Rival Cities

View of Edinburgh Castle, Old and New Towns from Calton Hill

Glaswegians’ opinion of Edinburgh mirrors how Portlanders feel about Seattle: a smug feeling of superiority hiding a slight inferiority complex. Just imagine Portland and Seattle only an hour apart. Edinburgh has its iconic castle, the Scottish Parliament, the royal jewels of Scotland, a bevy of national museums, and one of the Queen’s official residences. It’s grander, cleaner, and has more of a feeling of gravitas. But Glasgow residents will tell you it lacks the soul, joie de vivre, and friendliness of their city. As we’ve heard more than once: “In Glasgow, people will ask you if you’d like to have a cuppa tea. In Edinburgh, they say, ’you’ve had your tea already, haven’t you?'”

A Ferris Wheel for Boats

Opened in 2002, the Falkirk Wheel was designed by the descendants of those Scottish techno-engineers who brought us the steam engine, clipper ships, the telephone, and macadam roads. Located halfway between Glasgow and Edinburgh, this engineering marvel replaced 11 locks connecting a pair of cross-Scotland canals that are at two very different levels. Canal boats enter a water-filled gondola and then the wheel rotates carrying boat, water and people up 35 meters in four minutes. Along with other Scottish tourists, we took a 45-minute boat tour between canals on a chilly but sunny day that offered great views from the wheel’s highest point.

That Low, Low Winter Sun

A Low, Low Winter Sun at 3pm Shining Down our High Street

Up the Street

We’re slowly getting acquainted with our neighbors in this urbanized area. Mixed in with the rows of tenement flats and more modern apartment buildings is a short stretch of eclectic businesses, including a tattoo parlor, florist, upscale remodeler, the “Hair Police” (whom we’re afraid will arrest us), green grocer, a Boots, a specialty beer boutique (one Oregon beer), and the smallest coffee shops imaginable (I had to go outside to take a photo). One of the most inviting spots is a yarn shop/ café, which is always filled to capacity with about 8 people, needles flying. It’s nice to be able to pop down the block for a good cappuccino at the Italian coffee shop or pick up a cheerful pot of daffodils from the sidewalk stand in front of the produce shop.

Queen Margaret Drive

After spending a month in an airbnb flat, we finally moved into our “permanent” home on the other side of the West End. Unlike our previous accommodation (and most of Glasgow), 166 Queen Margaret Drive is not a traditional sandstone tenement block but a more modern (7-year-old) brick apartment house. We miss the high ceilings, moldings, and stained glass of our former place but not the 81 steps to the top front door (we now have the luxury of a lift). On the ground floor, there's a small Tesco market, Chinese restaurant, and betting parlor. We’ve yet to try the restaurant or the bookie, though it’s interesting to see what you can bet on and at what odds. While the décor here isn’t exactly our style, at least there are sofas (albeit in magenta), beds, and funky lights (which give an almost disco vibe). Many of the other flats we looked at interpreted "furnished" to mean a mattress on the floor and a random end table, so this was one of the very few viable options. The housing market--at least in the desirable West End--is tight and on the expensive side. A two-bedroom, furnished flat in this neighborhood goes for 900£ ($1.55 to the pound); on top of that, everyone—including renters—pays a council tax for city services  (water, garbage, etc) that’s based on the size of the unit + neighborhood (ours is set at 155£ a month). Makes us wonder how all the students in our neighborhood are able to keep up with the cost of living. 

Coneheads

The unofficial symbol of Glasgow is the Duke of Wellington sporting a traffic cone on his head. A while back, someone had the humorous idea of putting the cone atop the statue in front of the Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art, undoubtedly as a commentary on British rule. City officials removed the cone—repeatedly—but eventually gave up and now it’s been immortalized on postcards, tea towels, t-shirts, and all manner of souvenirs. It’s even inspired a living sculpture on Buchanan Street, who tries to look dignified(?) on a wee horse. 

