Glasgow stopping point.

On our way to Iona we stopped in Glasgow, a city I've visited a few times; including a weekend reunion following my first visit to Iona 20 years ago. - I still can't really believe I went all the way from Portsmouth to Glasgow just for a weekend (guess it shows how important my first Iona experience was for me).

Glasgow along with Birmingham and places like Liverpool has the kind of reputation that doesn't mark it out as a great tourist destinations or as a places on a must see list. But as with my experience of life here in Brum and my brief visits to Liverpool if you take time to make you own mind up you will discover something very different...

We only had a brief stop in Glasgow on the way up and way back from Iona but on both occasions I was struck by the friendliness of the city's people (certainly not the stereotype you get in the media) and the wonderful architecture of such a diverse city. We visited the the Lighthouse an amazing centre for design and architecture hosting amongst other things an exhibition highlighting the brilliance of Rennie Mackintosh as well as an amazing viewing tower giving the kind of vista over the city which gives tribute to the eclectic style and shapes of the city. A stay in Glasgow gave that one last taste of urban life before the simpler ways of life in the community of a small island yet the wonder and vitality of life is visible in both contexts if we just take the time to see.

And finally a quote I stumbled across in the Lighthouse which reminded me of a parable a man once told of a sower and some seed - as someone who feels I spend much of my life in the action of sowing it spoke to me...