For my time in Glasgow, I had no desire to attempt driving on the left side of the road nor did I want to walk everywhere or pay for taxis. I settled on a hop on/hop off bus tour and bought a 2-day ticket for about $21. Lemme tell you, this was worth every penny and worked out almost perfectly. A co-worker of mine highly recommended a tour/visit of the Highlands, but the shortest one I could find was about 10 hours, and there just seemed to be too much to do in the city for me to squeeze that in and not be completely rushed.
I arrived in Glasgow at Queen Street station around 6:30pm on 26 May. Since Glasgow sits at 55 degrees latitude, it wasn’t even close to getting dark. I made the 10-minute walk to the hotel and (finally!) set my bags down. After trotting through Edinburgh the whole afternoon, I didn’t want to go far for dinner. I asked the concierge for restaurant recommendations that were within a 5-minute walk. He gave me the name of a pizza place that sounded good, Nonna's Pizza, so I headed there. I was seated at a large high-top table with a couple that was already eating at the opposite end. I ordered a Caribbean jerk chicken pizza, mojito mocktail, and blue “cookie monster” ice cream for dessert.
While I was waiting for my food an older gentleman in a sport coat approached the couple. He explained he worked for the restaurant and very politely asked if he could briefly entertain them with some card tricks. He did about four tricks for them before thanking them and approaching me. He introduced himself to me, asked permission (uh, yeah man, let’s see what you’ve got!) and then did roughly eight tricks with me. His slight of hand was flawless, he was very personable, had a good sense of humor, and did several tricks I’d never seen. Watching him entertain other larger groups was hilarious; a group of four young American dudes had some outrageous reactions. After dinner, I went back to the hotel and crashed for the night.
The next morning (27 May), I hit the hop on/hop off bus tour, starting at George Square in the city center. It ran between 10:00am-7:30pm and I caught the first bus of the morning, which happened to have a live tour guide (instead of just headphones that plugged into the seat with multi-lingual narration). I quickly realized foregoing the Highlands tour was the right call. As we drove around on our bright red double-decker bus, I decided to simply ride the whole loop one time to orient on the city and decide what sights I was most interested in exploring on my own. The entire loop had 21 stops and took 90 minutes to complete. I was hungry by the end of it and the guide recommended the Blue Lagoon for good fish and chips. There was a Blue Lagoon close to George Square so I headed there to eat and sort out what I wanted to see.
Glasgow City Chambers and World War (both I and II) memorial on George Square. According to the tour guide, the inside of the city chambers is incredibly ornate and has more marble that The Vatican. Tours of this building were only M-F, so I wasn't able to see the interior.
The fish and chips at Blue Lagoon were both on the greasier side, but still good. At the table they had a condiment holder, which had a classic solid red ketchup bottle, a malt vinegar bottle, and a solid brown bottle that I didn’t recognize. I asked the server what was in the brown bottle. He explained it was the restaurant’s house sauce, that used HP sauce for the base plus some haggis and other spices blended in. He didn’t miss a beat when he saw my bewildered expression and asked if I’d ever had HP sauce. I told him I hadn’t, and he said he’d been told it was somewhat like A1 and would bring me some. After trying it, I can confirm it is like A1 but it’s sweeter and has less of a horseradish/vinegar bite; more of a cousin to A1 than a sibling. When the server came to check on me, I told him I thought the house sauce was closer to A1. He laughed and explained he’s been wanting to try A1 for long time but hasn’t been able to get to the States. While I finished eating, I decided to visit the McLennan Arch (Jocelyn Square)/Glasgow Green, The People’s Palace/Doulton Fountain, and the Riverside Museum/Tall Ship exhibit.
Blue Lagoon wall decor. Fish & chips is fish & chips, so didn't bore people with a pic.
It was windier than I anticipated so I decided to make the 10-minute trek back to the hotel to grab my jacket and then make the 10-minute walk to McLennan Arch, passing through Glasgow Green to get to the People’s Palace & Doulton Fountain. From there I planned to hop on the bus and ride to the Riverside Museum. It was already 12:40pm by the time I reached McLennan Arch. It’s located on the northwestern edge of Glasgow Green, on a site formerly known as Jocelyn Square. The bus guide said it was the site of public executions until 1865. The last execution held there was a man who poisoned his wife and mother-in-law. Over 80,000 people turned out to watch him hang. As I passed through the arch, a colorful legacy installment from the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the Glasgow Monument (looks like the Washington Monument) could also be seen.
