Rich signed himself up to The Great Scottish run, so we thought we would make a weekend of it. Knowing we had a 3 and a half hour drive on our hands we knew that we had to make a pit stop somewhere, mainly so Dexter didn’t get too bored on the journey.
My Mum and Dad attempted to visit Glenbuck on a trip they had previously taken. We decided this would be a perfect way to split the journey up. My parents joined us on this trip, so visiting Glenbuck Heritage Village had to be done.
This heritage village was once factories and homes, before mother nature taken over. And was also home to the legendary Liverpool FC manager Bill Shankly.
There isn’t much to see here, to be honest. A memorial for the Glenbuck Cherrypickers football team with a few red benches, and a memorial for the great Bill Shankly (if you walk a little further along and over a hump, you will see it). The Shankly memorial is actually within the space of where his house used to be, which is pretty cool. The memorial is covered in Liverpool scarfs that fans have left, which is really touching. If you are around this area, it’s a really cool spot to come by. There is a car park but nothing else. It’s a peaceful place to be.
Kelvingrove Art Gallary and Museum
The Kelvingrove is a perfect mix of art and your normal museum exhibits. With free entry, toilet facilities and lots of space for children to explore, it’s a great place to visit when you want to break the day up, or to keep sheltered from the rain.
We managed to catch an organ performance in the main area of the museum. It’s a museum like no other – art gallary, a museum with dinosaurs, animals, ancient Egypt exhibits, then it’s like a church with organ performances.
Also, I wanted to add that opposite this museum is the Glasgow University grounds that you can wander around – it looks like Harry Potter. And you can also visit the Botanic Gardens that are this side of Glasgow too.
We visited the Dukes Umbrella for our dinner, off the back of watching a Flying The Nest vlog. It looked delicious and quirky, so we had to visit.
The font and décor of the restaurant reminded us a lot of the Netflix series The Umbrella Academy. The restaurant is beautiful and a little bit fancy, which meant that the food was a little more than average to pay for but, it was sooooo delicious. My Mum and I got the bangers and mash, it was very tasty and filling. And my Dad and Rich got the burger, that they equally loved. It was a successful visit, and would recommend if you’re visiting Glasgow.
Argyle Street and Buchanan Street
Both Argyle and Buchanan Street are the main shopping streets in the centre of Glasgow. You’ll probably find yourself waking through them quite a few times. The streets feel very much like streets you’ll find in Liverpool or Manchester.
George Square
Every city has a square, and George Square is Glasgow’s. We didn’t indulge too much here between nipping about and road closures. It’s a pretty big square, bigger than I thought it was going to be.
The architecture really stands out in the square, as it feels hidden away when you’re walking the streets of Glasgow.
Souvenir Shops
Whenever we go on holiday, I need to buy us a souvenir of some kind, a bauble for our tree and a fridge magnet for my Mother-In-Law. This is normally a quick and easy task, but in Glasgow we found it difficult to find souvenirs with Glasgow on them. And everything seemed so expensive to buy.
We checked out a few shops before making any purchases, and did get all of the goods in the end!
Duke of Wellington Statue
The Duke of Wellington Statue is stood outside of the modern art museum. The statue is famous for always having a traffic cone on top of it, which is a running joke within the city. However, being outside a modern art museum, it feels rather fitting. In the souvenir shops you could buy traffic cone hats.
When googling what to do in Glasgow, Necropolis comes up all of the time. If it’s a sunny day, this is a must!
The Necropolis is a graveyard in the center of Glasgow, located next to the cathedral, with amazing views overlooking the city.
From being on Argyle Street it took approximately 20 minutes to walk to the graveyard, and it was a pretty straight and simple walk to take. Once you arrive, you’ll be at the grounds of the cathedral that is utterly beautiful, and when you’re walking towards the graveyard you know you’re going to see some incredible views.
The graveyard is on a hill, meaning you have a slow-inclined-zig-zag walk to the top. For a graveyard it’s a gorgeous walk. You can really see some Harry Potter inspiration from the cathedral and certain statues dotted about.
It doesn’t take long to walk to the top, and once you’re at the top, it is truly breath taking. The graveyard alone is a pretty one (if you can say that) and then obviously looking over the city with the cathedral in the forefront is dreamy.
Premier Inn Motherwell / Beefeater
It worked out cheaper for us to book a hotel 20 mins out of the city centre with free parking, and then pay for parking in the centre during the day, than paying for a hotel in the city centre with additional parking costs on top of that.
The hotel was perfectly situated in a quiet area, it was clean and comfy, which is all you can ask for on a city break, isn’t it?
The hotel is attached to a Beefeater pub, which offers great traditional pub grub that we love. We had our tea there on the night and paid for a cooked and continental breakfast the next morning. It was all lovely and filling.
The Great Scottish Run
This is an annual run that takes place around October time and invites runners to take part in both a 10k and a half marathon run. Rich decided to take part in the latter, setting off from the aforementioned George’s Square. He said the course was a mix of city centre, parks and short motorway stints. The motorway slip roads were pretty hilly, but apart from that, the course was rather flat. He complete the half marathon in 1hr 48 seconds.
This wasn’t the first time to HRC Glasgow, but obviously we were going to visit again. The restaurants are always in great locations, this one is on Buchanan Street.
We had a great time, as usual with tasty food. The highlight was speaking to the manager, he sat down at the table with us. It started out about asking for refills on our drinks. Then ended up chatting about all of out travels around the world, and our Hard Rock visits. Which is why we love visiting so much, the staff are second to none.
Parking
Parking in the city centre of Glasgow was a tad tricky. On the first day, we parked at two, one near the Kelvingrove, then the second near to the Dukes Umbrella. We got to them pretty easy, but naturally parking in the city centre isn’t cheap.
On our second day when The Great Scottish Run was taking place, parking was a nightmare. We left in reasonable time. But between road works and road closures, we were scoping out car parks for an hour. We eventually found a really central one that cost us £15 for about 5 hours, but it was weirdly empty, but we were just happy to park up anywhere at that point.
Maybe next time a park and ride might be an easier option!
Driving
Driving through Glasgow was somewhat difficult too, between finding reasonable car parks, road closures and every road being a U-turn, it wasn’t the easiest of cities we have driven through.
In fact, Rich said it was the most frustrating city he had ever driven in, with all roads seemingly looping around in circles no matter where you are trying to go.
Overall
Glasgow is a great city, it’s not quite comparable to the likes of Edinburgh though. It’s a mash up of Liverpool and Manchester.
We found all of the locals to be those typical fun-loving Northerners that everyone loves. The city definitely has a lot to offer, but maybe over an extra day or so.
Glasgow
October 2022
Your Own Set of Wings 