A Grateful Good-bye, Glasgow!

Hello again, Blogonauts!

You find me now sitting in Glasgow's Central Station, ready to embark on my 3-hour rail journey to Manchester.

Some loose threads still need knotting, so let me scribble a summary while I post a few photos.

"Let Glasgow Flourish", with St. Mungo's 4 symbols:
a fish, a bell, a tree, & a bird

In addition to a vibrant cityscape, Glasgow has a lot of parkland. On a day that threatened a downpour (that never materialized), I took a turn through the Botanical Garden. The entrance way was emblazoned with the "Let Glasgow Flourish" insignia. Once in the park, I found some well-tended greenhouses.

Botanical Garden

Two of 30,000 species of orchid (not all in the greenhouse).
I had no idea orchids have more species than any other plant variety.

A nearby pub posted an intriguing but mostly indecipherable menu.

"No room inn?"

Now let's ricochet back to the Kelvingrove Museum. They've devoted a large exhibit to Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928), Art Nouveau innovator and famed inventor of the raincoat.

(Okay...that last bit was a lie. The raincoat was actually invented by another Charles Macintosh—no "k"—another Glaswegian of renown.)

Table & chairs designed for a tea room

Full table service for the Willow Tea Room

Tea Room Decor, now in the Kelvingrove Museum

Glasgow's thriving cultural offerings extend to the performing arts. There are, of course, several purpose-built concert halls. But several decommissioned churches have found new life as pubs & performance spaces.

My first evening in Glasgow I gamboled a few blocks away to hear a Scottish Symphony Orchestra performance of contemporary classical music. Some of the composers were sitting with us in the audience, which must put the performers on pins & needles.

Then yesterday I happened to walk past Oran Mor, another church-turned-performance-space, which was advertising a musical review entitled "Beyond Oz." (Click to see the playlist.)

What a surprise! Ten marvelous soloists (plus a chorus!) performed a compilation of songs from The Wizard of Oz, Wicked, The Wiz, and a few more of Stephen Schwartz's musical output (3 of them from Pippin). The selection was made in anticipation of the upcoming release of the film version of Wicked.

Here's what the Oran Mor's exterior.

And here's what it's become inside. (Plus, there's a pub in the croft.)

The cabaret seating led me to ask a pair of young women if I could join them. They enthusiastically welcomed me. It turned out that they knew many of the performers; in fact they are themselves actresses. One of them had spent time working, of all things, at Disneyworld. The evening convinced me that, indeed, Britain's Got Talent.

Finally, let's add a couple of goofy Glasgow leftovers pics.

The Doctor is In.
("Doctor who?"you may ask.)

The Glasgow Subway trains look like giant, white earthworms!

As I wrap up this wrap-up, I'm sitting on the train, careening  through the English countryside. My venture to Manchester is to attend the QED Conference over the weekend. It's a busy time, so posts here may be less frequent.

A reminder: If you want to zoom in on a photo, simply tap or click on it. And if you'd like to leave a comment, be sure you display your conference lanyard to avoid having security notified. (Not really.)

Blog to you later!