Travel to Glasgow
Any trip to Scotland could benefit from a visit to the country’s largest city. Glasgow is renowned for its extensive shopping opportunities, its colourful nightlife and the witty charm of its good people. Often disregarded as not having the visual “wow” factor of Edinburgh’s city centre with the omnipresent castle hovering over it, Glasgow has started to return to prominence as a tourist hot spot in more recent years. As a Glasgow boy myself I may be prone to a slight bias in talking up my home city, but I promise to be as objective as possible.
The city centre is a high street shoppers’ paradise and the nearby merchant city offers an abundance of inviting cafés, bars and restaurants to rest in-between. A trip out to the charismatic West End is a must too to take in some of the country’s best art galleries, take a calming stroll through the Botanic Gardens, marvel at the architecture of Glasgow University and eat and drink the night away in warm Glasgow company on Ashton Lane.
But what about the legendary Scottish weather you might ask. Yes, it does rain a lot in Glasgow, there is no escaping it. But on those glorious dry days that do come along every now and then, if you travel to Glasgow you’ll discover a generous amount of green space. One of my favourite things about the city is the pace. Unlike the likes of London or Paris there is not that hectic, congested feel that can put you off of a city, and there are always places to escape to tranquillity.
There is also a particular buzz about the place these days as the momentum builds for the 2014 Commonwealth Games that is coming to the city. Money is being poured into the city’s development to get it up to shape for the big event and the impressive Chris Hoy Velodrome in the East End has already been completed. Sport is a huge part of life in Scotland and with by far the country’s two biggest clubs, Celtic and Rangers, both Glasgow based, there is a certain rivalry in the air a lot of the time. If you have ever been brave enough to go to an Old Firm game you will know what I mean.
But whatever you do if you make it to my home city is to have yourself a first class Glasgow curry. Never mind all this talk you’ll hear about deep fried Mars bars, we don’t actually do that (well, not often anyway), and focus on finding one of our best Indian restaurants. Send me a tweet or an email and I’ll be happy to recommend some of my favourite places to eat in town. Glasgow really does have some of the best restaurants you will find. All the more reason to travel here just as soon as you can.
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