travel adventures

We are back from a lovely vacation in Scotland and England. What beautiful countries, and friendly people! Of course I made a point of visiting as many museums as possible. In Glasgow we were lucky enough to take a behind the scenes tour of the Burrell stained glass collection. The museum is currently closed for renovation, so they are using the opportunity to conserve and photograph their medieval glass. We got up close to see the lead came, the silver staining, how "jewels" were added, and 19th century repairs. Fascinating! Here are a few pictures:

Examining windows with and without light. The red leaf is from the 19th century. The red and blue "jewels" are 15th century originals. They added them by cutting holes in the center of the receiving piece of glass. I wonder how many pieces were broken in the process?

 German, late 15th century

Don't you love the faces?                                                                                                                                                                                             German, 1443

 French, circa 1280

some details 

 This 16th c. English piece includes chased glass.

French, c. 1520 
Don't forget to take your shoes off when you are going in the river to be baptized!

 

The oldest pieces in the collection, from St. Denis, France

We were in town for an architectural history conference, so we visited quite a few buildings from many different times. Here are a few highlights:

  Macintosh's Willow Tea Rooms (a reproduction, but beautiful none the less)

 19th century City Hall

  13th century Bothwell Castle

And just so you don't think it was all work and no play, the food was delicious.

 

 Babbity Bowster, a very old pub.


Then, it was on to England...