A Ramble

Glasgow Ramblers is the local branch of an organization that promotes walking throughout the country. Volunteers organize weekly jaunts on Saturdays or Sundays and less frequent weekday ones that attract a friendly group of (mostly older) hikers who want to stay fit, see new places, and enjoy others’ company. I joined them this week for a 5-mile walk that started with a train ride to the eastern edge of the metropolitan area. About a 5-minute stroll from the station took us to the David Livingstone Centre, the home of the famed African explorer. A rather garish sculpture out front shows Livingstone fighting off a lion, which is clamping down on his arm (and rendered him partially crippled for the latter part of his life). Past the house, there’s a footbridge over the Clyde, which is more narrow but just as muddy as it is in the heart of the city. A trail along the river cuts up through the woods, carpeted in the season’s first wildflowers. You could be walking through Portland’s Forest Park except for the ruins of a medieval castle that beckon at the top of a ridge. Bothwell Castle, home of Archibald the Grim (seriously), is just a shell with signs warning of “falling masonry” but it’s still an impressive remnant of the 1200s. After strolling around the castle, we retraced our steps along the Clyde to the affluent village of Bothwell and a round of lattes. Eight of us made the trip and like a previous ramble I went on, it was a diverse group: from a violinist with the Scottish Royal Orchestra to retired teachers to a gentleman in ”sheltered care” who was delivered by his social worker. (I learned that sheltered care means someone who lives in a group home, usually for disabled people or recovering drug and alcohol abusers.) They’re an amiable group and for an outsider like me an insight into Scottish life, with conversation about the merits of toasted versus plain scones, why there’s no such thing as a queen-sized bed in this country, and revelations that Glaswegians who’ve been to the American West are uncomfortable there because they feel like they’re “being swallowed up by all that open space and sky.”

The Kelvin River Walkway

After the Clyde, the Kelvin is the city’s other major river and we’re lucky enough to live about a two-minute walk from the wooded trial that hugs its sides. The walkway is a favorite of dogwalkers and bicyclists and anyone who wants to escape the urban hubbub. While all the maples and oaks are barren now, the first sign of spring is showing in the clumps of snowdrops on the steep banks. Plump wood pigeons (so much more attractive than their more pedestrian urban cousins) abound, along with magpies and other songbirds. Allegedly there are salmon and other fish in the river and herons ready to eat them, but we haven’t spotted them yet. Walking south along the trail you pass the ghostly remnants of a flint mill while the northern leg takes you past a set of locks (on an aqueduct above the river!) for canal boats that ply the Forth & Clyde Canal.

Other Seats of Power

CRM’s design work included everything from buildings to flatware to furniture. The most iconic was a series of chairs incorporating both geometric and organic forms. The high-back chairs for several tearooms - providing intimacy in public settings - are among his most elegant works and highly sought-after by collectors. Interestingly, these Arts & Crafts designs are so timeless that they often make appearances in futuristic films like Star Trek and Blade Runner.

The Seat of Power

Flanking one side of Glasgow’s main square (a drab concrete expanse interrupted by some patches of grass and numerous statues of dignitaries like King George) is the impressive and massive City Hall. Twice daily you can take a free guided tour that gives a glimpse of what Glasgow must have been like in 1880s when it was an industrial powerhouse.  The neoclassical building has two wings off a lavish, mosaic-tiled entry: the ceremonial side is clad in white marble and alabaster while the working side is a bit drabber but no less spectacular. We learned that Glasgow is governed by an elected Lord Provost and 84 council members who represent the various neighborhoods. They convene every six weeks in chambers that are covered in rich, carved mahogany; no meeting can be held unless the Lord Provost and the ceremonial mace are present. The hefty solid silver mace (which takes two men to carry) is more than just for show: if the Lord Provost feels the debate is getting out of hand, he can signal the guards to raise the mace, at which time the meeting is halted. Portraits of past Lord Provosts line the upper hall, most looking like they stepped out of central casting with their ermine robes, gold medallions, and luxuriant moustaches. (The four women who have served don’t sport moustaches but do have that no nonsense look about them.) One thing we didn’t see, but read about: 150,000 honeybees are in residence on City Hall’s roof. They pollinate surrounding gardens and their wax is used to shine the furniture. 

