Glasgow, Scotland

In June of 2022, my family and I went on a two week trip to Scotland. After our time in Scotland was over, we flew to Tanzania, for the second part of our trip. 

 The Scotland trip was self planned (mostly by my sister), and was not through a travel company. We rented a car and stayed in several different cities/towns, the first of which being Glasgow. We flew from Alaska to Frankfurt, then Frankfurt to Glasgow. 

Glasgow Itinerary:

Day 1: (overnight in Glasgow)

-Paisley Abbey 

-Culzean Castle

Day 2: (overnight in Glasgow)

-Glasgow Cathedral

-Mass at St. Mungo’s 

-Afternoon tea at Willow Tea Room 

-Barry’s Market 

Paisley Abbey

Paisley Abbey was built in the 1100s. It was originally a Catholic Church, but like many Catholic Churches it was taken over after the reformation and now belongs to the Church of Scotland. The Church of Scotland and the Church of England were both started in the 1500s, about 10 years apart. The abbey was absolutely beautiful! We were able to walk inside and admire the stained glass and architecture. 

Culzean Castle

Just over an hour drive outside of Glasgow rests Culzean Castle. It was built on the side of a short cliff overlooking the ocean. Before it was built in the 1700s, all that stood on the hill was a tower. One interesting fact we learned is that President Eisenhower was given the top floors of the castle. He stayed there the couple of times he visited the area. The top floors are now a sort of hotel, it’s very expensive though. 

Before we started our self guided tour of the castle we were given a paper with Lego figures on it. In most of the rooms of the castle there was a hidden Lego figure. Each figure was different and was styled to look like a prominent person of the castle’s history. We had a lot of fun searching for the different characters around the castle. Next we walked around the castle’s grounds and walled garden. 

There is a nice little ice cream shop right near the castle called the “Aviary”. We stopped there on our way back to Glasgow. 

Glasgow Cathedral, Glasgow Necropolis, & St. Mungos

The Glasgow Cathedral built was built in the 1200s. The church was built around the tomb of St. Mungo, who also happens to have a Catholic Church down the street named after him. Unfortunately after the Protestant reformation in 1560, the once Roman Catholic Church was taken over by the Church of Scotland. Unfortunately, there is a huge modern looking light-up sign over part of the inside architecture that really detracts from the historical architecture. 

On Sunday, we attended mass at St Mungo’s Catholic Church. (((Fact about church??)))

My personal favorite highlight of our stay in Glasgow was getting to visit the necropolis there. There are huge gravestones and mausoleums dating all the way back to the early 1800s. In my opinion it is an excellent example of a Victorian graveyard. 

Barras Market

Barras Market is a market in south east part of Glasgow and has been around since 1921. Among the many stores, you will find thrift shops and antique stores. We found and saw some really neat things while wandering through, unfortunately, we did not have room in any of our suitcases to take them home with us.

Blue police boxes (Tardis)

While this was not part of our planned itinerary, walking around Glasgow we found several blue police boxes. The Doctor-Who fans among our family, including me, thought it was really neat to get to see them. 

Restaurants

Due to the fact that the place we stayed at was an apartment, we did not eat out for every meal. Three restaurants we did go to were “Cafe Andaluz”, “Willow Tea Room”, and “Stack & Still”.

Cafe Andaluz is a Spanish chain restaurant throughout the U.K. They have really good tapas and seafood paella. 

Willow Tea Room is just what it sounds like it is, a quaint tea room with many goodies and teas to choose from. They have scones, meringues with ice cream and berries, cakes, cookies, as well as gf options, which was really nice. We had a window table that overlooked the street so we got to do some people watching as well. 

On our last night in Glasgow, after driving back from Edinburgh, we had dinner at Stack & Still. We also ate at this restaurant in Edinburgh as well. The restaurant specializes in pancakes. They have many different toppings and combinations to choose from, it was absolutely delicious! I had pancakes with hummus, doner kebab, yogurt sauce, and onions as well as one with whip cream, caramel syrup, walnuts, and raspberries.

Transportation

 While we did have a car in Glasgow, we also did a lot of walking. Sometimes we would find a public parking area park there and then walk to all the sights-to-see nearby, one day we even walked 7 miles.