July 7-Kat DeWeese

Before I blogged today, we made some dinner. I made some spaghetti with crusty bread! Although I grew tired of cooking and cleaning at home, it gave me a since of security and a sense of home doing it here in Glasgow after such a long trip of eating out mostly. Yes mom, I admit it, I loved cleaning all the dishes tonight! After dinner I flicked on the tube in our kitchen/sitting room that has approximately four different BBC channels, all BBC! Right when I turned it on I knew exactly what was on, the Michael Jackson Memorial, I had no idea it was going to be on but was so delighted to see that it was. Laugh all you want but I have LOVED M.J. since I was old enough to dance! This was just one more powerful memory we have to go along with this trip.

Today we ended up going to three museums, yes three, in one day. This is because we are all cheap and lazy! Or maybe savvy sounds better : ) We had a left over bus pass from the day before that happen to stop at each museum we needed to go to throughout our trip. So Dr. Long and her great mind (I’m sure Ben would take all the credit though) decided that while we had the chance we should do the three furthest away ones in one day. This is also going to give us two free afternoons now to study extra or you know, shop! I was in charge of writing about the third and final museum today, The Museum of Transport. I know, you are as excited as I was. But in all fairness it was a pretty neat museum. They did a very good job of showing you the many forms of transportation used throughout the years, especially in Scotland. When I walked in I was automatically attracted to this area that looked like a 1930s street in Glasgow, cobble roads and all. It was lined by cars from that generation and had street front shops on both sides. We were able to see what the first subways in Glasgow looked like. They were made in 1887 originally but gained a lot more use in the 20th century. Everything just seemed so much smaller in those times it is amazing how much bigger we have gotten, or maybe people were just super small!

Seeing all these trains and cars brought back memories of being a child because when my family went on road, we always had to stop and look at things like this, thanks to dad though I now can have those obscure memories. We were able to walk up high and look into the tops of all the old rail cars that used to run on the streets of Glasgow. Also on the main floor was a whole room of classic cars from all over. The Scots may think that they invented the world, but I saw an awful lot of Fords in this area! Upstairs I saw a ton of old motorcycles and these strange car/motorcycle things. I could not believe that they were ever actually drivable. There was also an entire room devoted to ships and boats. This seems appropriate seeing as how we have jut learned that Glasgow was a very industrial city, relying heavily on the ship yards and other industries. They had replicas of the Queen Elisabeth ships as well. These were made during the great depression which surprised me, but maybe it supplied Great Britain with a lot of jobs. As a shout out to Michelle (Harry Potter Nerd), a fellow student here, they had the same kind of car that was used in the second Harry Potter movie, a Ford Anglia. The museum even had gypsy coaches that were so extravagant and beautiful.

There were many bicycles too. It said that women began riding once the “Safety” Bike was produced. They then lowered the center bar specifically for women’s skirts. Little things like this allowed women to do “men” things early on. One thing that surprised me about all of the museums that we visited today was that they were very kid friendly. All of them had interactive parts and plenty of families running around, even in the art museum. I really enjoyed all of the museums today, but not going to lie, it was nice to kill three birds with one stone too!