Today is my fifth day in Glasgow and I’ve just spent one hour looking for a coffee shop. You know the type of hygge shop with dark corners, comfy seating and moody lighting? Well they’re not easily found - in most cities the usual coffee haunt is a generic one such as Nero’s or Costa in the UK. Well those types were so crowded I opted to go back to my hotel - Voco Central - and there the patient concierge showed me the hidden place in the hotel where I got a fab coffee and here I sit typing. Alone cept for the friendly waitress who is setting up for brunch. And she made a perfect cup of coffee for me.
So Glasgow is a smallish city - population 600,000 according to a guided tour (must check that fact). But it’s busy from about 8am onwards with people swarming to work. This surprised me as leisurely Edinburgh didn’t seem to have such a bustle and I was free to roam crowd-free til tourists hit the street about 11 ish. Similarly Amsterdam had a different kind of morning rush. Mainly frenetic cyclists trying to control the roads and pedestrians. And lovely Gothenburg was its gentle self all day. But more on those places elsewhere.
I haven’t been to Glasgow since a memorable New Year’s Eve back in the early 1980s. And it’s a vastly different city now.
Today Glasgow is known for fantastic street art and has a couple of excellent museums. Add images. The Kelvingrove Museum has some great French Art, an outstanding Dali and the world’s biggest pipe organ. Stick around til 3 pm to hear an organist play classical (Sunday) and other types of music. Allow 2 hours. The Riverside Museum is basically a transport museum but has so much more than a load of old and beautifully restored cars, trams, buses, it includes wheelchairs (of course they’re transport), boats etc. the most engaging display was the double decker bus that played a video of reminiscences of 1950s/60s dance halls. I loved the parts about the shoe bags that women carried to preserve their dancing shoes fr the damaging bus steps, the makeup application in the bus (!) away fr disapproving parents, the courtship rituals (the best dancer more sought after than the most handsome). And their ages from 15-17 at the time! Add link.
Add it to your must visit list. Kick off on a an hop on hop off 90-minute bus tout to give you an overview if you’ve not visited before. Warning buses are not heated. So beware the open top on a winter /wet day.
And I highly recommend staying in the city centre … despite advice from my Glaswegian friends who pointed me to the West End. I love the city pedestrian streets where you can shop without traffic interference. Though to be honest, Glaswegians ignore traffic lights and jaywalking is the order of the day. And among the shops are some pretty great places to eat.. definitely try lunch at Mackintosh’s Willow Tea Room (warning £35 for afternoon tea) for its stunning Art Deco deco and lunch/brunch at Ivy’s which has a White Lotus vibe.
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