Glasgow, Scotland
I wrote about how we got to Glasgow here. Now allow me to talk about our stay in this city that I ended up loving; you may wonder how we chose to visit it so here it goes.
When you think of Scotland, there's a big chance that you think of Edinburgh and Highlands, as they are popular destinations. Too popular for our liking.
My husband has been wanting to visit Scotland since way before I met him. While planning our trip, of course, the first thing that we thought about was where we were going to stay. My husband likes to go off the beaten path and has been scouring the internet for information months prior to planning our trip. That's how he found CitizenM hotels and was curious about their concept and design. Knowing that Scotland was a must destination for us, we decided on Glasgow and this hotel since CitizenM had their first outside-Netherlands location there. So that's how we decided on visiting Glasgow, the biggest city in Scotland.
I have mentioned on my Instagram that I wasn't very excited about visiting Scotland, at first. Without researching, or even visiting it beforehand, this country doesn't make you think of architecture and culture, but more of landscape and rural areas… and yes, castles. Or, at least that's what I was thinking.
And since beautiful, ornate architecture and arts were what I wanted the most out of our trip, visiting Scotland was the part that I was just going to go through for my husband. But God, oh God, was I wrong and ignorant! This country blew me away.
First of all, WOW! to the architecture in Glasgow and Edinburgh (the two cities we visited in this country; to the latter I will get later). I truly was that impressed!
I have to say that I appreciate a country and city that maintains its history. Scotland and the City of Glasgow have preserved so many historical sites and buildings, that often you feel like you have taken a step back in history. But I need to slow down...
As mentioned, Glasgow is the biggest city in Scotland but still has a somewhat town feeling, with very friendly people. It's about an hour train ride from (or to) Edinburgh. It is less crowded than the capital of Scotland (Edinburgh), but not less when it comes to things to do. I would describe it as a vibrant city, maybe even a bit "hip" and totally worth a visit.
We arrived in Glasgow in the second part of May and found moody weather. Clouds were always present, we had some full days of rain, and cold all around. The wind seemed ever-present there, to the point that I had to buy a jacket to protect myself from it. I haven't brought a jacket with me for our 4-months trip, since well, we were going into summer right? I thought a sweater would be enough. Well, not in the UK. In spite of the cold, the trees were blooming and everything else was coming back to life. I guess that's just how the UK does spring.
We arrived by flying into Glasgow airport, and that's when we had our first unpleasant surprise. Basically, don't be like us and come unprepared, currency-wise!
Having no UK pounds on us to get to our hotel (not that THAT would have been of any help - I'll get to that soon), we thought of exchanging money at the airport. At the airport exchange kiosk, we found out they charge a 15% commission, on top of a very disadvantageous exchange rate, which was basically highway robbery. DO NOT DO IT! We literally exchanged just enough to have for our bus ride, thinking we'd ask at the hotel for an exchange place nearby. And yes, we took the bus from the airport to our hotel, which was easy and cheap, given that it was less than a 30 minutes ride, and the Queen street station was around the corner from our hotel.
At the hotel, we paid with the CC for our meal that night, and after inquiring about an exchange place, we headed the next day to Mark & Spencer, a department store located close to our hotel. And here's where I explain why UK pounds would not have been helpful. We found out that they only use/accept Scottish banknotes (except the banks) in Glasgow and Edinburgh - can't speak of other cities as these are the only ones we visited so far. We were not aware of that, obviously.
The lady at the counter exchanged our money into banknotes of Scotland, aka Scottish pounds, and asked us if we were traveling anywhere else in the UK. When we said London, she let us know that London establishments might not accept the pounds she gave us and advised us to keep our receipt, so we can exchange any leftover money in London to pound sterling bills used in London. Mind-blowing but that's how the UK does it!
Once we were past the funds issue, we could finally relax. The forecast was showing almost daily rain towards the end of the week, so we decided to head to Edinburgh just the day before the rain was supposed to begin. In the meantime... We were lucky not to experience jet lag and got off exploring asap, to get to know the city as well as prepare for our day-trip to Edinburgh.
Having one day only ahead of this day-trip to Edinburgh, we hit the ground running to see Glasgow. We asked at the hotel for some recommendations, grabbed our handy maps (the hotel leaves in the room a booklet with the most popular attractions in the city), and were on our way. Our goal was to explore Merchant City and its surrounding area, and the Lighthouse, which is a mini cultural center in itself.
We thought to hit the Lighthouse first, as you get the best views of the city from above, and began looking for 11 Mitchell Lane. The building was easy enough to find but we got confused about the entrance to the actual tower. As we were in the street, trying to figure it out, and probably looking super confused, an older man stopped: "are you looking for the Lighthouse entrance?" in an accent that made it hard for me to understand. My husband, a little quicker to react said yes, to which the man pointed at the door we just got out and gave us details that we missed at first. This was the second time we were taken aback by the niceness (we were fresh out of California and you don't get that there, #sorrybutitstrue), and I was so very grateful for this stranger simply stopping from his path to help some lost tourists.
Since it's still fresh... I have to tell you about the Glasgow accent, as it's unique and, as we were told by the super friendly hotel staff, has the name of Glasgow patter and also, is referred to as "the Glaswegian speech". It's not your average Scottish accent and, honestly, majority of the time, I really did not know what people were telling me -- I simply could not understand them. But boy, I loved it; the way they spoke, the intonation, ah, it evoked such cheer… we wanted to copy it. But back to our adventures…
Once we found our way into the Lighthouse, we went to the indoor viewing area and then up the tight 134 spiral stairs towards the outdoor viewing area, to get a better view of the city. The city was looking just as good from above as it did from the ground.
People make Glasgow... that's the slogan we saw everywhere and I hope the city truly cares for its people.
The Glasgow Lighthouse Mackintosh tower, through the glass.
The 134 stairs of the Mackintosh Tower
From the Lighthouse, we changed our plans and headed towards the Glasgow cathedral, the oldest cathedral in mainland Scotland, and the oldest building in Glasgow, standing tall since 1136 (at least)!
Before seeing it, we didn't think much of it or that it was going to surprise us, but it did. With its gothic architecture, the cathedral is stunning inside and outside. Below the cathedral is a crypt, also open to the public and while a bit creepy to me, it was fascinating to visit and find the names of my husband's possible ancestors printed in the "Roll of Honour". Even though not that big, we spent over an hour here exploring, and even greatly enjoyed listening to a historian tell us, in a very animated way, the story of the Scottish clans, when we asked about them. It was a delight!
