Scotland I - Helensburgh, the Hill House and lots of nature

Hello readers!

Warning: This entry contains many pictures.

Today it is quite rainy, alternating with sunny periods. That fits my entry, because today I write about my short trip to Scotland. Last September I was in Scotland to visit my sister. She was there as a exchange student.
As always I took a billion pictures. Well, probably not that much, but really a lot. And yes, it was rainy for a lot of the time, but still really good weather. Photographing in the rain is never really good for my cameras, so it was a challange. Actually I have no idea how there are still so many pictures. But there is something which I noticed not just on the photos also before locally. The lighting there seemed differend. Also the colours. I mean the grass really was greener than where I live. The greens there look like the greens here in the spring at a rainy day. Really vibrant.

We flew from Berlin to Glasgow and took the train from there to Helensburgh. So today I write about the first two days. Actually the first day was just the flight and the arrival in general. I was very sick after the flight, so for me there was not really a lot of activity on that day. Flying is not only quite stressful for me, but also somehow it is not good for me healthwise. When I have to guess I would say this comes from my migraine, but I don't really know.

We had to wait for quite a while in Berlin and there were lots of people who enjoyed the sun. And lots of birds too.

Shortly before we landed in Glasgow.

Even shorter before the landing.

That was it for the arrival. I wish I was able to enjoy the train ride to Helensburgh, because it was a nice view. The rails run along the water. The town Helensburgh lies on the eastern shore of Gare Loch. The entire landscape there looks as if water fingers were gripping inside. Probably not a really good pictorial description, but I can't think of anything better.

The next day someone from the Lomond School showed us the whole school. I think my sister got so much luck to have the opportunity to go there as an exchange student. This school is really impressive and they have such a good equipment for all the subjects. Just as an example: the kitchen for school lessons. There were so many devices, like - just another example - an electric stirrer for every workplace. The whole music and also the art rooms were amazing as well. When I try to compare this with the schools I visited...sad. I also liked the colour of their uniforms. You can see her further down.
Don't wonder but I don't show the faces of other family members, so they now all have nice smiling sun faces.

Now we are on one of my personal highlights of this trip: the Hill House. The architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh planned the house. It shows a mix of styles but I think you can clearly see the art nouveau elements, the ideas of the arts and crafts movement and the influences of japanese art. I don't know how many people this will tell anything, but for me it was so a great to see this not just on pictures. The house has so many great angles and all the clear lines and geometric forms. Also the lights and shadows are really thought through. That is something I especially like about it. Sadly it's not allowed to take pictures inside. But I understand that.They sell some great books with nice pictures. But really no picture can be even close to the experience to see everything in real. And you can take pictures from outside and the nice garden. That's already a good motif for around 200 pictures and I know that because that's what I did.

There were a few vegetables of the garden which you could take with you for a donation.

This was such a gorgeous deep dark red colour, but my camera failed to capture it.

I saw this house on our way back to the holiday apartment and a man randomly told me something about it and the owner.

I loved this houses. They are so beautiful.

Our view from the window. I know it looks not so nice, but the behind the parking spots the shore looked quite nice.

As I said, a lot of pictures. Especially a lot of flowers, more than I thought. Actually I take a lot of flower pictures, but I never post them anywhere.

See you next time and thank you for reading!

~ Louyse