Dr. Eric Conway writes:
This year, the Morgan State University Choir is touring the United Kingdom including Scotland and England.
The
choir was scheduled to leave on Sunday, May 19, 2019, less than
twenty-four hours after Morgan's Spring 2019 commencement ceremony. The
weather was stunningly beautiful for an international departure. Our
flight was scheduled to depart from the Washington area Dulles airport.
We flew, for the first time for everyone, on the Irish airline, Aer
Lingus, since we were flying through Dublin, Ireland airport to
Scotland. Most were surprised to have such an early scheduled
transcontinental flight, departing at 5:20 PM (most redeye flights leave
later). Departure went smoothly, everyone making the flight without
incident.
Travel
days to destinations with markedly different weather is always an issue
for tourists. When we left Baltimore, the temperature was almost
eighty degrees F. When we arrive at our transfer location of Dublin
Ireland at 5AM in the morning, the temperature was a seemingly frigid
forty-five degrees F. I had warned the group about temperatures on this
tour being about fifteen degrees cooler than Baltimore, but on Sunday,
the Baltimore weather warmer than average and Ireland was colder than
average, making for a larger dichotomy. A few were concerned with the
fact that the plane that took us from Dublin to Edinburgh, was not a
jet, but a "propeller" plane. This short one hour flight was very
surprisingly smooth.
We
arrived into Edinburgh on Monday morning, with two of our group of
forty, having to file a claim for luggage that did not make it to our
final Edinburgh. Our guide for the tour, Janet Sayers, was at the
airport to meet us with a big smile and huge sign welcoming us to
Scotland.
Typically,
due to all hotels having afternoon check-in times, we immediately have
scheduled tours of local sites before arriving to our hotel. These
tours are always grueling due to limited or no sleep on the plane during
our travel day.
Upon
arrival, we drove to the largest city in Scotland, Glasgow, about an
hour drive from the Edinburgh with a population of approximately seven
hundred thousand. One could immediately see how old many buildings
were, compared to our relative young country of the United States. Many
of the buildings in Glasgow were adorned with contemporary Art
displayed on the buildings which was a stark contrast to the Brutalist
“blocky” architectural style of the city.
We first visited Glasgow
Cathedral, oldest cathedral in Scotland and the oldest building in
Glasgow & part of the church of Scotland denomination. We then drove
to the National Transportation Museum of Scotland, where we had we had a
very timely and tasty meal. I had a typically Scottish meal of
Shepherd’s pie, a potpie dish of lamb on the bottom and potatoes on the
top.
From
the cathedral we visited Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum. We were
surprised at the quality and eclectic collection of this museum.
Original works of Picasso, Rembrandt, Renoir, Dali, Matisse, and
hundreds of other masters were displayed in this gallery. In addition
to the original painting, an array of historic natural animal statues
and historic artifacts were also on display. All museums in Scotland
are free to the public encouraging all to engage in seeing fine art! We
also noticed that unlike in the US, we were able to take photos of all
art in the museum, and even get close enough to touch any thing without
any scolding from gallery guards. Perhaps we should try this model in
the US if we want Art to be more important in our society.
From
the gallery, we went to the National Piping Centre, a building
dedicated to the history of the Scottish bagpipe, the item most
foreigners associate with Scotland. We were greeted by a bagpiper
playing for us as we entered the facility - to get us in the Scottish
spirit. After a short history from the museum employee, we were given a
lesson on how to play a bagpipe, and given the opportunity to actually
play a bagpipe. What a difficult task! Like many things in life,
playing the bagpipe may appear effortless, but is tremendously
difficult, to maintain an even sound while actually making music. See
photos and videos of several choir members attempting to play the
bagpipe.
After
the Piping museum, we returned to Edinburgh to check in to our hotel,
eat our welcome dinner, and retire to our rooms to recover from the
exhausting first day in Scotland.
EC
Entering Piping Museum by Genuine Scottish bagpiper:
Conway attempts to play bagpipe:
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