Is This Trip Necessary?

People make all sorts of decisions about why they want to go on a trip. Sometimes, it’s strictly the ‘gotta get away’ aspect; sometimes it’s the long term ‘we’ve always wanted to go there’ issue. In our case, due to other family issues, the DH and I have not been able to get away for several years and wanted a real ‘no cell phones/no one at work able to get to us’ trip. One of the things we wanted to do was a bit of a stroll down Memory Lane – or actually the Memory Lane of two other people. My parents actually met in Glasgow, Scotland during WWII and I’ve always wanted to get a look at what a couple of the places they mentioned actually looked like. In one case, we got lucky; in another, we were about 20 years too late.

The photo at the top is the entrance to the former Anderson College of Medicine, where my father went to school. At the time he attended, there were actually at least three medical schools in Glasgow and the Anderson College was sort of the ‘poor relation’ – the school actually shared some facilities with the other medical schools. But I remember a photograph actually much like this one, taken with my father standing pretty much where I am standing right now, in front of the very fancy Italianate iron gates. After the war, Glasgow University absorbed the Anderson College into their medical school and this building actually now houses their International College and some laboratories. Knowing my dad, he probably felt very grown up and adventurous standing there getting his picture taken since he was so far from home and was actually doing what he’d always dreamt of doing. He considered his time in Glasgow (despite the ferocious bombings) to be the happiest time of his life.

The place where we were not so lucky was at the place where my mom trained as a nurse midwife, the old Glasgow Royal Maternity Hospital, which was located on a street named ‘Rottenrow’ (no, I don’t know why it was called that – the common theory is that it originated as ‘Rue du Roi’ in the medieval period but there is no definitive proof of that either). The National Health Service decided after the war that this hospital (which had been built in the 1880s was now old, obsolete and antiquated and a new building was built elsewhere and this building was given to the University of Strathclyde (Glasgow is a real college town) which could not find any use for it and pulled it all down, leaving the entrance standing and turning the rest of the land (and using the rubble of the old building as fill and retaining walls) as a memorial garden. Looking around at the neighborhood, I could definitely imagine how poor the place was – I know my mom told lots of stories about going out to deliver babies in situations where literally the entire family had to sleep in a single bed built into the wall and my mom had to convince everyone else in the family to abandon the bed so that she could do her work.

Glasgow was actually a very surprising place – over the past 40 years, there has been a huge effort to recreate the city, which, during the 18th and 19th centuries, was the economic engine of the Empire – first creating millionaires in the tobacco and sugar industries and then in the ship building industry. With the death of heavy industry in Glasgow, the city has been able to establish a healthy services and financial base, and has also a healthy tourism business based on the city’s many wonderful museums and now it’s very large retail shopping district.

Now, it’s no Edinburgh – there are no castles there, but the city has a cathedral dating from the 11th century and the Necropolis, which is probably one of the most astonishing cemeteries in Europe. On the other hand, it also does not have the ‘in your face’ Disney-esque tourism of Edinburgh – the DH had to search around to find a store which actually sold the ‘key chain and chocolate bar’ level of tourist ‘tat’. So, from that aspect, it was very refreshing and we had a lot of fun. If we’d spent more time there, we’d have done more exploring of the areas outside of the city – a large beautiful national park, The Trussocks, iand Loch Lomond are about 45 minutes outside of the city and can be reached by train and bus.

Speaking of trains, the DH and I always take the train when we are in the UK. The train systems is extensive and very efficient; even when we had to change trains, we only had to wait about ten minutes for our connection. We traveled by train from London to Glasgow in about 4 hours; certainly worth it. We used Brit Rail Passes, which you buy by the number of days you are traveling. It was very easy and effective; we took care of everything before we left.