Happy Sunday! Anne from the blog Slow Shutter Speed is the host for this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge and we’re focusing on buildings and architectures this week.

Like Anne, I, too, enjoy photographing buildings for the same reasons – they don’t sway and some of them certainly look like a work of art.

Living in suburbia, I don’t really get a chance to see many interesting structures. It was one of the reasons I decided to say yes to the trip to the UK with mom. I particularly enjoyed Scotland. Their buildings are very unique to that of England and even the U.S.

In Glasgow, we did something we would never do – we hopped on a sightseeing bus. I didn’t know much about Glasgow and when I searched “What to do in Glasgow” on YouTube, all I got were videos of people going shopping. Apparently, that’s what people do in Glasgow – shopping.

It was the first time we have ever done these sightseeing tour buses and didn’t know what to expect. I was usually the one who planned our sightseeing destinations. It was why mom insisted I go with her because I have always been the planner of our trips.

On that cloudy day, we bought our tickets and hopped onto the bus.

I must admit, I was thoroughly surprised. Upon hopping onto the bus, we were given earbuds to plug into the small audio player at the back of the seat to listen to the commentary spoken by someone with a beautiful Scottish accent.

As the bus wound through the narrow roads, the voice told the history of Glasgow as I snapped away on the open top-deck of the double-decker bus. Every road and building had so much history and just looking at them told me a story of its evolution and transformation through the years.

This is Merchant Square and according the commentary, it was a place of execution. Immediately, images came into my head. I’m not a fan of my imagination sometimes. The most gruesome detail of all, right after beheading, people would hang those heads at the top of the clock tower. The fact alone made me shiver. Yikes.

As I spent a few minutes to soak in the history of this city. It reminded me that the world wasn’t what it is today, that it was bloody, full of war and death, and one’s head could be under an axe simply for speaking the wrong word.

Of course, one can’t really say they’ve visited a city without seeing its modern landmarks. They called the first building “The Armadillo”. It certainly looks like it, doesn’t it with its multi-layer shell? The second one is the Ovo Hydro and it’s a multi-purpose arena. Lots of famous musicians have held concert there, so I’ve been told.

As we neared the end of the tour, we got a glimpse of the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum next to the University of Glasgow. According to the commentary, this building was built in Spanish style. The structure definitely stood out to me. Overall, these hop-on-hop-off sightseeing buses opened my eyes on a new way to visit a new city. I will need to do these tours again in another city.