Glasgow, coming and going June 28-29/18

A train from Edinburgh to Glasgow leaves every 15 minutes and takes one hour.  Very civilised.  Dropped baggage off at hotel, a cute, modest hostelry six flights up (by elevator) above some other commercial enterprise and right next door to the station whence I depart tomorrow, not to be confused with the station at which I arrived today.  

Glasgow is different from Edinburgh.  Much more hustle and bustle and fewer woolen shops per square foot.  Though surely a tourist stop, it is not as obviously dominated by bus loads of sightseers as is Edinburgh.  

Decided to do art today so headed off to the Kelvingrove Art Museum.  The walk was not pretty and it was very hot.  I had no idea it could get this hot in Glasgow.  It was so hot that the pure air I remember from several years ago, was now smoggy and burned the eyes.

Museum did not knock off my socks.  I offer this painting for your consideration.  See how your interpretation matches the curator's comments below:

A big cat and a small mouse:

Reminiscent of the Met's collection of helmets, only more lively.  Dandy fellows one and all:

This Chinese brocade outfit may have a military look, but it is nothing more than an expensive, fancy coat, which, when you think about it, might serve to scare off the enemies, or not:

Hi Ilene!!  And Jessie!

Then this afternoon I visited GoMA.  It takes about fifteen minutes to work your way through the exhibits.  The installation below would, in any other context, be called Clothesline with Shmattahs and Other Objects, but in a museum, it is called Art:

This desk and bookcase and chair with a head on it would be called Who Cares about Odd Proportions and Slightly Whackadoodle (i.e., the head) Office, but again, in a museum, it is Art:

Loved this!  In case you cannot tell, the sunflowers on the right are Hockney's painting of the photograph of the flowers on the left only it is all one painting.

Opinions can also be Art if they are lucky enough to get into a museum:

Once up at 5:30 a.m., why wait to take the 8:30 ferry to Arran?  Catch the 6:45 instead and have a full day going to Holy Island, perhaps, and hiking the circuit.  Good plan, but ferry to meet the early train  not running, so that plan was dashed and replaced by a two and a half hour wait at the ferry terminal.  Seems that every good idea for Arran Island comes up against a schedule snag, and while there are buses linking the towns, their frequency is, well, not so frequent, so Holy Isle idea nixed.

An odd couple (to say the least) took their three bunnies (there is a wee black one over in the left corner) to Arran for a day out.  The bunny stroller had more toys than a baby of a Yuppie couple, a fan clipped to the side and a suitcase packed with greens to keep them well fed.

 On board were lots of dogs and babies and children of different ages, and bikers and drinkers, and golfers, and at least one hiker.

Arrived and checked into B and B and then off to Brodick Castle, a lovely walk.  This pretty bench seemed an ideal spot for lunch but the ominous buzzing sound of a horde of insects suggested that another spot might be better.

The castle at Brodick is not visitable at the moment, as it is undergoing repairs, but the  gardens/arboretum were  wonderful.  If you like formal gardens, there was one, and if you don't there was one anyway:

But most of the grounds were much more wild.

A gate in the open position:

Aye, now, the faeries must be coming:

Not an outhouse, but an ice house:

A Bavarian-style summer house. Though it looks to be made of large twigs, thee pieces are metal:

The ceiling (and walls) certainly do have a woodsy feel what with being decorated with acorns and all:

A deer that does not transmit Lyme disease:

But speaking of diseases, grey squirrels apparently carry squirrel pox (who knew) and have killed off most of the native red squirrels in the UK., but are doing quite well on Arran. 

This afternoon was a time for testing my devices, a 6.5 training walk for the first official leg of the season.