Scotland Revealed


Myths and Legends Abound.
Scotland Revealed.

 
Inside the University of Scotland Green.


What do you think Scotland is like?

Bagpipes? kilts? Tartan? Shortbread? Whisky? Enchanting castles? The Loch Ness monster? Outlander? Braveheart? Haggis and other gross food? Golf? Constant rain? Sheep causing traffic jams? Redheads? 

Factoids:
  • Scots do not wear kilts all the time.
  • We never asked if men wore anything under their kilts, but we did learn when kilts interfered with battle charges, they were shed and revealed the family jewels in all their glory - sights that the British troops would never be able to unsee. 
  • Scots don’t eat haggis or deep-fried Mars bars every day
  • They speak English, but unraveling their accent takes a few days. (Gaelic is another matter - even to Scots.)
  • The country is filled with midges (tiny biting flies that will drive you insane within seconds). Okay, this is true in Iona. 

GLASGOW REVEALED

Scottish architecture is a blend of influences, including Celtic, Romanesque, Gothic, and Renaissance, from medieval to modern.


The Radisson Blu Hotel.


Central Station next to our hotel, the Radisson Blu.


Another stereotype about unwelcoming Scots 
destroyed during day one of our visit. 
We found them to be quite the opposite.


Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum


Sophie Cave’s “Floating Heads” display of over 50 heads
 reflecting a range of emotions cannot be missed.


There is anger, laughter, despair, confusion, and more.


Armor display.


This sort of merriment kept the police very busy, 
but at least it isn’t damaging graffiti.


The Suffragette Oak in Kelvingrove Park and 
2015 European Tree of the Year Winner was planted by women suffrage pioneers on April 20, 1918, to commemorate women’s voting rights.
It was nominated and championed by Glasgow’s Woman’s Library.
After Storm Ophelia damaged and reduced the tree in 2017, 
the Glasgow City Council donated the damaged oak cuttings to the library, where the women fashioned arts and crafts from the debris.


The University of Scotland neighborhood.


The University of Scotland Museum.


Glasgow Cathedral.


The story behind Glasgow’s Coat of Arms

https://youtu.be/antzVSdm_dg?si=cdVPWM3w2dr15Syj



According to legend and Glasgow’s Coat of Arms, 
St. Mungo performed four miracles, 
depicted by a tree with a bird perched on its branches 
and a salmon and bell on either side. 
When Mungo died, he was buried in the crypt of Glasgow Cathedral.



One of the more ornate tombs in the Necropolis.


A view of the Cathedral from the Necropolis.
This is the tombstone of William Miller, 
author of the poem “Wee Willie Winkie”
a Scottish nursery rhyme personifying sleep.

The Charles Tennant tomb with a young student studying or posing?
Tennant was a chemical manufacturer who studied bleaching, 
receiving a patent in 1798 for using chloride of lime.


HAGGIS AND IRN BRU REVEALED

Haggis, the national dish of Scotland, is a type of pudding composed of the liver, heart, and lungs of a sheep (or other animal), minced and mixed with beef or mutton suet and oatmeal and seasoned with onion, cayenne pepper, and other spices. The mixture is packed into a sheep’s stomach and boiled. 

The Willow Tea Room served their haggis with neeps (turnips) and tatties (potatoes) with traditional gravy.

Paul suggested having it as a starter (appetizer) at the famous Willow Tea Room. It was a smaller portion and would erase the Catholic guilt if we disliked it and threw it away despite the starving children in China and India.

As you can see below, I loved it and wished I had more bread to sop up that whisky sauce.




We enjoyed lunch at Soul Food Sisters, a collective of immigrant women in Glasgow with a shared passion for excellent and authentic food. 

Their Manifesto is "Empowerment by Empanadas.” They cater, have cafe and cooking workshops, and, like Firhana, cook, clean, and serve many in their small cafe.

Firhana led the blessing before lunch. On the table were strategically placed bright orange cans of carbonated Irn Bru (Scotland’s second national drink to whisky) for sharing. It was introduced to Scotland in 1901, contained a secret recipe of a blend of 32 flavors, and was made with natural sugar (so much sugar that the company decreased it drastically after the “sugar tax” was introduced in 2018). 

Despite the reduction of sugar, 20 cans of the orange, fizzy liquid that smells and tastes like cloying bubble gum sell every second - establishing itself as another Scottish symbol, along with tartan, bagpipes, and Nessie.

 













 

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