Monday, October 6
Peter and I waited for the current to be going upstream on the Clyde before departing from Holy Loch Marina. In the morning, I continued to clean and made two kinds of soup as well as couscous salad for Peter and crew to have available after my departure.
Peter had planned out our timing up the Clyde and contacted the bridge tenders the day before to schedule openings. Going up the Clyde with the engine (Sailing is not permitted due to the narrowness of the channel and, besides, there was insufficient wind.), we passed by old castles and walls. The first was Dumbarton Castle. It sits on a volcanic plug of basalt known as Dumbarton Rock, which is 240 feet (73 meters) high. Dumbarton Castle has a recorded history of over 1,500 years, though the current stone structure was largely built starting in the 1220s under Alexander II of Scotland. The site itself has been fortified since at least the Dark Ages, with its earliest known name being Alt Clut or Alcluith or "Rock of the Clyde." Tourists along the castle wall waved to us; large sailing vessels are not often seen going up the Clyde these days, although in its heyday as a shipbuilding city, Glasgow had hundreds of vessels under construction or in port.
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| Dumbarton Castle |
Next on river right was the 14th century Dunglass Castle, now in ruins. A large section of the boundary wall remains, about 7-8 meters (23-26 feet) high. Dominating the scene is the obelisk honoring Henry Bell, an early steamship pioneer. He is most well known for introducing the first successful passenger steamboat service in Europe in 1812, traveling 40 miles from Glasgow downstream and back.
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| Ruins of Dunglass Castle and Henry Bell Obelisk |
The new Renfrew swing bridge opened for us at 1:15 p.m. and then the Govan-Partick foot bridge at 2:00 p.m. They are both new bridges; the Renfrew bridge opened in May of this year, and the Govan-Partick bridge was ready for pedestrians and cyclists in September of 2024. I had booked us for the Yorkhill Quay Pontoon with the Glasgow City Council for three free nights. (We were actually scheduled for three days earlier but had to change the dates because the storm Amy made being underway inadvisable and the bridges could not be opened in the high winds.) After passing the Riverside Museum, with no crew on board, I took the helm and steered Mantra to the pontoon and Peter jumped off the boat to secure lines.
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| Mantra approaching the Renfrew Bridge, which opened just for us |
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| The Govan-Partick Bridge opening with the Gleenlee tall ship at the Riverside Museum upstream |
Our son Matthew arrived by train from London around 4 p.m. We had afternoon tea and played a game of pinochle and then headed out for dinner. We roamed around the Partick neighborhood until we came upon an Indian restaurant that looked appealing. The interior design was bright and attractive, and the food was spicy and delicious.
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| Sherri, Matthew and Peter at Rickshaw |
Tuesday, October 7
Unfortunately, I had booked my flights home to Sacramento before the storm Amy was predicted, so my time in Glasgow was reduced from three full days to one and a half. On my last day there, we visited two museums and had a great lunch at Islay Inn after I had finished packing.
Our first stop was the Riverside Museum, which was just by our boat, at the confluence of the River Kelvin with the Clyde. This architecturally impressive museum replaced the Glasgow Museum of Transport. The museum houses steam locomotives; the world's oldest surviving pedal cycle; 31 Scottish-built cars and trucks as well as 21 motorcycles, both collections displayed on walls; horse-drawn vehicles; fire engines and police cars; caravans (camper vans); bicycles; toy cars; and prams. The upper level has a ship conveyer, where models of ships built in Glasgow glide by on two levels, each with descriptions of their history. It was remarkable how few decades most of them survived. The largest item in the collection is South African Loco 3007, built in Glasgow in 1945 and exported to South Africa, where it ran until 1987. Around it are signage and videos about the men who built it as well as the affect of Apartheid on the railways.
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| Wall of cars made in Scotland |
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| The tall ship Glenlee outside the Riverside Museum |
My favorite section of the museum was Main Street, an area which represents Glasgow from the 1890 to 1930. The cobblestone street lined with street lamps and sidewalks have open shops where history is revealed in artifacts and interiors. Businesses include the shops of a cobbler, a cabinet maker, a pawn broker, a saddler, a photographer as well as a bar and a cafe. On the street there are vintage cars and a horse-drawn hearse. The attention to detail in this re-creation was amazing.
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| Main Street |
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| Horse-drawn hearse |
We left this museum around 12:30 to arrive at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum for the free 1 p.m. organ recital. We stood across the large interior courtyard from the organ on the second floor, leaning against a substantial balustrade to enjoy the music.
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| Organist playing at the Kelvingrove Museum |
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| Centre Hall of the Kelvingrove Museum |
Afterwards, we left the museum with the intention of returning after lunch. Matthew had two places in mind based on his experience one summer at the University of Glasgow as an undergraduate, one a vegetarian restaurant and one a pub. We chose the latter. The owner/waiter was gregarious and funny, and the atmosphere was relaxed. The food was marvelous. We were sad to learn that we had missed the trad music the previous evening.
