Glasgow

We arrived in Glasgow Wednesday afternoon after leaving home at 5:30pm on Tuesday. We were tired enough that we decided on an Uber instead of taking bus and subway. Chris greeted is when we got to our Airbnb. We had a bedroom, sitting room and private bath in a very modern (interior) townhouse in the west end.

After resting a bit, we ventured out for food and drink. We ended up at Curlers Rest, one of the recommendations of our Airbnb host. The food way good and I enjoyed the St. Mungo's beer.

We then wandered around and spent some time exploring the University of Glasgow campus. Certainly some beautiful old buildings. There was some type of event taking place and we got to enjoy some bagpipe music.

A stroll through cobblestone Ashton Lane was nice. At night, it is lit with twinkling lights.

We made our way back to our room and it wasn't long before we decided it was time for some sleep.

On Thursday we slept in but once we got moving we headed on the subway to the city center. The subway circles the city with only 15 stops. It is very modern despite dating from 1896. It is the 3rd oldest in the world. We walked around the city center a bit to get a feel for it. It reminded us of Pittsburgh with a gritty feel, no doubt due to its industrial history.

We decided to do on the hop on, hop off bus for a tour of the city. We decided to go off at the Riverside museum, dedicated to transport. I expect a major focus on ships, given that at one point Glasgow had about 50 percent of the ship building capacity in the world and employed 100,000 people in the ship yards. However, the museum covered everything related to ground transportation, as well. A good stop.

After getting back on the bus, our next stop was the Glasgow cathedral. This was built around the year 1200. While not the most impressive of cathedrals, it is the only cathedral that survived the Reformation, although not as a Catholic church. The crypt below the church contains the remains of St. Mungo.

Since we were so close, we decided to walk to the Tennent Brewery and caught the last tour of the day. Tennent claims to be the best selling beer in Scotland. The Tennent family started brewing on the site back in the 1500s. The tour finished up with a pint and some good conversation.

Food (and some more beer) was at Sloan's, a recommendation of the bartender at Tennents. Eileen had fish and chips while I had a haggis melt in ciabatta per recommendation off the Tennents bartender. Very good.

We then wondered around some more before hopping on the subway for the last bit of the journey to out room.

Tomorrow starts our 7 days of hiking on the West Highlands Way.Read more