So, before the fire that happened in Stephen's building, I had gone to The Riverside Museum. It's funny because I didn't realize that that was the actual name of the museum. I just noticed on the map that it was along the river and had been calling it "the museum by the river" while Stephen had been calling it The Riverside Museum. I kept wondering what the name was until I saw it on the building.
What the museum looks like on the outside
When I first walk in, two old steam cars are right in front of the entrance. This is the original style with no roof.
This is the other with one.
I didn't realize, but owning a steam car without a roof was hazardous. The people in three car is not only exposed to the elements, but also, if there were other cars in front or around you, the smoke would get in your face and also blacken you up. To resist weather, they wore outlandish and ridiculous clothing to protect their entire body and face. Women wore these huge hats and wrapped their faces up completely only exposing the goggles for sight. I am more grateful for the modern day vehicle after reading about it.
Big model of a ship that sank in the Atlantic.
Steam Train!
I was fascinated by that one boat... This just amazes me. There were so many different kinds of boats, I didn't have time to admire them all.
Model of a ship engine. It's cool to see all the little components. This model was actually used in bed real ships and were successful engines.
Drafts of ship components
More old fashioned cars.
This is a traditional Scottish firetruck. There are no places for firefighters to sit. They stand pretty much on a long wooden board holding on to the ladder or anything to try to keep themselves from falling. It's so they can get on and off more quickly, though it is a hazard to the lives of fireman.
First Scottish Taxi. Some cars of this time were supposedly based on this for its maneuverability and reliability.
The motorbike wall
This is a path of how some streets looked like back in the day.
The street and a trolley pulled by horses.
Two story buses. The drivers on these were still exposed to the elements because there was no door that shut for the driver, although there was a door to keep passengers out of the weather behind him. There were also no windshield wipers, meaning if it snowed, conductors would have to reach out and clear snow from the windshield. They stood the whole time and controls required a certain amount of strength. A tough job indeed.
Behind the previous picture there are small rooms along the wall. This was the bicycle room. I wonder how difficult it was to ride a 4 person bicycle.
This is a cool attachment to a bike I think. I have seen these on motorbikes but I've never seen one on a bicycle.
Toys!
I thought this toy was cool. In some ways I think it is better than Lego because although it requires some skill and precision to screw the pieces together and bend them into shape, what they can build might be more true to what they imagine.
A wall of cars, so many cars.
From the second floor, the same wall from another angle. The second floor didn't have too much that interested me although they had another ship wall on a moving conveyor (the back of the display can be seen in next picture) and a nice mural of ship workers. They had more information to read on ships and the effort into building them but I didn't have time to read them all.
Another train. This train was built in Glasgow and sent to Africa. After it became outdated, Glasgow took it back and it was placed in this museum. It has some history and was built in buildings that no longer exist.
The engine room
Outside there is this boat that people are allowed to go on. I didn't have time since I needed to meet with Stephen.
I thought this was interesting because it shows the ship cut in half to see what was inside.
There was a glider on the second floor. They said they studied bats and birds to perfect a working design. I think the glider better resembles a bat than this bird.
I met up with Stephen around 3 to buy produce to make haggis at his home.
This is how it turned out. Stephen is a classy chef isn't he? If even grows his own herbs. It was delicious.
The fire thing happened while Stephen was cooking. We smelt a light burning smell but did not know where it was coming from and didn't think much of it afterwards. Later after we finished eating firetrucks gathered in front of the building. Stephen went to go look at the stairs and could see smoke through the window of the door and told me. We called the concierge and he told us to stay put because the firemen were occupying the stairs and lift. It was a good couple hours until we were allowed to leave. Stephen and I later found out the fire took place in the stairwell. Police said suspects were to believed to be from the 8th floor because the fire started there, but when Stephen and I looked, the fire seemed to be on our floor meaning the fire climbed up the stairwell from the 8th floor to the 11th.
I took this after Stephen and I got back after we went out around 1:30a.m. this was on the 11th floor in the stairwell. It looked strange because it looks like the fire was started here, but below I could see blackness as well so I am unsure what happened. It smelt of burnt plastic of some sort.
Anyway Stephen and I went to go meet up with his younger brother Al (short for something I don't remember) to have a couple drinks. On the way Stephen showed me these buildings.
There were a lot of Roman influences in quite a bit of the buildings there. Stephen talked to me a bit about it on my first day and I notice it wherever I went.
This was nice, this style of architecture was all around this area.
George Square and Glasgow City Chambers. I heard inside is beautiful as well.
We met with Al and after some drinks he took us to an arts and culture center that had some Indian music to dance to and food to snack on. Al introduced us to his flatmates who worked at that center. It was fun getting to know Al, we played a little bit of music with the broken piano they had there as well after the party was over.
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