August 18, 2013 day 33 The hotel has a great hot and cold breakfast with wonderful coffee, cappuccino and croissants. We had a little trouble with the internet but got it straightened out. We walked to the Glasgow School of Art which was designed by Charles Rennie Macintosh. He was only 28 when he started the building which is in the arts and craft style. They ran out of money when half down so the building was used half done for about 20 years. They raised money to finish the project which happened in 1909. The building is still very much a working art school and our guide had graduated from here last year. We saw 4 stories and lots of studio spaces. The light is incredible along with the wonderful architectural details. There is a lot of similarity to Frank Lloyd Wright although the 2 never met. After Macintosh’s death there was about 40 years when he was not liked or appreciated. A number of people gave his furniture to the art school because it was so out of fashion. Now of course it is worth millions. The library is especially beautiful with quirky details. There is original furniture in there but no one, not even students are allowed to sit in the chairs. They can use the library for 20 minutes at a time but only if they hover over the texts. The guides thought Richard’s moustache was the best ever and gave him a moustache pin. Macintosh had a similar one. After that we went to the tenement museum about 4 blocks away. This part of Glasgow is reminiscent of San Francisco with the hills. The tenement has had only 2 tenants since it was built. Miss Toward and her mother lived in the flat for over fifty years and very little has changed. Electricity was added in 1960! There was a bathroom with pretty modern pieces. The kitchen and the sitting room had closets with beds in them. This was typical because usually families had oodles of kids. The kitchen had a pre Aga stove (coal fired) but no ice box. The larder was on an outside wall which kept some items cold but she would have had to shop every day. We walked back through the shopping district and stopped in at the Willows Tea Rooms also designed by Macintosh. When we got back to the hotel we had a cappuccino and Richard had an elderberry vodka with tonic. The staff here is so friendly and nice and we are having a great time. They are building a Citizen M in Times Square shortly. Xxx We got a recommendation for a sushi place about 8 blocks from here. Because it was Sunday it was fairly quiet, not many people on the street. We had a nice dinner and found we lingered much longer than most diners. The table behind us turned twice in the time we were there. Planned our day for tomorrow and we have to get up a little earlier than usual to get a tour of the City Chambers.
Posted on: Mon, 19 Aug 2013 08:06:05 +0000
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