Glasgow

 We’ve had a great couple of days in Glasgow. It is very different here than Edinburgh. People seem more edgy, both in look and temperament. To be fair we did arrive on a Saturday night when there was a big footy game on, so it’s to be expected that the gritty side is more prevalent.  We keep getting stared at… not in a good way. I know we visually scream tourist as we are both wearing cross body bags, but even so. May be it’s because neither of us is wearing make up. A full face of slap, worthy of Instagram, including huge eyelashes seems to be the way of it here.  
A wee bit of shopping was on the cards yesterday, but a visit to the famous "Barras" left us wondering. What we saw, was a second hand / tat market on a massive scale. Don't get me wrong, second hand places are often great to browse in, but I'm wondering if we missed something.
That was followed by a wander along the Clyde in full sunshine. 
Today we braved the bus system and failed miserably. We stood at a stop for an hour before being told we were at the wrong one. We moved. And still the right bus didn’t arrive, so we gave up and caught a cab. 
The University of Glasgow has possibly the most beautiful campus I have ever seen. If you can imagine a cross between Hogwarts & a Disney fairy castle that'd probably cover it. The cloister was the main attraction for me; fluted stone columns & ceiling arches. But with the travel jinx in full operation I found the columns in the central portion were wrapped in pink & blue bunting. Whaaat the hell?  Turns out that April 1st was an open day. It took quite a bit of creativity to manage shots without coloured columns. I also took a photo of a wall mural showing what the “classic” shot should be. You can see below. The stonework was stunning & I think what surprised me the most was how large the historic part of the campus was. After disappointingly not being able to get into the ruins of Elgin Cathedral we'd made a trek south to visit Jedburgh Abbey. Had we known just how large & beautiful Glasgow Uni was, we would most likely not have bothered.
The sky in the afternoon was cloudy (still very warm though) so I took off down the river again, reshooting some of the images from yesterday with better skies & light. As you do!
The Central Railway Station in Glasgow is also a fantastic architectural marvel of the past. I will post some images from that another time.

There 2 of these large enclosed courtyards. Possibly more but we only saw 2,

Copy of a wall mural showing what the cloister should look like

And what it actually looked like. Ive made no effort for this pic - why would I?

Even the mucky old Clyde can look good on some days

The Clyde "Squiggly" bridge