When we started our journey through the UK, we quite consciously started from London. The reason for such a route is simple - our plane flew to London, and of course London is the largest, brightest and most beautiful, and a lot more the MOST city in England. Since the time of the trip was limited, and yet the main goal was Scotland, it was there that we went on the morning flight from London to Glasgow.
(There will be a separate post about our one-day London marathon)
The flight process was not impressed, to put it mildly. We arrived at the airport at 5:30 am. We spent more than 3 hours on checks, endless queues, registration, and waiting for the flight. Then there was the actual flight, which took a little over an hour, waiting for the bus and travel to the city took about an hour. And finally, after 5.5 hours after leaving the hotel in central London, we got to Glasgow. 😊 It doesn’t sound very optimistic, and I’ll say more: a comfortable train ride from London to Glasgow (the station in the city centre) takes 5 hours and costs half as much as a flight. On this about flights within the country - that's it, decide for yourself which transport to choose for yourself.
Scotland greeted with a cold, northerly wind, and drizzling rain; however, sometimes the sun's rays warmed up in between rains, by the fourth day of our trip we stopped noticing most of the small rains. In general, as a guide - the weather in the traditional Scottish style. We were ready for this; warm, practical, waterproof clothing to help everyone.
It takes about 30 minutes to get to the city centre from the airport by bus, the roads were empty, we took seats near the front window on the second floor and enjoyed the beautiful scenery all the way; The city met us with some more sleepy streets. Although, the time was approaching noon, there were few people on the streets, and those who met by the appearance were local and went about their business, how did we understand this? They just moved very energetically and did not stop to stare at the monuments 😊. “It’s cold, after all, and the wind, and it’s not a tourist season at all” - we made approximately this conclusion after some reflection on this topic.
The city centre is amazing! Great Victorian architecture from the 19th century, and recognizable Glasgow style designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. The master of combination and reconstruction of ancient traditions, the genius of the modern unique vision of his time, the founder of his own school of design. The Macintosh phenomenon, in my opinion, was in the unique ability to display centuries-old traditions in a new modern vision, in architecture and design. I am deeply convinced that the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh deserves a separate post, therefore, without going into the features and details of his works, we can safely say that he was a genius and the father of Scottish modernity. My admiration for the architecture of Glasgow can develop into a kind of personal analysis of the peculiarities of styles and trends, at different times in the development of the city in the post-war period; but since this post is about my acquaintance with Glasgow in general, I will try to just share my modest impressions.
The first thing that comes to mind when looking at elegant, austere buildings is reliability, comfort and warmth inside. Scotland is a peculiar, original, colourful country with very kind and open people who value home comfort and privacy of their own lives, and this is reflected in the architecture of the city by 100%. Many buildings are built of red or light sandstone; majestic, stylish and reliable - all three words perfectly describe the feeling while walking through the streets of the city.
I cannot single out special buildings, because they all really impressed me. Vivid culture shock did not let go until the evening trip to the pub. 😊 And yet, it is necessary to note such masterpieces of architecture as: Glasgow Central Station, George Square, Glasgow Cathedral, the entire Merchant City, Modern Art Gallery, School of Design and of course the University of Glasgow.
Unfortunately, we had a little more than a day to visit the city, and taking into account the planned trip to the Loch Lomond reserve during this period, even much less.
Nevertheless, the impressions were enough to leave a piece of my heart in this city.
We travelled lightly; small backpacks perfectly contained all the necessary things. Therefore, we boldly headed to the Museum of Modern Art, to look at Andy Warhol's can of soup, and many impressive masterpieces, masters of the 20th century. As always, I left the museum with a new book and a lot of impressions. In general, I will write a separate post about my books.
Everyone has their own habits and their own collections of souvenirs brought from their travels. So, I take books from any trip. Guides to the country, cities, museums, bright photo albums, and small pocketbooks, huge 4 kg folios (for example, about the work of Bernardo Bellotto) and books about spells from the Harry Potter universe. And everyone can say: “so what!”, But my friends, when there are NINE books for a 4-day trip, and I only have a small backpack on my shoulders, and I need to somehow drag them home... In general, this is a separate truth story and there will be a separate post on this topic.😉
After a bright walk and when the wind still became unbearably cold, we began to look for a place for a late breakfast, and honestly went to the first restaurant we met. Scottish breakfast is a breakfast that consists of scrambled eggs, toast, bacon, baked beans, hash browns, sausages, black pudding, flatbread, mushrooms and fried tomatoes, oh yes, toast butter, jam, orange juice and a cup of real English tea, to which serve milk. And yes, everything is exactly as it is, without exaggeration at all, there is nothing to add - everything is in the picture. After such a breakfast, it was difficult to get up, let alone go for a walk, and only natural obstinacy and tight deadlines played a role - we still decided to crawl to our hotel to check in.
