Glasgow, Scotland - September 2015

I've been a bit slack with my blogging output since we returned from the UK, most of my time has been taken up with work (yeah, its hard to believe if you look at my blog but I actually hold down a real job and don't just spend all my time swanning around on different adventures!). The other thing that's taking up my time is writing up my crazy guy journal of the West Highland Way, I love the journals because they allow me to write up multi day walks in magazine style format but they take a bit of time to write up. I've considered writing up multi day adventures one day at a time on the blog, but the thought of the posts basically appearing in reverse chronological order does my, admittedly somewhat anal, brain in. So anyway for the time being I'll keep writing up my multi day trips on my journal and posting a synopsis with a link on the blog. So onto this post, with the annual migration of my bogan brothers and sisters to Mt Panarama in Bathurst on, I've found myself a bit of time to sit on the couch and while I watch the racing and type up a post. After a long deliberation I decided to write about Glasgow (actually they were the photos that I'd already uploaded so it saved me getting up off the couch). Glasgow may not seen like the most obvious place to do a post on, but then again I don't like being too predictable.

The advantage of the train over the plane is that you arrive in the middle of the city.

Our hotel in Glasgow.

We arrived in Glasgow in mid afternoon after a Virgin Train journey up from London, I would of liked to do a post about the fast train but couldn't bring myself to actually take any photos. I think it was about 4.5 hours from central London to central Glasgow, so by the time I factored in getting to and from airports it was probably as quick as flying, and we saw a whole lot more of the country, including passing through the Lakes District in northern England. Lugging our bags out of Glasgow Central Station we grabbed a cab for the very quick trip to our accommodation, the Glasgow Hilton. Situated in the western end of the Glasgow CBD the hotel overlooked a large freeway and was fairly non de script from the outside, from the inside it was clean and modern, pretty typical for a Hilton hotel.

With a population of slightly less than 600,000 people, Glasgow has a reputation for being a bit grey, rough and gritty, well from what I'd heard anyway. Our first afternoon in town was spent taking a quick walk around the CBD getting a bit of an idea of the lay of the land, admiring some of the beautiful Victorian buildings before heading out to a great restaurant for dinner. When I visit new cities I tend to explore a bit further away from my home base with each new excursion, and Glasgow would be no exception.

Heading into Merchant City.

The many hands make light work method, I'm not sure that the CFMEU would approve.

On our second day we started off at the Buchanan Street Mall, checking out a few of the shops as we meandered our way down towards Merchant City and our first stop the Gallery of Modern Art. The gallery is housed in a impressive old building and features a fairly wide selection of displays, from old masters, to contemporary art, there is even an aboriginal dot painting on display. After spending an hour or so taking in everything at the gallery we headed up to George Square, the square is surrounded by fine old Victorian era buildings, with the impressive City Chambers which were built in 1880's at its eastern end. One of the City Chambers claims to fame is that has been used as a movie location to represent the Kremlin or the Vatican, having never actually been to the Kremlin or the Vatican I can't vouch for the likeness, but it's an interesting bit of trivia.

A dot painting in the Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow.

The City Chambers.

The Gallery of Modern Art.

The Gallery of Modern Art, check out the sculpture.

George Square.

We now wandered around Merchant City, checking out all the nooks and crannies, the old buildings and trendy cafes being a highlight of this vibrant neighbourhood. Slowly we made our way to High Street, a fairly major road by the look of it, which we followed up to the Cathedral. The Cathedral and its neighbour The Necropolis are situated on top of a bit of a hill, so apart from the historic interest they provided the best overall view of Glasgow that we would get. The Cathedral dates from the 15th century and its dark gothic presence stands out even today. The Necropolis is situated on a grassy hill behind the Cathedral, apart from the views of Glasgow the Necropolis's old graves and headstones and Victorian tombs were interesting to stroll through and check out.

Merchant City.

Public electric car charging points, coming to Australia next century.

