Offsite Adventure - Glasgow

 #Glasgow

Today's off site excursion is in Glasgow, Scotland. Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland.
Aside from it being a shopping mecca for those tourists that come to see the life, this year it is home to the Commonwealth Games which is similar to what you may know as the Olympics. It is held every four years with athletes that participate from the Commonwealth Nations - the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland) with total competing countries being Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand, Scotland, Canada, and Wales.  Similar to the United States, the Commonwealth games. The host city is chosen seven years in advance and Glasgow has pulled out all the stops to attract even more tourists as well as the locals that have come to visit to partake or view. George Square is at the heart of Glasgow and is usually a large open space to allow that leads north, south, east, or west to start your bus, foot, or cab trek into Glasgow. This year, it was decorated to welcome the Commonwealth Games along with setting up tents to sell merchandise and welcome those that came to view.

Welcome to the Commonwealth Games 2014

George Square 

Glasgow is much larger than Edinburgh and my home city of Stirling. An extra £2 will give you an unlimited bus pass to travel the entire city. One eight hour day is not nearly enough time to take in the major sites - you can either briefly tour the major attractions or pick two or three major attractions and see in depth. I chose option B passing up the Necropolis Cemetery, a 37-acre cemetery with massive monumental tombstones of over 50 thousand people buried with large amounts of wealth. I also decided to pass on the Glasgow Botanical Gardens as the bus ride was over an hour. As with all of our excursion, Glasgow too is filled with museums for artwork. The most famous of the attractions is Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. Having an eight hour day in solely in Kelvingrove would not even begin to touch the surface of being able to explore this 22 themed museum with over 8,000 objects to include Dutch, Scottish, Egyptian, and other world cultures like African, South Asian, Americas, and Oceana influences on art. Among the art are several cool, interactive, attractions to include....

Sarcophagus of Pa-ba-sa, Egyptian, about 664–610 BC   

Elvis Lives - From the American collection - strictly taken for my mom who is an Elvis fan 

Christ of St John of the Cross
Painted by Salvador Dali, this image of Christ's crucifixion came to Dali in a dream. It is devoid of any blood coming from the hands or from the head because Dali felt this would destroy is perception of Christ. Dali's portrayal created controversy but attracted public viewing in droves once on display at Kelvingrove. The picture has been damaged purposely twice and has since been repaired with no noticeable fading or aging to this day. For more information, click here

 http://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/museums/kelvingrove/about/collection-highlights/Pages/Christ-of-St-John-on-the-Cross.aspx

My bus ride to return back to George Square (our central meeting spot) was met after an hour walk through the town shopping center which spanned several city blocks taking in sights such as the Duke of Wellington statue. The Duke of Wellington statue was made to salute Authur Welles, a British soldier with leading political figures but since the 1980's, every morning the Duke greets Glasgow with a traffic cone on his head. At one point, the cone was removed every day just to have it replaced before the morning sunrise. Now, the police no longer utilize man power to remove the cone everyday and the Duke is now an attraction, not for his history and prestige, but to laugh at the bright orange cone that stands out on his head. 

Glasgow is also home to a widely recognized LGBTQI community hosting the largest pride parade in Scotland. Glasgow publicly lists several resources for the community for everything from medical care to LGBTQI night clubs. I missed the pride parade by one day, not being aware of the date and unable to arrange transportation from Stirling but news reports that the turn out this year was one of the largest in history - perhaps because friends and family were in for the Commonwealth games or perhaps a larger awareness of support is being presented for the community. The attached link shows in depth the detail and success of the 2014 Pride Parade in Glasgow. 

http://pride.scot/