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| Matthew, Sherri and Peter at the Islay Inn |
After lunch, Peter headed to the center of town to get EE service for his phone since we had exceeded the three month data allowance outside the U.S. with GoogleFi. Matthew and I went back to the museum but went our separate ways once there. I wandered through the exhibits of Scotland's Wildlife and Glasgow Stories on the first floor. I found the second to be challenging to take in as there seemed to be an assumption of local knowledge that I do not have and the sections were not in chronological order. On the second floor (or the first floor by the European system of naming), I was intrigued by the exhibit entitled "Glasgow, City of Empire" which illuminated the ways that merchants and shipbuilders amassed their wealth and the city became a major urban center in Europe. The museum building itself and the collections exist because of the imperialism of Great Britain and the oppression of people of color throughout the world.
I continued on to the art section of the museum, stopping again to admire Dali's Christ of St. John of the Cross. There is an impressive collection of Dutch art, which I love, but I visually enjoyed and was intellectually fascinated by the Scottish Colourists exhibit. Four Scottish artists, Francis Cadell, John Duncan Fergusson, Leslie Hunter and Samuel Peploe, were prolific painters who created colorful works from the beginning of the 20th century up until WWII. They were influenced by the artistic movements based in France such as Cubism, Post-Impressionism, Fauvism and Futurism. Their admiration for such artists as Manet, Monet, Matisse and Cézanne can be seen in the paintings, which generally display thick brushstrokes and vibrant, bold colors. They painted Scottish landscapes and interiors; fashionable models and still life. The artwork in itself was amazing and needed no explanation, but I appreciated learning about this chapter in art history.
An earlier group of artists called the Glasgow Boys was found in another gallery. Like the Impressionists in France, these young artists were disillusioned with traditional academy painting and Victorian conventions. Considered to have introduced modernism to Scottish painting in the 1800s and 1890s, they chose to paint contemporary rural subjects such as farm laborers and peasants, often working outdoors and directly on the canvas rather than from sketches. They were also influenced by Japanese art, using similar flattened forms and decorative patterns of Japanese prints. They members of the Glasgow Boys included, James Guthrie, Sir John Lavery, George Henry, Edward Atkinson Hornel, Edward Arthur Walton and William York MacGregor. Once again, a piece of art history was revealed to me in the collection of stunning artwork.
I was hustled out of the museum at 5 p.m., closing time, dawdling to enjoy the Floating Heads installation before exiting.
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| Floating Heads installation |
Since the weather was pleasant by Scottish standards, I walked around in Kelvingrove Park. The pathways meandered along the River Kelvin and among wooden areas and open lawns, with statues here and there. There were views of the 278 foot (85 meter) neo-gothic tower of the University of Glasgow high above trees with their early fall foliage. The statue of Lord Kelvin (William Thomson) caused me to consider his background. Kelvin was a British mathematician, mathematical physicist and engineer who was the professor of natural philosophy at the University of Glasgow for 53 years. Known for a number of significant contributions to physics, he is most familiar to everyone for determining the correct value of absolute zero. The Kelvin scale for measuring temperature is named in his honor. It is often assumed that Kelvingrove museum and park derive their name from him, but, in fact, his title refers to the River Kelvin, which runs by the university's campus. Kelvingrove is a neighborhood in Glasgow, and the name derives from the mansion of Patrick Colquhoun, Lord Provost of Glasgow. He purchased the land in 1782 and built his home their, naming it after the river. The house opened as the city's first municipal musuem in 1870. The house was demolished in 1899 to make way for the 1901 International Exhibition and the construction of the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.
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| Neo-Gothic tower at the University of Glasgow |
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| Pond in Kelvingrove Park |
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| Statue of Lord Kelvin |
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| Stewart Memorial Fountain |
Matthew and Peter had returned to the boat earlier. The electricity on the dock was not functioning when we arrived, but the problem had been fixed. We had obtained a new gate code, but it did not work. They were forced to climb over the fence to get to Mantra. Earlier, Peter had taken salmon from our Greenland stash from the freezer. He smoked it for Matthew and him and served it with the couscous salad. We finished the evening with a game of pinochle and went to bed.
Wednesday, October 8
After my brief glimpse of Glasgow, I got a taxi at 8 a.m., arriving at the airport in plenty of time for my 10:30 flight to Heathrow. (Peter, as always, was concerned that I hadn't allowed enough time, but everything went smoothly at the airport.) It was a long trip home, 24 hours of travel time in all. It has taken me a few days to recover, but I have been enjoying the warmth and sunshine here. In addition to cleaning and gardening and provisioning, I have to do something with a surprising bumper crop of apples.
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| Surprisingly large crop of red apples from a tree that has always produced little green ones |
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| Some of the apples are enormous |
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| Home, sweet (and dry) home! |
Later in the day, Matthew and Peter cruised down the Clyde and Mantra was docked again at Holy Loch. The next morning, they sailed to Largs. Matthew left from there and Peter's brother Rob arrived. He and Peter left a couple days ago from Largs and have sailed and motored south through the Irish Sea. They stopped last night for a few hours of rest, anchoring north of Wexford, Ireland, off the Curracloe Beach, which Peter and I had explored in 2024 on our vacation in Ireland. I just talked with Peter, and they have just sailed close-hauled for 12 hours and are more than halfway from Wexford to Land's End, a tricky bit of water, with plans to stop in Falmouth, or perhaps Plymouth if they can make it that far before Rob needs to go home.
And now the blog ends for the season (unless Peter decides to post).
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