Glasgow at Night...

For three days, we walked across Glasgow from West to East during the day and returned after dark. Here’s Glasgow University...

… Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum...

…Tron Theatre Clock Tower...

…and Gallery of Modern Art.

In front of the gallery was a Duke of Wellington statue dating from 1844. When Veronica and I visited in 2013, only the Duke wore a traffic cone, but nine years later his horse also donned a cone...

...as well as Sir John Moore, an even older statue from 1819.

One evening we met Ashlynn downtown at the Absent Ear, a bar beneath The Amsterdam, a pub. Interestingly, the B in the neon sign would blink to an E, thus Ear Bar. 

There was a doorbell in Van Gogh’s ear in order to gain entry to the speakeasy in the basement. 

The cocktails were very creative, tasty and expensive. As you can see, Jimmy’s drink was served in a soup bowl with a soup spoon. 

Luckily Ashlynn and Bilge, a friend from the residence hall, got hospitality staff discounts. 

Of course, we used those savings to buy more drinks—it was a vicious cycle. 
 

East End...

After we visited the Necropolis, we popped into Drygate, a microbrewery. We had planned on staying for a beer until we discovered that their takeaway beers were much cheaper. As strange as they might sound, we tried their peanut butter and chocolate orange stouts (thanks to Untappd for keeping track of beers I liked).  

It’s often difficult to get tap water at a bar in Holland and even if they offer water for dogs, they are never this generous. 

Barrowland Ballroom was originally built in 1934 and rebuilt in 1960 after a fire. 

On the ground floor are weekend market stalls with a concert venue above with a capacity of 1,900 standing. 

This quote was added onto the building in 2021, inspired by Shuggie Bain, the award-winning but highly disturbing book that took place in Glasgow in the 80s.

We walked along the river on one of our three walks back from BAaD and came across this colorful bridge.

Not exactly sure where this building was, but loved the arches plus one human and a touch of green. 

We eventually ended up in a bar that we had visited back in 2019 with William from Amsterdam. We were again impressed with how friendly folks were. The locals were genuinely curious how Americans ended up in their bar and wanted to chat and drink with us. Unfortunately, there was no food, so we had to move on. 
 

Ashlynn’s Jogging Route...

The next morning, Ashlynn was happy to show us her normal jogging route from her flat, although we were lazy and walked. We passed some nice murals...

…and we checked out the pub in an old church where her roommate works. That afternoon we had a nice time eating Thai street food with Ellie and her Scottish mom and American dad. 

We went through the Glasgow Botanical Gardens...

…and into the Kibble Palace, a wrought iron-framed glasshouse from 1873.

Her route took us along the River Kelvin, a 22-mile long tributary of the River Clyde...

…which was quite picturesque. 

There was a fancy fish sign on one of the bridges…

…and a blue dog and person under the bridge. 
 

Our Favorite Bartender/DJ...

Little did we know when we walked with Ashlynn across Glasgow to drop her off at Barras Art and Design, otherwise known as BAaD, for her shift as bartender, that we would go back to BAaD the next two days as well. 

That day and on the last day, she was bartending. Here you can see her pouring a Tennent’s Lager...

…and here she is delivering special cocktails she concocted for us.

We were surprised when the table next to us ordered us Tequila Rose, a strawberry cream liqueur. 

It was a good move on their part as Jimmy reciprocated by buying their entire table a round of the sweet pink booze. At first glance, most of the ladies appeared to have caterpillars above their eyes; no idea why they wore those scary fake eyelashes.

The following evening we headed back that way to see Ashlynn DJing at the outside bar.

She was happy to have us there, but not happy enough to cooperate for photos. 

It was really cool to see her in action. 

Football was shown on a TV set up in a shipping container. 

The inside bar/restaurant was closed for a wedding, but the bride came outside several times to drink or smoke.

Eventually some guys got up to dance and Jimmy couldn’t resist joining them. 

The last day we headed back to BAaD to watch the local Glasgow Celtics and Rangers football game. 
 

Necropolis...

After discovering that St. Mungo’s Cathedral was closed...

…we crossed the Bridge of Sighs, built in 1836 for funeral processions, to the Necropolis, a Victorian garden cemetery that opened in 1832. The bridge was described as the separation of time and eternity.

Only a small percentage of the 50,000 buried here are represented by the 3,500 monuments...

…many of which were quite dramatic.

The Celtic crosses were particularly beautiful...

…and the views over the city were really nice.

The Necropolis is still a working cemetery with some unusual modern artifacts...

…and silk flowers.

Down the hill we found the Lady Well, an artesian spring dating to before the city itself...

….and James’ namesake.