Glasgow hosted the Commonwealth Games in 2014.

After checking out the Necropolis we headed back towards the CBD, stopping on the way at one of the cafes in Merchant Town for some late lunch. Glasgow hosted the Commonwealth Games last year and it appears that the city spent a bit of money on street art, there are some great street murals spread out around Glasgow on various walls. After a coffee and a bite to eat we headed to the Argyll Arcade where Sam discovered the biggest toy shop that I've ever seen where we were able to indulge our inner child, they didn't have toys like this when I was a kid. From the toy shop we thought that we'd better go down and check out the River Clyde where we watched the trains coming and going over the bridge into Glasgow Central for awhile. We were now getting a bit tired so we headed back to our hotel via a few bookshops. That night we went out to a restaurant called Viva Brazil, the go in this place was that they issue you with a card with around twenty different cuts of meat on it, the waiters then bring the cooked cuts of meat to the table one at a time and stamp your card as you slowly make your way through all the different cuts. Now I'm pretty good on the tooth and I don't mind my meat, but I was defeated today, there was no way I could get through twenty different cuts.

The Gothic Glasgow Cathedral.

St Mungo's Museum of Religious Life & Art.

The Necropolis, with Glasgow in the back ground.

There is plenty of good street art in Glasgow.

Just what every child needs, a life sized stuffed giraffe.

The River Clyde.

Now we have to jump into the time machine and go forward a couple of weeks, when we returned to Glasgow after walking the West Highland Way. Once again we stayed in the Hilton at the western end of the CBD, on this visit though we wanted to check out the West End of Glasgow. In particular we wanted to have a look at Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum, this was the spot that I'd decided to start my West Highland Way walk from. This massive museum and gallery was the best attraction that I visited in Glasgow, the museum holds hundreds of exhibits ranging from natural history and archaeology to social issues from around the world. The museum even had a section on indigenous land rights issues from around the would, with a display of Australia's aboriginal tent embassy in Canberra, as well as some indigenous art on display. It wasn't all heavy going though with Art Deco displays and plenty of natural history for the kids (and me). Returning to our hotel in the late afternoon we had a quiet night in, having a couple of quiet drinks in the hotel bar while I made use of their free wifi.

Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum, this is the spot I actually started my West Highland Way walk from.

The Kelvingrove Museum had a large area dedicated to social issues from around the world.

And from closer to home.

With some modern art.

Along with some older stuff, this one is called 'the ghosts of Glencoe' if I remember right, the artist is thought to have chosen this spot to paint due to its importance in Scottish history as it was the sight of the 1692 massacre, of which I might touch on when I post about our West Highland Way walk.

Elvis even got a run.

The Dirt.

Far from being grey and drab I found Glasgow cosmopolitan and vibrant, the cafes and restaurants were many and varied and while the sky may be a bit drab the people are bright and sunny. We were lucky in that both our visits were in fine weather, the city is compact enough that if you're reasonably active you can visit most of the attractions fairly easy on foot, the other thing to note is that Glasgow is fairly flat so that also helps if exploring on foot. If you are checking the sights out and the weather does deteriorate then the taxis in Glasgow are reasonably priced.The Necropolis provided the best view over town with the Cathedral in the foreground to add interest.The Gallery of Modern Art was good but Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum was better in my opinion, and while you're out at Kelvingrove you can check out Kelvingrove Park on the River Kelvin. a very pleasant spot for a walk and a likely location to spot a squirrel. We stayed at the Glasgow Hilton which was a nice hotel in the typical Hilton tradition, one thing to note is the lower rooms are a bit dark and gloomy inside, where as the higher rooms are a lot lighter band airier, so ask for a room up high. We had free wifi and brekky included. We got to and from Glasgow on the train from London and that was a great experience in itself, it would be awesome if we had some of these high speed trains in Australia.

Look hard and you'll see a squirrel, Kelvingrove Park

Sunset over the west end of Glasgow from our room.