A wee greeting from Glasgow

Glasgow, and the sun shines after a few days of gloom, and what a difference it makes. Glasgow on a cloudy day is still a lovely city, but when the sun comes out it really shines. It was once known as the Second City of the Empire, next to London, and it is pretty easy to see why. Although it dates back almost 1000 years, it is really a Victorian city, as reflected in its beautiful architecture, undoubtedly some of the finest examples we’ve seen.

George Square, the real heart of Glasgow city.

Glasgow built its wealth on the proceeds of tobacco and other raw material trade with the Americas (pre-revolution) and the Caribbean, when they were both British colonies. Unfortunately, a great deal of this wealth was at the expense of slaves and very poorly paid workers. The part of the city in which we stayed, The West End, was where the wealthiest of the wealthy merchants and financiers built themselves magnificent mansions.

This is the Glasgow Cathedral (St Mungo's tomb is here, this place is really old).

I don't know if this is the oldest Cathedral we've visited, but it's certainly one of the most beautiful. Both Alison and I were left speechless.

It's almost enough to make me convert!

We spent the day walking the streets, on buses, and visiting the magnificent Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, a most magnificent Victorian building in its own right. Fortunately, the museum was running an exhibition on Glasgow over the past few centuries, which really helped us to understand where the city had come from and what made it the powerhouse it became.

The Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum - a stunningly beautiful building.

The people of Glasgow, the Glaswegians, are an interesting lot. If the Irish accent can be described as charming, you could only say the local Glasgow accent is more like an accusation – a real roughness to it. I guess that’s because this is how the Glaswegians come across. Tattoos are ubiquitous, spitting in public is a national pastime, as is smoking and swearing, almost everyone has a Number 1 haircut, and you spend much of your time waiting to be head-butted; and the men here are not much better!

The gates to the merchant's section of the city

St Andrew's Square

Make no mistake, the Scots are pretty rugged people, but they have been helpful and generally courteous so far. We are heading further north today, past the famous Loch Lomond, so I would imagine it’s time for us to dust of the kilts. My also be time to sample some of that single malt whiskey these guys are apparently pretty good at making – we’ll see.