My pilgrimage begins

After a good night's sleep the coach stewardess woke me up with my pre-ordered coffee & orange juice, although the "snack" was a small packet of shortbread (appropriately).

The whole reason for this trip was to visit the Charles Rennie Mackintosh (CRM) sites around Glasgow. Now that I'm here I can see what a magnificent city it is, steeped in history. With its grid street layout and pretty steep hills it reminds me a little of San Francisco.... but I've not seen any cable cars yet!

Last time that I was here was a fleeting visit where I was working overnight for the opening of a superstore (and when, in the wee small hours, I managed to get onto the motorway while it was still being built - oops!) and although I went over to the Burrell Collection I didn't have time to see anything else. So this time I have a packed itinerary.

After breakfast in a rare independent cafe (Tinderbox where I needed an interpreter - my ear hasn't adjusted yet!) I made my way to the Glasgow School of Art for a tour guided by a student.

The Glasgow Art School building is amazing - it was designed by CRM and built in 2 stages because the first stage alone was more than the budget but still he won the competition to design it. The building is full of surprises synch as feeling like you are in a cellar when you are on the top floor, or walking from dark into a wall of light. The studios are flooded with north light, and the whole building is full of very particular detail. Various details reminded me of other artists and designers around at the same time as CRM and the cross-fertilisation of ideas must have happened - Lutyens, Armstrong (maybe not a designer but he made sure he had electricity in his new home), Morris, Klimt, and over the Pond there was Lloyd Wright, Tiffany & O'Keefe - it was as if something was in the air that they breathed, helping pave the way to Modernism from fussy Victorian design

Just down the street from the School of Art is where I have booked to stay, so although it wasn't yet midday and certainly not check-in time I discovered that I could leave my backpack there - phew because although it's only 25 litres it's somehow quite weighty.  I was shown to my room which is tiny & with no outside windows - but at £27 a night B&B from laterooms (booked a while ago, so not really that late) I am not complaining. The room has a kettle & I was just having a coffe when I realised that I could hear a rustling in the bin and when I looked I found a ginormous spider about the size of my hand! I took it to the front door and liberated it - I hope it wasn't anyone's pet - it could have worn a collar & lead!

Lunch was at the Willow tearooms in Sauchiehall Street - because I'd booked in advance I had a window table in the rather special Room De  Luxe, for which tea used to incur an extra penny charge for the privilege of taking it there. I chose an Arbroath Smokie with a cloutie dumpling, and a pot of China Rose tea. It was pleasantly quiet apart from a supervisor giving evacuation instructions to a new starter - somewhat unsettling to be made aware of the fire risks of this old building.

I was on my way to the subway to go to the Mackintosh Church when I realised how close I was to the National Trust's Tenement House   I dropped in there. Before going into the Tenement House itself there is a small exhibition explaining about the previous occupier (Miss Agnes Toward) and putting the house (in England we'd know it as a flat) into context. It is a really interesting place, not only full of things that I recognised from grandparents and earlier, but some things of theirs that I still have!  But I found it particularly interesting because this heavily decorated Victorian place was built at the same time as the   CRM places with their simple lines.

When I came out of The Tenement House I decided to walk to the Mackintosh Church because it looked quicker to do that than walk back to the subway. Hmmm. Perhaps a bus would have been better! Still, I needed the walk!

It was well worth the walk - the Mackintosh Church is the only church that CRM designed, and again the detail of the simplicity (and no, that isn't as contradictory as some might argue) is stunning. It includes some very understated stained glass which I'm sure could be used as a basis for meditation. The church is now a visitor centre for the CRM Society and they show a DVD "A modern man" which was well worth watching.

Even if the journey there had been well worth the walk, I decided to take the bus back to the centre! While I waited for the bus and on the journey too I noticed that the detail of a lot of the street furniture and the buildings pay quiet tribute to CRM.

When I got back into the centre I found a lovely independent Italian restaurant serving a pre-theatre special which I'm sure can double as a pre-cinema special because I had bought a ticket to see  Swandown- I won't say too much about that in case I spoil the plot for you :-)