A Stroll Down Buchanan Street

Night or day people throng Buchanan, the city’s main pedestrian shopping street. At one end sits the Royal Concert Hall, atop steep steps offering a long view all the way to the River Clyde. The posh House of Fraser department store takes up considerable real estate, with windows hawking Prada and Hermes. British stores like All Saints Spittalfields, Top Shop, and FatFace (whoever thought that was a good name for a hipster boutique?) compete with too many US interlopers: Urban Outfitters, North Face, and Apple. If you want a bespoke kilt with all the accessories, this is the place to go. It’s also where beggars and buskers ply their trade, including the inevitable pipers. The grizzled-looking Clanadonians (whose motto is “keeping it tribal”) are always able to draw a crowd with their booming drumbeats and blaring bagpipes. 

A Typical February Scottish Sky

William Wallace, Robert the Bruce and a Stirling Adventure

                                                       William Wallace Monument                                                                                                       Robert the Bruce

Equidistant between Glasgow and Edinburgh, Stirling looms large in Scottish history. The saying “to take Stirling is to hold Scotland” pays homage to the battles for independence from the English that were fought here in the 1200–1300’s by two iconic figures, William Wallace (aka Braveheart) and Robert the Bruce. Stepping off the train after a 40-minute journey, we’re plunged back through the centuries as we make our way past winding cobbled streets and impressively preserved grey granite buildings lining the uphill climb to the formidable Stirling Castle. The castle was home to a line of Stewart kings and the place where Mary, Queen of Scots, was crowned at the tender age of 9 months. It’s a sprawling complex, once housing 800 soldiers during the Napoleonic Wars. You can imagine the celebrations hosted in the Great Hall, whose timbered ceiling is crafted from 350 trees, and the intrigues that must have played out behind the intricately carved stone façade of the royal apartments. (Not all was politics and fighting, though: at the quirky Stirling Smith Museum we saw a perfectly preserved leather and pig’s bladder football that dates from the 1540s, discovered in the castle’s ceiling). Perhaps the best part of traveling here is the broad sweep of countryside visible from this high perch, where you can see the distant monument to William Wallace and all the way to the Firth of Forth.

                                           Stirling Castle                                                                                  Pretenders to the Throne                  Stirling Village  

Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh...She Had Genius

The White Rose & the Red Rose,1902       Margaret Macdonald       CRM & MMM Watercolor       The Opera of the Sea, 1902 

“Margaret has genius, I have only talent”…so stated Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh was the collaborator and wife of C. R. Mackintosh. After meeting CRM at the Glasgow School of Art, she became a true aesthetic partner as both collaborated on graphics, interiors, textiles and artworks, and even signed many watercolors jointly. The jointly developed flowing lines and floral motifs helped define the Glasgow Style. MMM’s best known works include gesso panels, wherein textures and lines were piped onto the canvas via pastry bags, with jeweled insets. The largest, The Wassail (1900) was completed for the Willow Tea Room. She and CRM exhibited works at the 1900 Vienna Secession, and influenced the furniture work of Josep Hoffmann and Gustav Klimt’s 1902 Beethoven Frieze. In 2008 her 1902 work The White Rose and the Red Rose was auctioned for 1.7 million UK pounds, then a record for a Scottish artwork.

The Wassail, 1900; completed w/C.R. Mackintosh

The Riverfront - Getting There Is the Hard Part

Like Portland, Glasgow’s city center is bisected by a working river. It used to be said that “the Clyde made Glasgow and Glasgow made the Clyde,” but the mighty shipbuilding industry never recovered from the Great Depression–even with some renewed activity during World War II. Today, only one shipbuilder remains and the city is in the midst of a decade-long effort to convert vast swaths of empty waterfront property into business and residential hubs.

