In "The Day" Garden...

What a difference a day makes,
24 little hours...

But from the grey of yesterday there was not a cloud in the sky over Glasgow "The Day".
I had some business to do up at the West End of Glasgow so decided to give the trip to Penna a miss today. The job hunting can start again tomorrow morning.
But also decided today with the sun shining was the perfect day to go to two places in the West End that I'm ashamed to say I've never been to. Glasgow University including the Hunterian Museum and the Botanic Gardens.
Never been you say?

Yup. Told you this was not my neck of the woods.
Hope these photos do it some justice cause today was special.

Where better to start this tour than at the University itself. Now for anyone reading this that went to Glasgow please feel free to chip in with comments.

If you know me or from just reading this blog may now know that I didn't go here. I got my degree from Paisley University, or Paisley Tech as it was when I was there. So actually was bit worried as I walked up here today that people would start pointing at me like in Invasion of the Bodysnatchers cause I was obviously not one of them :)

But no. Everyone I met was very friendly and have to say to the ex-Glasgow people that your university looked stunning today in the summer sunshine.

Glasgow University was founded in 1451 and is the 2nd oldest in Scotland after St. Andrews. It was originally situated on High Street near the Cathedral but the current site and the buildings photographed date from when it moved to Gilmorehill in 1870.

For more about the university go here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Glasgow

The photograph above is obviously of the main tower which is a landmark that can be seen from right across Glasgow.

This is the view from the hill looking down towards the Kelvingrove Art Galleries which I did a tour of last week. And behind it you can see the Glasgow Tower down at Science Centre next to the Clyde which I covered in another post. Certainly starting to cover a lot of Glasgow in this blog!! :) The view today was something special though.

Hogwarts ? No. This is the East Quadrangle of the Main University building.

Now I said I had never been to Glasgow University before. But that not entirely true. I have been in here, the Chapel. Was here for the wedding of some close friends a few years ago. This is a beautiful building in itself.

The cloisters between the East and West Quadrangles.

Unicorn and Lion staircase next to the Chapel. From wee bit of research seems that this staircase was built in 1690 and was actually part of the building on High Street next to the Cathedral. Was moved here in 1872.

Now onto the Hunterian Museum which is at the rear of the main building.

This is the oldest public museum in Scotland dating from 1807 when it was part of the original campus in High Street.

The money to build the museum, and the core of its original collections, came from the bequest of the Scottish anatomist and scientist Dr. William Hunter, who died in 1783. Hence the name Hunterian.

This is the view down the main exhibit room with the statue of James Watt, the Scottish inventor who's improvements to the steam engine heralded in the Industrial Revolution. The statue of him in George Square very similar pose but he looks older.

I'm horny? :) Very impressive triceratops skull.

Indian Elephant Skeleton in the main hall of the museum.

It can get a bit wild in the West End!! :)

The Hunterian also has two other venues. The Zoology Museum and the Hunterian Art Galleries (Which also has the Mackintosh House). Didn't go to the Art Galleries today. Maybe save that for a Rennie Mackintosh tour. But I did go into the Zoology Museum where the photo above is from. I really liked this wee museum and worth going there to see a really wide and interesting range of animals and animal skeletons explaining the evolution of many of the species.

Ashton Rain ?

Not today. Compare this photo of Ashton Lane in the sunshine to the one last week!!

Was meeting someone here for lunch on the way to my next tour, The Botanic Gardens. And they came with me, so for first time Glasgow "The Day" had a partner in crime!! :)

Now today was the perfect day to go to the Botanic Gardens. The sky could not have been bluer and as you can see the Westenders were out in force catching the rays.

These gardens date from 1817. So they have been here a long time and I have no excuse for not visiting them before today.

The greenhouse building in the background here is the real gem of this park. It is the Kibble Palace and dates from 1873. Although it was just fully renovated in 2006 and it just shone in the Glasgow sunshine today.

More info here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow_Botanic_Gardens

Another view of the Kibble Palace from the side showing the unique iron framed glasshouse.

Inside the Kibble Palace. This is the fishpond full of Koi carp and looking though the tunnel into the main glasshouse with the statue of Eve.

This is a closer view of the statue of Eve (in Paradise?) You can see the amazing roof in the background.

Hard to describe just how stunning it is inside this glasshouse. The beautiful flowers, tropical plants, statues and all encased in this amazing glass framework. Hope these pictures above give a an idea of how special it is.

There are many lovely statues inside the palace as well as the plants. Most are from the bible or literature. This one wasn't but was my favourite. It's called Stepping Stones and it depicts a girl carrying her little brother across stepping stones in a stream.

The plaque says it was sculpted by William Hamo Thornycroft in 1878. It was accompanied by the couplet: "Pausing with reluctant feet / where the stream and river meet"

Just down from the palace is Glasgow's second river, the Kelvin, which runs through the Botanic Gardens. Here are some photos from today at the humpback bridge. The water was perfectly still as you can see from the reflections.

The Botanic Gardens also has a lovely children's garden area and play park. I liked this image of all the wee watering cans sitting outside the miniature garden shed.

There are a number of other glasshouses in the gardens as well as the Kibble palace. They in themselves have amazing collections of flowers and tropical plants as pictured above. Even warm enough to grow bananas in the middle of Glasgow!! :)

And the glasshouses the home for many butterflies and bees. Must be like paradise in there for them!!!

And was pretty close to it for me as well.

Couldn't have asked for a nicer day today and couldn't have found two more perfect places to visit, both unique in their own way.
Regret it taking all these years before finally getting around to visiting them. But now know how special they are I will be back as soon as possible.

Be well, be happy!!