A First Time Visit to Glasgow

The Trip that Nearly Never Was

Some time ago Heather and I planned a visit to Glasgow. We would go to the theatre to see “To Kill a Mocking Bird” and have a day exploring Glasgow. The trip was planned for Nov 5th. Unfortunately, on the third, there was a derailment on the West Coast Main Line and no trains ran on the 3rd. On the fourth there were still no trains and we were confidently expecting our trip to be cancelled. However, despite appalling weather, services were restored late on the evening of the 4th, so the trip was back on.

Glasgow Walking Tour

We found that Glasgow, somewhere we had never been before, was a very attractive city. Many of the shops had their Christmas decorations up and Buchanan Street in particular is a really nice shopping street to stroll along. It’s pedestrianised making it ideal for wandering and window shopping.

Unfortunately, George Square is undergoing extensive renovation and so is boarded up, but the huge number of Victorian buildings are really impressive.

A Cultural Evening

We had a booking for a pre-theatre meal at a Lebanese restaurant called Roya, which was right opposite The King’s Theatre where the performance of To Kill a Mocking Bird was to take place. The meal was excellent and was accompanies by a red wine from the Bekaa Valley. A first. I’ve never had Lebanese wine before.

Then it was theatre time. The play is set in the southern states of the USA in the 1930’s. It concerns a black farmer who is falsely accused of raping the daughter of a white farmer. The performances of all the actors were superb. It’s a difficult play on a number of levels as it demonstrates the racial prejudice which was prevalent at the time and also deals with abuse in the family. The use of language is also difficult with many of the actors using terms to describe the African American characters that we just don’t hear now (thankfully). It’s a story of how justice is often denied to minorities and the powerless and we watch Atticus Finch compromise his ideals by the end. I thought that the story was particularly relevant at present.

The play is in Liverpool next year and I would encourage you to go if possible.

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

We had a list of places to go on the day following the theatre, but unfortunately quite a few were closed and we were not confident about the weather. We caught the subway to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery, which is housed in a beautiful building close to Glasgow University. Unfortunately, the frontage is covered in scaffolding so no photos.

The inside, however, is magnificent.

We spent several hours here wandering the gallery and the museum until our feet were ready to give up. I have found that, since Heather started to paint, I’ve become much more interested in art generally and we were both very impressed with The Glasgow Boys. Unfortunately, the Kelvingrove are more interested in selling prints than putting decent images of the art on their website for me to steal. Can’t think why!

There are a few more photos HERE

All in all a very enjoyable couple of days. I think we may need a further visit.

Avanti West Coast.

I think we may try this “away day” lark again. The train journey was great and the train on time going and about 5 minutes late coming back. We took the train from our local station, Ansdell & Fairhaven, but in future we will probably park at Preston. Half an hour on Preston station waiting for the connection to get home was the worst bit of the journey.