Monthly Archives: January 2012

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Glasgow’s parks

Glasgow’ means ‘dear green place’, recognising the fact that Glasgow has over 90 parks and open spaces, more than any other city its size. Many of them contain some of the city’s main galleries and attractions, facilities for recreational activities, and many fine examples of Victorian sculpture.
Kelvingrove Park contains the Kelvingrove Museum and Art Galleries, the restored Stewart Memorial Fountain and one of the finest bronze statue collections in Europe. Glasgow Green contains the impressive Winter Gardens and the People’s Palace Museum, the restored Doulton Fountain, Nelson’s Column, the MacLennan Arch, the Glasgow Green Football Academy and much more. Among the other parks to see are the Queen’s Park, the exotic Victorian Kibble Palace in Botanic Gardens, Victoria Park’s Fossil Grove, a fascinating display of fossilised tree trunks more than 300 million years old, the House for an Art Lover in Bellahouston Park, and the Tollcross Park.

 

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About Glasgow

Glasgow is  one of UK’s most visited cities. The city welcomes 3 million tourists from all over the world each year that are drawn by its wealth of cultural attractions and activities. The city that hosted ‘The Great Exhibitions’ of 1888 and 1901, and was designated ‘European City of Culture’ 1990, has a vast multitude of entertainment venues and events. These include the Scottish Opera, Scottish Ballet and the Citizen’s Theatre, plus many many more.
Residents and visitors from around the UK and overseas are drawn to the city’s expanding shopping outlets. Shopping malls like the chic and trendy Princes Square, the enormous St Enoch Centre, Sauchiehall Street Centre, the historical Argyle Arcade, and the Buchanan Galleries.

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About Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital and cultural centre for over 500 years. Described as “Athens of the North”, the famous festival city boasts of Doric columns on Calton Hill, a wide choice of museums and art galleries as well as other historical marvels. Edinburgh actually consists of two cities. The castle set on a high basalt rock dominates the densely populated old town, with a labyrinth of narrow valleys, rows of houses and backyards. The famous “Royal Mile” links the castle with the Palace of Holyrood house. The Georgian new town, itself a masterpiece of town planning from the 18th century, is characterized by grand squares, wide avenues and elegant facades.

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Edinburgh – tourist attractions

The paintings and sculptures on display at National Gallery of Scotland  reflect the Renaissance to the Post Impressionist periods. National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland is another go-to-place.
The Edinburgh Zoo, open since 1913, gives you the opportunity to meet over 1,000 animals, and is the most exciting wildlife attraction the country has to offer. Of all the things to see and do here, the most exciting and of course the highlight being the “Penguin Parade”.
A visit to the Royal Yacht Britannia, recommended by BBC News as “Scotland’s leading visitor-friendly attraction” is essential. She is now the seventh most popular paid-for of all Scottish fascinations.

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Scotland – regions

Scotland occupies a northern third of the British Kingdom, and shares its borders with England and is surrounded by seas. It comprises of around 790 beautiful islands.

Rich in culture, it is home to a number of prehistoric castles, museums and battlegrounds. It has an old worldly feel that easily blends in and leaves the viewer breathless. Its mountains, lush green valley’s are also famous for their extensive flora and fauna.

The regions of Scotland have through the centuries maintained their differences. The Highlanders, largely Gaelic speaking were mobile cattle farmers, while the Lowlanders, English speaking, were firmly planted arable farmers. The Lowlands is the most densely populated region, an area of impressive castles, palaces, medieval burghs intertwined between the two impressive cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. The Highlands are characterised by the mountainous scenery, beautiful coastlines and a number of interesting islands.

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Investigations

• Regular summer investigations have been conducted at Loch Ness since 1963. Investigations have obtained films and sonar readings that indicate that there might be some unidentified animal in the loch. Evidence, however, is inconclusive and the controversy continues.
• In 1976 an attempt was made to lure Nessie to the surface of the water by throwing bacon out of a hot air balloon on to the loch below. For reasons unknown she did not appear.
• The scientific community regards the Loch Ness Monster as a modern-day myth, and explains sightings as a mix of hoaxes and wishful thinking.
• One explanation for Nessie says that, because the Loch is directly over the Great Glen Fault, “sightings” are actually disturbances on the water surface caused by fault activity.
• In 2003, the BBC sponsored a full search of the Loch using 600 separate sonar beams and satellite tracking. The search had enough resolution to pick up a small buoy. No animal of any substantial size was found whatsoever and despite high hopes, the scientists involved in the expedition admitted that this essentially proved the Loch Ness monster was only a myth.

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Sightings of Loch Ness Monster

Sightings of Loch Ness Monster:
• There have been numerous sightings reported in the testimonials of unquestionably reliable witnesses.
• The scientific name for the Loch Ness Monster is a plesiosaur, which is a type of carnivorous aquatic, usually marine, reptile.
• It’s said that the first recorded sighting of the Loch Ness monster was in 565 AD, when followers of the missionary St. Columba reportedly saw a monster in the Loch.
• 1933, George Spicer and his wife reported seeing a large creature with a 10-12′ long, narrow neck cross the road in front of their car.
• In 1934 Kenneth Wilson photographed the head and neck of a large creature sticking out of the water. This photograph commonly referred to as the “Surgeons Photograph”, in fact some 60 years later it was revealed to be a hoax
• In 1958, 27 bus passengers spotted two distinct humps in the water, the larger measuring roughly 25 feet in length.
• In May 2007, Gordon Holmes, a lab technician, took a video of what he described as a “jet black thing, about 45 feet long, moving fairly fast in the water”.
• In 2009, while browsing Google Earth, security guard Jason Cooke, spotted an image of large unknown object with four legs in the loch. This is the first such sighting of the Loch Ness Monster, perhaps the first of many’

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Loch Ness monster

The Loch Ness “monster” referred to at times as “Nessie” is an plesiosaur-like creature supposed to be living in Loch Ness, a long, deep lake near Inverness, Scotland. Unlike many of the other strange creatures on these pages Nessie is tied to a single geographic location. Loch Ness monster is usually described as having a small head, long neck, broad body, four flippers and a long tail. It can be called a ‘cryptid’ is used in cryptozoology and refers to a hidden creature or living creature which might exist.