Homeward Bound

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Friday, June 13, finds us heading home. We drove from Glasgow to Heathrow in our rental car (a red MG); we had investigated flying but this seemed like a better idea — far less shuttling about. We got away in good time and were quickly on the motorways heading south. Google tells us this is a 7 hour drive, so you add on a another hour or so for good measure and we're back in London area by the end of day.

While driving in UK cities is nerve wracking (e.g., our trip out to Woking would have been better/quicker/safer via Uber) the motorways are very much like ours. I drove; Kate took some pictures along the way out the window of the car. It's surprising how much green and verdant countryside there is in the UK.

On the way we pass close by Liverpool. We talked about visiting the war time grave of my uncle Walter Dixon in Formby — I have not been there since my first trip to the UK back in 1979. Perhaps next time.

We stayed overnight at the Hyatt Place Airport, as we had on our arrival back a couple of weeks ago. Our Air Canada flight Saturday morning was uneventful getting us to Toronto by early afternoon and then on home to London Ontario.

University of Glasgow

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Kate's KBS conference this year was held, June 9-13, at the University of Glasgow (see 50th KBS 2025 Scotland). We stayed nearby on Partick Bridge Street (Partick is a major street in the West End but there is no bridge on Partick Bridge Street). 

KBS sessions and meetings were held in the James McCune Smith Learning Hub — a bit of modern Brutalism surrounded by the classic architecture of the old university. And by "old" I mean really old; apparently the university was founded by a papal bull in 1451 ... the same year Columbus was born! Take that Harvard.

Often times Kate and I would take an Uber to the conference and I'd go exploring the area. Just up the hill are the gates to the old University with the new Library and the Macdonald/Mackintosh House of the Hunterian Gallery across the road. There are some pictures of the Hunterian Museum and the Cloisters in the photo album; that's in the old part — the Gilbert Scott Building. 

There's two courtyards to the Gilbert Scott Building with the Cloisters in between. There 's plaque on a wall there to James McGill who was an alumni and founded University of McGill in Montreal (where Kate did her first undergraduate years).

There is a chapel at the one end of the building very near the Lion and Unicorn staircase (1690). There's another plaque on a nearby building to Lord Kelvin (a peerage title, his real name was William Thomson) and a building named after him. The Kelvin River is a green space to the south side of the University; I walked down there to find my way to the Kelvingrove Gallery and Museum.

Kelvingrove Museum & Art Gallery

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The Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery is a short walk from our AirBnB in the West End of Glasgow. Entry is free and we went several times including the Thursday night KBS Banquet. I went at least once on my own for a lunch time organ recital.

The Kelvin river flows from above the Botanic Gardens, down through green space that includes the Kelvingrove, past our AirBnB and out to the Clyde. Lord Kelvin was a Mathematician and Physicist at the University Glasgow in the late 1800's. I'm not sure if the river is named after him — likewise for the Kelvin temperature. 

Kelvingrove is both a museum and an art gallery with lots to see. It's a turn of the last century red brick building with lots of curlicue, towers, columns and fussy details. You enter into an impressively large two story hall with a grand pipe organ at the end. This is where we had the banquet and where I attended the organ recital. To the left and right are two story wings with smaller, but grand, two story halls down the centre.

The one grand hall, to the west, is more like a museum with a large stuffed elephant and a hanging WWI ear spitfire airplane. There are exhibits of armour from days of old.

The other grand hall, to the east, is more like a gallery with lots of statuary and many heads hanging on thin lines. Lots of interesting artwork.

One small darkened "chapel" has a large Salvador Dali painting ("Christ of Saint John of the Cross" 1951). Not quite as impressive as that huge Dali, "Santiago El Grande" 1957, that we saw at the Beaverbrook (see Fredericton, NB, 2024).

We both are very much interested in the various schools of art that developed in Glasgow. Especially the "Glasgow Style" of Macdonald/Mackintosh.

KBS Banquet

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The KBS 2025 Scotland Thursday night Banquet was held in the Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery where we have been several times on this visit to Glasgow, the University and the West End. There was good food, good wine and good friends. We sat at a table with several friends we've made over the years. There was some time to explore more of the gallery before the dinner. And lots of time to schmooze with friends over drinks.

Our friend Florian was decked out in full Highland Dress regalia — kilt, sporran, etc. I think he even had the little dagger in his socks! If I'm not mistaken he's not Scottish or even from the UK; I think he's either German or Swiss! But he was surely dressed the part.

After dinner there were awards to thank the organizers, new and old presidents (Kate is a past president). Our friend Elin was honored for her many years on the executive. Afterwards there was some wild dancing to a celtic band. I understand that late in the evening (we are too old to be "late in the evening" people) there would have been songs from the various countries present. That's been a tradition since Iceland in 1997 started by Martin Plant.

Kate, Sam and I have been rehearsing "Sarah Gordon" (1990, Grievous Angels) and "I Wish I was in Glasgow" (1983, Billy Connolly) but ducked out before the singing began. One day we'll join in.

