An artful flying visit to Glasgow

A couple of days ago we went to Scotland for a flying visit to Him Indoors' family in Glasgow. Before I moved down to England, I lived for many years outside of Glasgow and every trip back up north revisiting places that I know very well carries with it a strange sensation of familiarity, although Glasgow hasn't actually been my home for a long time now. It was a very short and intense visit with the family and even though Scotland unfortunately didn't show its sunny side, we couldn't let this hold us back since we had a long list of things to do and very little time to get them done. We did also manage to get a few hours to ourselves and we ended up visiting the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. 

The building itself is worthy of note, a large and imposing late Victorian red sandstone contruction, it is one of Glasgow's landmark buildings. It is also famous for the myth that it was built back-to-front and the architect jumped to his death from one of it's towers.
- See more at: http://www.glasgowwestend.co.uk/out/galleries/kelvingrove.html#sthash.4dQF5Cu8.d

The massive grande Victorian Kelvingrove gallery is one of the most famous landmarks in Glasgow. According to legend the building was accidentally built the back to front which made the architect so upset that he threw himself from one of the towers... The museum not only has one of the greatest art collections in Europe but it also has an incredibly eclectic mix of exhibitions and items on display and you'll find a pharaonic sarcophagos next to medieval weapons, stuffed animals and above it all hangs a spitfire - so there's bound to be something of interest for everyone. When you've finished walking around get yourself something from the lovely coffee shop or take a seat and listen to one of the concerts that's played every day on the impressive organ in the central hall.  

The main reason we went to the Kelvingrove was to see the Jack Vettriano exhibition. Jack Vettriano is a Scottish painter and although you may not have heard his name, I bet you've seen one of his paintings which are very popular in print, and one of them is even the most sold image in Britain. I'd only previously seen the pictures of different couples dancing on a beach, so it was really interesting to see other works too and for me there's a very distinct feel of old Hollywood films about them.

If you're interested in the Jack Vettriano exhibition, make sure that you visit the Kelvingrove by February 23, and if you have plans on visiting Glasgow at some point this year you should definitely plan to spend a few hrs at the Kelvingrove - it's well worth a visit and it's a fun FREE day out (and no - I'm not sponsored by Visit Scotland...). After just a few days it was time to pack the suitcase again, convince Him Indoors to carry all my heavy stuff and that duty free shopping is very important for me to calm my pre-flight nerves and then off we were to get on another plane. Luckily the flight back down south is only 1 hr and it wasn't too bad actually, and I even managed to take some more photos on the way.

Hope you all have a great relaxing Sunday and tomorrow it's Monday again (where do the weeks go?!) and I'm back with a new post - hmmm I wonder what the topic might be...?