Separately, it is worth noting the hotel in which we stayed. This is one of the oldest pubs in the city, on the second floor of which there are several cozy rooms, it is called - "Rab Ha's". First and foremost - super open, friendly and polite staff. The guys helped us navigate the city, suggested the shortest routes, and shared tips on how to save on travel. To the question "Do you like in Glasgow?" heard a sincere and undeniable answer “Glasgow is the best city in the world”, and friends, I know that everyone talks about their city like this, but these guys sincerely and wholeheartedly believe in these words and tried their best to present their city, so that we didn't doubt it for a second. The rooms are cozy, clean, very good soundproofing, considering that on the ground floor there is one of the oldest and at the same time popular pubs in the city, you can put a solid 8 out of 10.
After checking in, we went to the University of Glasgow. For a long time, I built on the route of our movement around the city, many points appeared and then disappeared, but the University of Glasgow remained an unshakable stronghold on the map of our journey.
The weather did not spare us, drizzling rain forced us to put on all the warm clothes, reinforce this outfit with a raincoat, hat and warm scarf, and only after that, ignoring the water from heaven, we just went for a walk around the university, enjoying the amazing masterpieces of architecture, and involuntarily comparing it with Hogwarts (I'm a bit of a Harry Potter fan, and as unverified sources say, it was the University of Glasgow that served as the prototype for Hogwarts ;) ).
Well, what can I say … The place is really fabulous. The University of Glasgow is a whole campus with several educational buildings around the main building and beyond (for example, there is a research centre in Loch Lomond). I was very impressed; unique atmosphere, stunning architecture, and comfortable infrastructure of the complex, free and IMPORTANT interesting museums; all this made the trip unforgettable. According to information on the Internet, the University of Glasgow consists of four main colleges, in which about 25,000 students’ study. 2.5 thousand teachers help them acquire knowledge. In addition to other educational buildings, the university includes a cinema, theatre, 4 museums, a modern gym with a swimming pool. In three hours, we could not even get around part of the complex, but no doubt we managed to feel the atmosphere of this amazing place.
Upon returning home, we first of all began to describe in all colours to our son a magnificent university, for the record - the largest in Scotland, fourth in the UK, and 51st in the world ranking (in 2 years, my son plans to enter higher education and is now choosing a university 😉).
A little tired, but in a great mood, we went for a walk in the evening city. And here we are facing a unique new side to Glasgow. The fact is that there is only one subway line in the city, there is also a ring, and this "feature" pertains to it. Local youth have an interesting way of entertainment, the so-called pub crawl, and it consists in the following: more often on the weekend, a couple of people or a group of people drink in succession in different bars at each metro station; One station - one bar! The trick of this entertainment is that they drink more often, no more than one serving of alcohol in one pub, and while moving to the next station they manage to sober up a little 😉. In this way, people both have fun and move, while changing the landscape and the place of spending time. We just met with several groups like that on the subway and on the streets. Funny, loud, but not aggressive companies of different ages and on different occasions (bachelor party, bachelorette party, birthday, etc.). Atmospheric - yes, but this is rather a controversial feature of Glasgow.
So, while walking, we got to our hotel, and that's when we fully realized that this is also one of the oldest and most popular pubs in the city. We managed to win a place near the bar on the third attempt and sit down only after some time. There is music, but you can't hear it at all.
Why? It's simple, pub visitors communicate. Loud, fun, with a fuse and arguments, jokes, and songs. I did not see a phone in the hands of any visitor, AT ALL. After quiet evenings in European restaurants, dinner in a pub seemed to me just a firework of emotions, and a cycle of endless vivid impressions. I will never forget, and for a very long time I will remember with warmth in my heart, this is a cozy, traditional place, with a truly Scottish soul.
It is difficult to sum up, because in the morning there was also a trip to the Loch Lomond nature reserve. And then return to the city for our backpacks and moving to Edinburgh. But perhaps it would be right to end this post on such a bright note. There will be a separate post about our trip to Loch Lomond.
Glasgow is an authentic traditional Scotland. The soul and heart of the city are full of comfort and warmth, and the inhabitants are very friendly and hospitable. A city for a comfortable life, a city where I left a piece of my heart.
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