A Day in Glasgow:

Post date: Jan 22, 2012 8:34:21 PM

The place Glasgow (Scotland) is here

Glasgow is financial capital of Scotland and probably most happening city of Scotland. It is 50 miles or 80 Kms(approx) far from Edinburgh. The motorway reaches there is M8. It is very well connected with Railways too. All operators run their trains’ e.g.  Scotrail, Cross-country, Eastcoast, First. There is a bus option too from CityLink or National Express.

So when we decided to spend a day in Glasgow the first question was to choose the transportation. Buses or Train…

Bus could allow us some sightseeing on the motorway but it has its own disadvantage of taking more time and uncomfortable so decided to take train.

The plan was to start as early as possible so we booked the tickets onwards at 8:00 AM and return at 7:30 PM. We got up early at 6:30 and left for the Waverly train station in a cab. We were quite early as there was no traffic and no traffic lights. I printed the train tickets and the PlusBus ticket. Plusbus ticket allows us to enjoy full fay unlimited bus travel in Glasgow. If you buy one day bus pass it would cost 4 pound whereas this was just 3.20 because of booking in advance.

---- Tip: It is always good to book a PLUSBUS  in UK ----

Although our planned train was at 8:00 and since we were early we took a train at 7:45 AM which was a Saturday special. Soon were on iron wheels running towards Glasgow. It takes just 55 mins by train and we enjoyed the small towns and villages on the ways. Similar looking houses scattered over the hills is an awesome sight. We really enjoyed the journey. Soon we were in outskirts of Glasgow and some high rising buildings were clearly visible. We decided to get down at Glasgow queen street station because it’s very near to the George square. George square is kind of central area in Glasgow. Glasgow central station is also not too far.

----Tip: Glasgow Queen Street is a better place to get down ----

We had no plan what so ever that where we want to go, what places we want to see. No plans. So first decided to walk to the George Street and then decide to where to go.

George Square is a nice place, so many statues lined over to welcome you. There is a queen victoria statue, there is James Watt statue and then in the center Walter Scott. It is interesting to find that there is no George III statue for which it is named. (I think so J)

We then roamed around nearby shopping area and reached the Enoch shopping center. It is big shopping center surely. It was 9 by then so we had to find some place to head. Our first choice was Glasgow Science Center (Link to official website) so we went back to the place where we started and took a bus to GSC. It started raining by then and we ran into the GSC. It is a modern building and has eye catching structure surely.  There is a huge BBC Scotland building just opposite to the building. For one person ticket costs 9.45 Pounds. This does not include the IMAX and planetarium. We enjoyed and relived the childhood days while playing around with so many scientific experiments and games and puzzles. The science show and Planetarium were huge let down. I have seen three other planetariums in Lucknow, Allahabad and Kolkatta and each one of them is better than this so called best in Europe planetarium.  Or maybe I am not so knowledgably to gauge the greatness of the show.

We were so enjoying it that soon half day was over and we had too much to cover. So we decided to leave the science center with sad faces. It was sunny outside and realized it was just for few minutes and it is very cold outside. We walked to the Riverside museum and saw the ‘The tall Ship’ which was not so tall. The museum was good but didn’t interest much to us. We took a bus and came back to the city center. I used an app from Android market to get help on the buses in Glasgow. It is quite useful.

 Seeing so many food joints we also realized we are hungry and it’s time to feed our hungry bodies. We decided to just roam around in the buses now on and took the first bus came to the stop without knowing where it is going. While on bus I kept checking what all places are nearby and got down near the Doulton fountain.

---- Tip: Google Places is a really nice app to decide where to head ----

This is an old monument showing how English ruled, India, South Africa, Australia and Canada at one time. This fountain shows people from all these countries and it is said to be the biggest of its kind, a terracotta fountain. We were tired now and just roamed around nearby park and headed back to station. I saw a Glasgow central station and got in there and realized it was for the Glasgow metro train not for the intercity trains. Luckily a staff there helped us out and we reached to the high level train station. The underground in Glasgow is called ‘The clockwork orange’ or Glasgow Subway.

We were again early at station then the planned timing. This was repeat of what we did when we went to Brighton last time. There was a train at station, may be waiting for us J we started immediately. Again on the way so many fully lit towns and city said good bye to us and we reached Edinburgh around 7:40 PM and this completed our journey and we headed back to our home.

It was an eventful day of some new experiences and old memories.

---- Always plan what will you eat when you are back after a day’s journey, Maggy should be in stock ----