the hike