Monday, 19th June, 2023

It was cool and a little gloomy this morning but it was not raining. As we have been travelling, we have been amassing quite a collection of guide books and information from the places we have visited. As you know, paper is very heavy and we couldn't possibly take them all with us on the plane. We have done a bit of research and found that the cheapest option is to send the books via Royal Mail's "International Economy" plan. This was £14 for every two kilograms. Eleven 2kg parcels were packed, weighed and addressed, and eleven Custom Declaration forms were completed. We were at Glasgow Post Office for an hour! Those of you who are good at Maths might be thinking that sounds very expensive but, when compared to the £419.94 quote we got from "Pack and Send", we thought we did pretty well! It was actually quite a relief to get that sorted.

We were also extremely happy to hear, finally, from "Enjoy Travel", the company to which we paid AU$5271 for the original hire car, that they have agreed that we should be refunded that amount. It has taken many phone calls and emails to achieve this result. (This is different from the issue with "Easirent" which was about insurance.) So we have not lost any money from that whole hideous experience other than having to pay for accommodation for those first few days of our trip. It is a great relief indeed!

After a quick lunch at "The Forge" shopping centre, we headed off to St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral. Their website (as well as banners on their fence) claim that they are "open, inclusive and welcoming". They may well be inclusive but they were not open (and, therefore, not welcoming)!

We decided to try Glasgow Cathedral instead. This is the only medieval building in Glasgow. As it is part of the Church of Scotland (which doesn't have bishops), it hasn't really been a cathedral since the Scottish reformation in the 16th century - some things take a while to change in the UK! (Another one that comes to mind is New College in Oxford. This was founded in 1379!)

Glasgow "Cathedral" was open and we spent quite a while exploring all it has to offer and enjoyed it very much.







The door knocker



Looking from the west end



The West Window depicts the Creation. It was installed in 1958.



The Tree of Jesse Window was installed in 2018.



The Moses Window was installed in 1936.



A detail of the above (Moses being found in the bulrushes by the daughter of Pharaoh)



The Millenium Window, installed in 1999, was unveiled by HRH The Princess Royal. Its subject is "Growth".




The Quire Screen with the organ behind and above




The Pulpit in the Nave



Looking up into the tower from the Quire Screen.



Carvings on the east side of the Quire Screen



Delicate carving on the top of a pillar.


A carving on a stall






If this was an Anglican Cathedral, this would be the location of the choir stalls.



The Communion Table







The East Window depicts the four evangelists (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) and was installed in 1951.




This wooden lectern was carved in France in the 17th century.



St Andrew



St James



St Ninian



Another lectern!!



Yay!



This Bible, an early edition of the King James VI Bible, was printed in 1617. It has wooden covers and a chain with which it was secured to a lectern.
It disappeared from the cathedral about 250 years ago and was found again after about 100 years in someone's attic.
It was returned to the cathedral and was on display when Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited in 1849.



Queen Margaret



King David I



St Mungo was the founder and Patron Saint of Glasgow.



The ceiling in the Quire



Looking west from the Quire Screen



Another part of the ceiling



The crypt was built in the mid 1200s





On the west wall of the crypt is the St Kentigern tapestry, Designed by Robert Stewart of Loch Striven, the tapestry was woven by the Edinburgh Tapestry Company at their Dovecot Studios. The warp is of cotton and the weft of a variety of yarns, ranging from synthetic to flax, linen, cotton, wool and some metallic yarns. The north and south panels have contrasting themes of light and darkness, summer and winter, sun and moon, day and night. Between them the centre panel's pierced door represents the Church, and combines the Cross and the four St Mungo symbols.
The south panel's moon, water and salmon with ring contrast with the north panel's sun, fire and Burning Bush emblem of the Church of Scotland.
Together the panels represent Creation.



A decoration in the Blacader Aisle. You can see a 360° image of the aisle here.



Another decoration in the Blacader Aisle



The Font



A beautiful carving on a tomb.
Having finished at the Cathedral, the next thing on the agenda was a toilet! This was duly located within the St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art. The visit to the toilet completed, we decided to explore a little further into the museum. We found, amongst other things... more stained glass!


David



Elijah



Enoch: An Old Testament prophet and patriarch; he was the son of Jared and father of Methuselah.


Moses : The patriarch who transmitted the Torah or Law to the Israelites and led them out of bondage in Egypt.
The four panels above were designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones, and made by William Morris & Co for Woodlands Parish Church in Glasgow.
The Elijah panel was made in 1900, the others in 1902.



St Barbara, about 1520, France, Stone
St Barbara is said to have lived in the Middle East in the third century. Her father locked her in a tower to protect her from the outside world. When she refused to marry a non-Christian, her father chopped her head off.
As a heavenly punishment, he was hit by a bolt of lightning. She is the Patron Saint of miners and people who work with explosives.
St Barbara holds a palm branch to show she died for her faith.



One of a series of twenty-two panels depicting the 'Fruit and Flowers of the Bible',
made for St Ninian's Wynd Church, Glasgow.
This panel depicts roses: "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose' (Isaiah 35.1).



An unknown saint, who holds a book in his left hand and gives the gesture of blessing with his right hand.
The window is English, of the Norwich School, and dates from the 14th century.




An Egyptian mummy Mask made of painted and gilded cartonnage (linen stiffened with plaster).
It dates from about 500 BCE.



Adoration of the Magi, 1400-1500
Nottingham, England. Alabaster



The Betrayal, 1400-1500
Nottingham, England. Alabaster



The Ascension, about 1400
Nottingham, England. Alabaster
Satoshi wanted to experience the Glasgow Underground Railway. This is a loop of 15 stations. It takes 24 minutes to go around the whole loop. We then had a take away dinner at the St Enoch Shopping Centre. This includes the largest area covered by a glass roof in Europe.





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