Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum, Glasgow

We spent only two days in Glasgow – clearly not enough. But we nevertheless managed to visit the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. It has been one of Scotland’s most popular visitor attractions since it reopened in 2006 after a three-year refurbishment.

The gallery first opened in 1901. The scope of its collection is wide ranging, divided into two sections: the Life galleries represent natural history, human history and prehistory.

The Expression galleries include the fine art collections.

Since we had limited time, we focused on its small collection of artifacts by Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868 – 1928) and a special exhibition on comics.

Mackintosh (1868 – 1928) was a Scottish architect, designer, and artist which was influential on design movements such as Art Nouveau and Secessionism.

Much more can be written about him and his works but we could not see as much as we want in the gallery … and overall around Glasgow.

The special exhibition in the lower level of the gallery required a paid ticket (unlike the rest of the museum). Frank Quitely: The Art of Comics has been running for 6 months until October 1, 2017.

It was small but a surprise find for us. The above drawing must have been commissioned for this exhibit as the building behind Superman is the Kelvingrove Art Gallery.

Frank Quitely is a local, award-winning comic book artist born Vincent Deighan (1968- ).

His critically acclaimed work includes Batman, All-Star Superman, Captain America, Daredevil, The Invisibles, New X-Men, and the Sandman.

Can you see what is written in his beard ?

He has assisted superstar writer Grant Morrison in reimagining Superman and the X-Men.

More characters that I don’t recognize.

He worked with author Mark Millar on The Authority …

… and currently he is working on an American superhero comic, Jupiter’s Legacy, which will soon be made into a movie.

“We3” – published in 2004 was a collaboration with Grant Morrison. It tells the story of 3 pets – a dog, a cat and a rabbit – trying to escape from the army which has turned them into weapon prototypes.

He also drew for the graphic novel – The Sandman: Endless Nights – by Neil Gaiman. The book is divided into seven chapters, each devoted to a member of the family of brothers and sisters who are physical manifestations of the metaphysical concepts of Dream, Death, Desire, Destruction, Delirium, Despair and Destiny.

It was published by DC Comics in 2003. Each chapter is drawn by a different artist with a different style. Frank Quietly drew the last chapter. Definitely worth looking it up.

Scheveningen Beach, The Netherlands

Scheveningen Beach (Strandweg) is Holland’s most famous seaside resort. And being only 15 minutes from the center of The Hague (Den Haag), it is being used year around by residents and visitors.

The beach faces the North Sea (which is generally not known for fine weather). I imagine it must be quite a change from day to day and season to season.

The water was probably too cold for bathing in early May when I was there.

Presumably, this was low tide. What a wide beach, see how much sand there was between the water and the umbrellas.

Beach club. The beach is at least 1 km long.

It has an abundance of attractions and beach pavilions. The Pier offers visitors a unique experience in a historical location. Scheveningen was mentioned in records as early as the 1200’s.

The Pier offers broad thoroughfares, both outdoor and enclosed, bars, clubs and traditional food trucks, a Ferris wheel, a zip line, a bungie jumping tower, and hotel suites.

From this photo, it looks like I was on a cruise ship.

At the end of the Pier is the hotel (De Pier Suites, I think).

The Ferris wheel is over forty meters high and has 36 closed gondolas with air conditioning (otherwise too cold and windy in the winter!).

Looks rather dramatic.

Visitors can zip line (side by side) down the 55 meter high Bungy tower on the Pier reaching a speed of 60-80 kilometres per hour. The total distance is 350 meters.

I can imagine this place to be packed and really fun and lively in the summer, especially in the evening.

Bungie jumping is facilitated by a crane which moves a cage that serve as a platform for the jump. There was an attendant manning the cage who probably whispers words of encouragement to those who become cowardly at the last minute.

We have been to two other beaches in Europe this year – click to see Biarritz and Arcachon (also has Ferris wheel on the beach).