The GCW Tour, A Few Bits of the UK and Ireland: The Morning in Glasgow

With just thirty-six hours in Glasgow, and twenty-four of those mostly focused on sleeping, our intent was to maximize our one full day in the city, but I stupidly lost two hours trying to deal with laundry. But once I accommodated the fact that I'd be wearing dirty socks*, we were off to see the city and its sights...

I think my favorite random sight of the morning was this busker: an old woman playing he accordion in front of a TGI Fridays. For some reason that just struck me as apropos...

Anyway, sights...

Eventually we made our way to the Glasgow Cathedral. It wasn't really our target, but since we were there and it was free, we went in. Nice...

But just outside the Cathedral, now you've got something: the Glasgow Necropolis, a giant hill comprising some 50,000 graves, and a clear indication that the Scots know how to manage their dead...

If I wasn't aiming for cremation and a final resting place among naked beachgoers, I might make a bid for a spot on the hill. Nice hill.

Anyway, since it was reasonably close, from there we went to The Lighthouse, Scotland's Centre of Design and Architecture. A converted newspaper building, it's now a weird combination of offices, convention rooms, museum displays and a viewing tower. The Tower was the best part, for sure...

Actually, their bathroom signs were the best part...

But they also had a nice display on the connections between science fiction and design...

Another room looking at building materials....

And a strange little room full of the tiniest architectural models (but also a few normal sized ones)...

From there we went to the award-winning Riverside Museum, but that deserves a separate post.

* I really, really don't like putting a previously worn sock on my foot. Ugh. Terrible.