The photo album shows the location, the piper as we arrived, and lots of pictures of KBS folk young and old.

Glasgow, West End

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We were in Glasgow (Scotland, west side on the River Clyde) for Kate's KBS conference. We stayed in an AirBnB apartment in the "West End". This seemed to be a rather bohemian part of the city and close to the university where the conference was held.

The photo album has some pictures of the area — mostly street scenes captured as I wandered about. Other albums will focus on particular areas, museums, galleries, etc.

We used Uber a lot to get back and forth to the conference. I did some walk about wandering. On the Wednesday we rented a car to go to Loch Lomond with Sam and to return to London on the Friday.

Loch Lomond

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The Wednesday of the KBS 2025 Glasgow conference has afternoon "Social Events" — trips to explore Glasgow and the area. There are a number of choices; some involve walking around the old city which we cannot do; another involves a bus trip to explore Loch Lomond (the largest fresh water lake in the UK). We are late to get our act together and the Loch Lomond trip, which we might have picked, is fully booked so alternate plans are required.

We have been exploring how best to get back to Heathrow for our flight out Saturday and have decided that we should rent a car instead of flying or taking a train (all the shuffling back and forth to the two airports would be impossible). I pick the rental up in the morning, a red MG CRV kind of car, and we have that afternoon to explore the countryside ourselves. Kate's friend Sam from ARF/CAMH comes with us. Sam took the picture of Kate and me canoeing on Loch Lomond. We used that picture for our 45th anniversary invitations and ads in the local paper.

From our AirBnB on Partick Bridge in Glasgow's west end it's an easy 40 minute drive on the A82 to the picturesque conservation village of Luss on Loch Lomond a little to the west and north of the city. We're aiming for lunch at Colquhoun's Loch Lomond Restaurant just a little outside of Luss with views of the Loch. Kate has investigated and it looks like a nice place to have lunch; good views and good food.

Google maps, which I rely on, lets us down. We drive past the village of Luss and end up in the village of Tarbet which is several miles to the north (about 8 miles, 10 minutes past Luss). This gives us a pleasant drive along the Loch — a long narrow lake (perhaps 30 miles). However, we recognize we've been led astray and Google leads us back to the restaurant. There's a lodge and spa, it's a quiet private retreat on the Loch.

We enjoy our lunch together and take a few pics on their floating boat pier/dock. There are pleasure boats and tour boats wandering past. And very aggressive swans that assume we will feed them and, if not, they're out to take a bite out of us!

The lake is at it's widest here with an archipelago of several very small islands. Just a short walk along the beach to the south of us is a public park and beach. You can't get there from here, there's a fence to make the beach at this hotel, restaurant and spa private. We drive to the public beach to find the Loch Lomond Leisure - Luss Beach kayak and canoe rental. We rent a canoe for an hour; we're all handy that way and explore the archipelago. It's an easy canoe trip, the lake isn't very big, the water is calm and there isn't a lot of boat traffic to get in the way.

The village of Luss is beside us, we didn't explore the village, and there's a pier there for tour boats that take punters like us on a tour of the lake. We wonder if any of our KBS colleagues are taking a boat from here (or perhaps from Tarbet where we were led astray). The water is warm, people are swimming, and brave young folks are jumping off the pier into the water. There are campers in nearby campgrounds. A beautiful day to explore the lake.

We had a pleasant day exploring the Loch. The drive up has revealed Blake's "green and pleasant land" (the poem "Milton") far removed from the hustle and bustle of the cities. I'm constantly amazed at the quiet pristine landscapes to be found in the UK.

Macdonald/Mackintosh House

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On Tuesday, after dropping Kate off for her conference (at the James McCune Smith Learning Hub) I continued on up the hill to visit the Hunterian Art Gallery — a modern building by the University Library and across the street from the old University Gates. I'm most interested in the recreation of the Macdonald/Mackintosh house.

The gallery has a collection that shows the development of various styles from traditional landscapes through to impressionism, art nouveau (e.g., they have a Mucha print), art deco, craftsmen (think Franklin Lloyd Wright) and on to the modern art of today

Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh were a famous art nouveaux/art deco/craftsmen era couple who built a home here — he the artist and he the architect. The home is long gone replaced by these brutalism buildings housing the University Library and the Hunterian Gallery. The gallery has quite a collection of artworks but I'm most interested in the works by Scottish artist and designer . The Mackintosh House is a faithful recreation of the interior of the their home and every bit of the home is/was a unique piece of art.

They have a yellowed sketch of her work, 'The Birth and Death of the Winds' (with her sister Frances), is especially creepy but representative of her style — weirdly gaunt emaciated nudes. The sketch was made into a folding screen but the gallery just has the yellowed paper sketch. We bumped into more of her work at the Kelvingrove gallery. I have an photo album of her work I cribbed from a Facebook page (see my Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh collection but see also Wikipedia collection at Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh).

There are many things to see in Glasgow; I enjoyed her pieces and the recreation of their home at the Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow. It's one of the joys of traveling with Kate to these KBS conferences.

See also Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery (on Facebook).