Glasgow – Black pudding, Art & Whisky

For the last day of our first Wedding Anniversary Trip to Scotland, we headed to Glasgow! Having thoroughly enjoyed Edinburgh for not just one but two days, as well as a Highland adventure, we had a day in Glasgow before heading home.

Glasgow is just under an hour away from Edinburgh and thanks to getting an early start we could get some cheap tickets too. By this point we were completely hooked on our morning Starbucks, so grabbed some coffee and we set for Glasgow!

Glasgow City

As we already checked out of our accommodation, we had our luggage with us. Even though we only took a backpack each, the thought of carrying around all day in the heat was something we wanted to avoid. We also knew we would be walking around a load too. Thanks to some quick searching we found about bagbnb. This is a cheap alternative to using lockers, and we were able to leave our bags in a store just next to the station for us to pick up on our way back. Awesome. (When I check it does seem some people hand bad experience with bagbnb. We were fine but use at your own discretion!)

Cafe Gandolfi

One of my favourite things about being back home is really good full English breakfasts. So we decided to treat ourselves to a really good brunch. Jinny found us an excellent restaurant called Cafe Gandolfi.

Honestly it was the best breakfast I have had in 2019! Especially the black pudding, was unforgettable. It was worth the effort to find and get to, if we ever got back to Glasgow I will be making another visit there for sure too. Jinny also really enjoyed her dish too, but also agreed that their Full English Breakfast was a whole other level.

Location:

Glasgow Cathedral & Necropolis

From there we headed over to Glasgow Cathedral. It is the oldest cathedral on mainland Scotland and is the oldest building in Glasgow. A magnificent building with The Glasgow Necropolis, which is a Victorian cemetery, just behind it. We headed first to the Necropolis for a view over the Cathedral where we took some pictures. Then headed into the Cathedral itself.

It is free for public access and inside there are lots to admire. We really enjoyed the stain glass windows as well as the overall architecture of the Cathedral.

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Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

We had been recommended from my friend that we visit Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. It is located on the other side of town, so we started to walk over. On the way to the Museum we passed through Kelvingrove Park. Here we popped on of Jinny’s British cherries, having her first ever 99 Flake. For those who don’t know a 99 Flake is an ice cream cone with a Cadbury Flake inserted in it. Super popular ice cream snack when I was little. Also it used to cost about 99p too, but now has been inflated to the shocking price of £3. Thankfully the taste stayed the same though and Jinny was a big fan.

When we went Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum had 22 galleries, everything from art to animals, Ancient Egypt to Charles Rennie Mackintosh and free guided tours. We had initially decided to do a guided tour but as we were short on time just had a quick look around ourselves. In the hour we spent there we were only able to see just the 1st floor. Time flew by as all the Galleries and Exhibitions we saw were so entertaining. You can spend an entire afternoon here easily. We were happy that went but it definitely deserved more of our time then we were able to give.

Location:

The Clydeside Distillery

We were booked into a whisky tour at the The Clydeside Distillery. It was their last tour of the day and would give us just enough time to get back for our evening train.

Visiting a whisky distillery was high on our wish list when visiting Scotland so we were super pumped for the tour! Especially as we had visited the Sapporo Beer Factory when we visited Hokkaido in 2018 and had an amazing time, our expectations were high.

While the distillery itself is relatively new, being built in 2017, the location has a lot of history. Situated in the old Pump House, which was built in 1877 on the historic Queen’s Dock, the location was key in the import and export of whisky. The tour takes you through the history of the site as well as whisky in Scotland. You can see how they distill the whisky and all the steps involve.

The highlight is of cause the whisky tasting at the end. You can taste 3 different types of whisky produced in different style from across Scotland. Our tour guide also showed us the correct way to enjoy whisky too (TIP: Don’t just neck it!) From appreciating the smell, colour and characteristic of the liquor. While our pallets still haven’t developed enough to fully appreciate whisky straight, the tour was a great way to end our time in Scotland.

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Goodbye Scotland!

We had just over an hour to head back into the city centre, pick up our bags and catch our train back to England. As it was just over a 3 hour ride, we bought some drinks and a subway to enjoy on the train.

We loved our 4 days in Scotland, we especially fell in love with Edinburgh and The Highland. No doubt we were lucky with the weather, and that influenced us a lot, but regardless, Scotland is full of nature, history and culture. Everyone we met was warm and welcoming too. We wouldn’t hesitate in recommending anyone to visit Scotland if they get the chance. Fan dabby dozy!