Sunday

Small children require an annoying amount of entertaining and supervision.  Today was another day when she  wasn't content staying in with pins, scissors and perilous loft ladders whilst I watched the Olympics- très inconsiderate, non?  Given the option, Flora always plumps for the spectacular New Museum but, as it's in Edinburgh and the Fringe has just started and the Capital is complete mayhem, we headed to her second choice, the Car Museum or, as maybe a handful of people actually call it, the Riverside Museum.

Designed by Zaha Hadid, it's an impressive building.  It is built on industrial wasteland, on the banks of the Clyde and there's very little immediately round about it.  Snaking along the side of the river with this enormous glass front, looking like a huge heartbeat, it replaces long-lost shipyards and warehouses.  Can you tell we were there early?

There are a couple of reasons Flora loves this museum.  Firstly, there are interactive screens dotted all over the place.  She is part of the incredible touch screen generation; easily confused by screens that don't immediately respond to her sticky swiping but utterly entranced by ones that do.  She can conduct her way through great swathes of information without actually reading any of it but don't try to keep up; her need to move things along swiftly outweighs your need to learn more of the electric tram system of Glasgow in the 1950s.

Secondly, although everything is quite squished together, it's really accessible for small people.  And Dads.  And isn't that a winning combination?

Anything with a tunnel wins points with this child.  There's a tiny exhibition of tea sets in the tunnel that only small people can access.  Cute.

And I love it too.  Whilst there is a fair amount of general transport and travel history, the emphasis is how Scottish people, particularly Glaswegians, invent, live and interact with their infrastructure.  It's a great place for eavesdropping as there are always people pointing and saying, 'You're great-grandad drove one of them' or 'Do you remember when Annie left her knickers on the No 37?'  This time, I overheard a grandad telling his teenage grandson about his participation in the Clydeside ship yard work-in in 1971, saw a group of senior ladies reliving their youth in the recreated Italian Cafe (Annie wasn't there but her knickers were the source of much pant-wetting hilarity) and a disbelieving wee girl being proudly told that her granny did indeed wear skirts that short and go on bikes that fast.....at the same time!  Proper living history.  

One of the exhibitions I hadn't seen before was a talking-head from cyclist, Graham Obree.  A troubled character, he broke a world record but it wasn't the one he wanted to break so he set about it breaking it again....the next day!  Knowing he couldn't afford to let his muscles seize up and aware that an alarm clock would be too much of a shock to his system, he relied on a more natural way to wake up to stretch- he drank an enormous amount of water, woke up to pee, did his stretches, drank even more water, went to sleep, woke up to pee and so on.  He did this every two hours, went to the track the next day and broke the record he wanted to break.  He did it on a bike he made himself, from parts of an old washing machine! Amazing.

Yep, that's a train sticking out.  An actual engine.  I believe it was lifted in mid-way through building and the construction completed round about it.  There's lots of exhibits that are worth a mention: the Humane Society boat, the pretend Subway train, the oldest bike in the world (maybe!), a beautiful display of model boats....too much to really cover in this wee blog, especially when photographs were curtailed by the entrance of ominous skies, thunder and lightning and mad dashing for the car.  Oh, and this....

Would make a good Superhero name that, The Dainty Muff Warmer.  I imagine him to be rather dashing and dapper, with brisk hands and a nice manner.  Wherever there are muffs feeling chilly....

So, if you're in Glasgow, pay the Riverside Museum (and its sister museum, Kelvingrove aka the Animal museum)  a visit.  There's loads to see and the parking is cheap.  But take your own food. The restaurant is pants (but the tea is only £1.10- bargain!).

Luv Egg on a Stick x