On Wednesday, I went on a daytrip to Glasgow with my tourism class. We caught the train at 8.26am from Carlisle, and about an hour later, we were in Scotland! Magic!
Anyway, with blue skies ahead, we decided to walk from Central Station all the way to Kelvingrove Art Gallery, because we knew the nice spring weather wouldn't last long.
So we went up Hope Street and turned left and made our way along Sauchiehall, all the time trying to guess the year or period the buildings on either side of the street were built. I think it's a pretty fair guess to estimate "1930's" for the Beresford Building in Art Deco style....

We decided to approach Kelvingrove through the park, and it was a nice surprise to leave the industrial city and its greyness behind and step into the world of spring with flowers and trees in blossom (finally!) and kids playing in the park.

Kelvingrove Art Gallery in itself was quite a surprise. Purpose-built as a museum at the turn of the century (19th to 20th, that is) it could be anything from the outside. It could easily have been part of a church complex, a function hall with ballroom, even part of the University. It's huge! And very interesting in it's quite eccentric collection! On the one hand, you find armours from all over the world, a spitfire, examples of Glaswegian textile and furniture design - and just across the hall you find works by Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh and Salvador Dalí. Admission is free, it's easy to get to and well worth spending an hour or two browsing through.

Just across the street from the Kelvingrove, is a tiny restaurant called Mother India's Café. It looked quite non-descript from the outside, but proved to be rather nice inside. They offer tapas style dining, which means you and a friend should choose 3 or 4 dishes (they are quite small) and try them between you with some rice or chapati. Be warned however, that even the "Butter Almond Chicken" is quite spicy! You might want to order a Lassi with your meal...

Back in the city centre, we walked straight past the Willow Tea Room, one of Rennie Mackintosh's most famous sites in Glasgow. You can easily miss the sign for it, and you have to go through a shop to reach it. I can tellyou now though, that it is on the pedestrianised bit of Sauchiehall, pretty much opposite Deichmann and above Henderson Jewellers.
Lauren and I stopped there for a milkshake. Apparently, the actual tea rooms upstairs are supposed to be rather nice. However, when we got there, only the atrium bit directly across the jeweller's wasaccessible and quite dissapointing.

We then went shopping along Sauchiehall and Buchanan Street, killing some time and enjoying the variety of shops...Carlisle's offer is rather limited in comparison. Ah well, we're girls after all, so what did you expect? I even managed to find a nice summer dress that I can't wait to wear....now it just gotta warm up quite drastically over the next few weeks and it's all good!

Before catching the train back home, we visited Glasgow's "Malt Whiskey Pub of the Year" the Pot Still on Hope Street. A quite old-fashioned but comfy pub, they have over 500 whiskeys for you to choose from, as well as a pretty good collection of beers and ales on tap. I got to sample their "Whiskey of the Month", Talisker, which was a bit too smoky for my liking, but great to try anyway.

I had only been to Glasgow once before, and we stayed around Merchant City. I didn't like Glasgow the first time round, it looked like any industrial town to me. I didn't think that Glasgow could manage to change the first impression I got of it in 2005, but I've got to admit I was quite impressed this time round. It is actually a rather nice city.