 

One part of the redevelopment is the Riverside Museum of Transportation, a cavernous building designed by Zaha Hadid and named the European museum of the year in 2013. It’s crammed full of examples of just about every 19th to 21st century human conveyance, from horse-drawn carriages to early automobiles to prams, locomotives, model ships, and skateboards. The world’s oldest pedal-powered bicycle is on display along with more modern bikes and cycles that are notable for their owners’ journeys (like Ewan McGregor’s BMW featured in the documentary series “The Long Way Round”). World War I wheelchairs made of wood and leather to look like parlor furniture are a reminder that those confined to them weren’t expected to leave the house, though a 1970s, three-wheeled “invalid car” shows how attitudes about mobility changed. One thing that hasn’t undergone much of a transformation: Glasgow’s subway system. A 1900 rail car looks like it would be very much at home as part of the “Clockwork Orange,” today’s inner city transit system that runs two short circular lines that continually go either clockwise and counterclockwise, taking you from one side of the city to another in about 12 minutes). With massive apartment towers, the Norman Foster-designed convention center (called The Armadillo), and the new BBC Scotland headquarters, the city hopes to breathe life into the banks of the Clyde again. 

The Underappreciated Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Portrait                                  Bedroom, Hill House                                         Hill House                                      

A condensed entry about Charles Rennie Mackintosh leaves out so much. Glasgow is filled with impressive older structures, but the works of Mackintosh lay claim to its heart. Born in Glasgow in 1868, he worked here almost exclusively for over 20 years. Mackintosh trained as an architect in a local practice and studied art and design at evening classes at the Glasgow School of Art. There Mackintosh and his friend Herbert MacNair met fellow art students (and sisters) Margaret and Frances Macdonald. The inseparable foursome collaborated on illustrations and designs for buildings, furniture, and metalwork, developing a highly distinctive style with abstracted female figures and metamorphic lines. These works came to be known as the Glasgow Style and were much admired in Europe (including by figures such as Gustav Klimt, who interpreted the style and gained much more fame).

House for an Art Lover                       Graphic Design                                   Furniture                                Watercolor       

Throughout his career, Charles relied on a handful of clients and patrons, given his preferences for total design. Despite local successes, like his masterpiece the Glasgow School of Art and Willow Tea Rooms, Mackintosh's work met with eventual indifference at home and his career in Glasgow declined. By 1914 he despaired of ever receiving true recognition in Glasgow and he and Margaret (now his wife) moved, temporarily, to the Suffolk Coastline, where he painted delicate flower studies in watercolor. In 1915 they settled in London and for the next few years Mackintosh attempted to resume practice as an architect and designer. In 1923 the Mackintoshes left London for the South of France where he gave up all thoughts of architecture and design and devoted himself entirely to painting landscapes. He died in London, in December 1928. In recent decades Glasgow and the rest of the world finally recognized his and Margaret’s genius and their works command millions at auction today. 

                            Willow Tea Room, Sauchiehall Street                                          House for an Art Lover             

On the Bonnie, Bonnie Banks

A rare sunny (but still frosty) Sunday and we were lucky enough to be invited on an excursion to the countryside by the Scottish cousins of our Portland friends Marc and Susan. With Tam as our guide, we attempted a steady uphill climb in Queen’s Wood but had to turn back because the trail was too icy (and Rhonda’s boots had too little traction). Instead, we took a drive round Loch Lomond, which was hardly a consolation prize. Britain’s largest body of fresh water, Loch Lomond is surprisingly close to Glasgow (about a 20-minute drive) yet a world away. It’s surrounded by oak and pine forestland (the Trossachs National Park) and boasts 21 “Munros” (mountains over 3,000 feet). Half of Scotland’s population lives within an hour’s drive of the park. Even with the sunshine, there weren’t too many people hiking along the shoreline or stopping for tea in the cafes near the boat launches (nor were there many boats). Spring and summer will likely be a different story, with tourists and residents alike thronging the ferries and boats that ply the loch and travel to the many islands within it.  (For fun - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feLT7Btuqpc - but the song is actually quite sad)