Glasgow Merchant's City festival and Necropolis July 2011

One of the city's last Victorian Loos.

Italian street market.

International market.

Had a quick visit inside.

Glasgow Cathedral had a wedding on today.

The bride's car was a 1929 "Packard"

Nae a wedding withoot a piper.

The bride arrives and so did the rain.

One of many mausoleums in the Necropolis.

This beauty is for the Buchanan family only.

A broken column (see text)

Today's tour guide.

The merchant city in Glasgow was holding their annual 3 day festival  starting today so armed with the trusty bus passes  Anne and I made our way on the X77 to the big city.Firstly we visited the street markets which were selling predominately food stuff with a few garden ornaments and flowers in some of the smaller stalls. Very continental with lots of free samples to taste. Told Anne to eat her heart out here because this was lunch!Also later on today and over the weekend there will be street entertainment for all ages. Heading up now to Glasgow Cathedral we passed the oldest house in Glasgow across the road from the St. Mungo Museum. We made short visits to both as there was a wedding on at the cathedral so we had to be there to see the bride arriving in a most magnificent 1929 Packard American car the kind Al Capone used to ride around in. A shower of rain came on just as the bride arrived which was a great shame as it was lovely and sunny up until this point. Once she was safely in the church we headed off to the Glasgow Necropolis where were booked on a guided tour to tell us all about the history of this wonderful cemetry in the heart of the city.22 other people joined us and with our tour guide made our way into the park with all it's mausoleums and headstones to the rich and wealthy of the city to the paupers in the unnamed graves. In amongst this lot predominately at the higher points of the park were the family mausoleums of the Barclay Curles (shipbuilding) Outram (publishing)McBrayne (shipping) and the one we both really liked was  to the Malcolm Campbells who once owned fruit shops in the city. Their particular monument was all decorated with ornate fruit someone had a sense of humour in amongst all the dreary tombstones. Also there were quite a lot of columns next to each other but one was broken as if it had been vandalised , we were told it was cast in this manner to symbolise that someone had died before reaching their prime perhaps the son or daughter of the father whose grave it was erected in.A very interesting tour with lots of wee tales about life in the old days and how the Necropolis came about. They have their own web page and lots of other details are listed there. Back home on the trusty X77 to end nice day out to the great metropolis of Glasgow.