On The Road to Exploring Glasgow

Although the tour portion of our trip ended Tuesday, Sara and I went back to Glasgow to spend a couple days exploring on our own.

The city is filled with history, but around every corner was a modern vibe. You can see the juxtaposition in everything from the architecture to the art.

We felt the best way to explore was to walk. Fortunately the weather cooperated for a 40 minute jaunt from the hotel to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.

This incredible cultural institution is like a combination of our Art Institute, Field Museum of Natural History, and Adler Planetarium all in one! This free museum features 22 galleries containing over 8,000 items.

1st - 10th centuries loch glashan logboat

portrait of alexander reid, 1887 vincent van ogh oil on board

View of ventimiglia, 1884 claude monet oil on canvas

fulton’s grand orrery (working model of the solar system) 1833

It even has a working organ built in 1901 that sounds magnificent!

Our walk back, again showed the contrast of hundreds of years from gravel gardens to perfectly preserved buildings aching to tell their story.

We topped off the evening with a lovely dinner at a local pub, complete with live music and Scottish beer!

Other highlights from the past few days, included a visit to the Gallery of Modern Art - another surprise just blocks from our hotel.

Of course we did some shopping on busy Buchanan Street, where the street musicians were playing everything from bagpipes to Hava Nagila!

That got me thinking - I wondered if there was a synagogue in Glasgow…well sure enough (and Sara found it) there was!

Garnethill Synagogue and the Scottish Jewish Heritage Centre was another 40 minute walk, up a very steep hill, in a somewhat secluded part of town. As Scotland’s first purpose built synagogue, the structure dates back to 1879; Glasgow’s first Jewish community dates back to 1821. The architecture was beautiful, even though the building was locked up like a fortress.

I rang the buzzer at the entrance and just when we thought nobody would answer a delightful young woman opened the gate. We explained who we were and asked if we could come inside to see the facility. Unfortunately, we were told there were only a couple days a week that the public could go inside for tours. I took a few more outdoor pictures and we made our way back to the hotel , still thrilled we had found a beautiful Jewish center in the middle of Scotland!