McLennan Arch / Jocelyn Square.
Glasgow Green and the Glasgow Monument.
Once I was on the backside of the monument, the back of the People’s Palace and it's large Winter Garden (greenhouse) came into view. I walked around to the front where the Doulton Fountain is located. At 46-feet tall and 70-feet wide (the diameter of the pool at the bottom), it is the world’s largest functioning and most intact terracotta fountain. It was originally an exhibit in the 1888 International Exhibition and it depicts Great Britain’s four colonies at the time: Australia, Canada, India, and South Africa. Queen Victoria stands at the top.
Back of People's Palace, from Glasgow Green.
Front of People's Palace.
I headed into the People’s Palace. There were several exhibits, but the WWII exhibit gave a glimpse of what life was like for Glaswegians from 1939-1945. The ration and gas mask displays were the most interesting. It wasn’t part of the museum, but my pre-trip research revealed that Glasgow, specifically the Clydeside areas, were bombed in 1941 (maybe more on this in a separate post). In August 1939, roughly 120,000 children were evacuated from Glasgow in only three days to spare them from Nazi targeting of the valuable ports and wartime industrial areas along the Clyde. Evacuation instructions were to pack one bag per child containing a single spare set of clothes and a child-size gas mask. Children were sent to their local school with their evacuation bag, then transported en masse to the train station, and moved by train to the countryside. While many were placed with relatives that lived in rural areas, it seems the majority were placed with complete strangers... something that is hard for any parent to fathom in peacetime, but I think easy to understand when faced with the reality of war.
Ration display.
Gas mask display. Upper shelf is a child's gas mask. Bottom is an infant's gas mask that an adult would have to pump fresh air into.
Posters encouraging women to work in support of the war effort.
Once I had finished exploring the People’s Palace, I headed to bus stop #5 around 2pm. After waiting 25 minutes, a group informed everyone waiting that the tour had ceased running buses to stops 3-6 for the day due to the Scottish Premier League’s championship game. Glasgow’s team, Celtic F.C., was playing and the fans were out in force in that section of the city, making it impossible for the buses to navigate. I made the 30-minute walk to stop #7 to catch the bus to the Riverside Museum and Tall Ship exhibit. The bus ride from stop #7 to stop # 12 took about 20 minutes, and was a much needed break from walking.
While at the Riverside Museum, I video-chatted with my family to show off some of the trains and crazy vehicles there. I explored the Tall Ship and then caught the bus back to George Square.
With the exception of the galley (first photo) and the First Mate's sleeping quarters (last photo), all interior photos of the tall ship are of the Captain's quarters. Bonus points if you can spot the two fake rats they included in the displays.
By the time I got back to George Square, it was about 6:00pm. There were Celtics fans everywhere and absolutely none of them were sober (they won). As I walked back to the hotel, the Celtics crowd got thicker, more drunk, and less dressed; the sidewalks got stickier and crunchier with spilled beverages and broken glass. As I approached the block of the hotel entrance, I saw police at several points, with no less than three people laying drunk/half passed out in the street. I was briefly worried I would have to pass through the police line and rowdiest portion of the crowd in the distance to get to the hotel entrance. Fortunately, the doors were about 20 feet before the end of the block where the police line had set up. The hotel had enabled the key-card lock so that only guests could enter. I scanned my card, and went in. A girl followed me in, but the concierge was having none of that. He swiftly approached us and allowed me to pass by to access the elevators (same guy that gave me restaurant recommendations the evening before!) while simultaneously giving her the third degree and Heisman. As the elevator doors closed, he was booting her back onto the street. I highly recommend Fraser Suites if you ever find yourself in Glasgow 😊.
Dinner was a hassle. Everywhere near the hotel was overrun with sloshed Celtics hooligans. I ate at an Asian place called Yippon. It was alright, but I should have ordered differently and ended up disappointed by a yellow chicken curry dish. I stopped by a convenience store and picked up some ice cream before traversing back through the drunken crowd to the hotel, prepping a rough plan for the next day, and finally crashing for the night.
Fun closing fact: Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland with a metro population of 1.8 million. While many famous people have lived in Glasgow, both James Watt and Joseph Lister lived there. Watt was born in the area and invented the engine that ultimately enabled the Industrial Revolution to explode while walking in Glasgow Green and Lister served as a Professor of Surgery and the University of Glasgow for nine years. These are the individuals for which the unit of power (a Watt=1 joule per second) and antiseptic (Listerine!) are named.
Tango Sierra out!
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