Today we decided to take the 2 hour Hop on hop off bus tour to get acquainted with Glasgow. We walked to the stop closest to us and hopped on. It was a beautiful sunny day. Glasgow is a beautiful city with a lot of history and a lot of parks. I think I prefer it to Edinburgh, which surprises me. Once we’d done the whole loop we hopped off at George Square to look around and find a place for lunch. We walked along Buchanan Street, a pedestrian only street (the Las Ramblas of Glasgow), which is part of the “Golden Z”, a Z-shaped Boulevard made up of 3 streets: Buchanan, Sauchiehall, and Argyle. This area is full of retail stores and is referred to as the “Style Mile”. There were no eateries here, except Mc Donald’s, so we walked a little further towards the Cathedral and found a nice pub with a patio where we could grab a bite and a pint.
Now off to visit the Cathedral. On our way, we were looking at a map and a young fellow with a bloody nose and dirty clothes, with a coffee cup in his hand, asked us if we needed some help. We, of course, thought he was drunk or a homeless person. But he told us that he had been fighting with drug dealers because they were selling drugs in front of small children and families and he didn’t like that. He said he was lucky to be alive. He lifted up his shirt and there were cuts (from a knife) all over his torso. And he took the time to help us. So, it just goes to show you that first impressions can be deceiving!

Anyhow, we made it to the Cathedral. OMG!!! This place is beautiful. Before going inside, we went over the bridge of sighs to the Necropolis, a 37 acre cemetery on a grassy hill with thousands of fantastic monuments. Daniel Dafoe, an 18th century writer known for writing Robinson Crusoe, called Glasgow "the dear green place".  At first view, it certainly doesn't seem that way, especially if you're caught up in the hustle and bustle of Sauchiehall (pronounced sucky-hall) Street. But this place was a sanctuary away from the crowds and centre of the city. People were picnicking (which I found a bit weird), sketching and contemplating life, I guess. Others were just meandering among the tombstones and monuments (which were monumental, not like the tombstones we have). We spent some time just wandering around and reading the writing on the monuments and tombstones. The John Knox monument that celebrates the reformation preacher considered the founder of the Presbyteran Church can be found here with other important people of the time.

Then we made our way back to the cathedral and went inside. As I thought it was very impressive. This cathedral dates mostly from the 13th century but can be followed back to the 5th century.  St. Mungo, Glasgow's patron saint, is believed to be buried on the site.  The stained glass windows are phenomenal, especailly the west window which depicts the story of creation from the Bible.

After taking it all in we jumped back on the bus and got off at the University. Glasgow University founded in 1451, is the fourth oldest university in the English-speaking world. They are one of the top 100 of the world's universities. The campus is fantastic. The buildings are an architectural dream. It happened to be what we call frosh week (what they call freshers week) and they were all sorts of activities going on for the new students. Students were all over the place. Dominos pizza was giving out free pizzas and bags and there were all sorts of events going on. We did see a few examples of fresher humour: statues with traffic cones on them. One that made me & Vic laugh out loud at the same time was a statue, on the university grounds, of Lord Kelvin (Scottish mathematician and physicist who developed the Kelvin scale of temperature measurement), looking very academic, with a traffic cone on his head so it looked like he was a dunce. I could not stop laughing.

We were getting thirsty so we decided to go to Tennents Pub nearby. You can’t miss the black and gold facade. We heard that until the early 1970’s women were not allowed in the bar. That is until Shelley Russell, an American studying at Glasgow University, organised a ‘sit-in’ and there was a demonstration out on Byres Road. The policy was quickly changed and a small cleaning cupboard was turned into the ladies’ toilet. Ever since then the pub has had women managers. I had to have a pint there. And I was glad we did. We met 2 lovely Glaswegian men, Chris & John, who we chatted with for a while. They told us we had to try Stornaway black pudding and that it was especially good with scallops. This intrigued Vic and he wanted to try to. If you don’t know black pudding is a type of blood sausage originating in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is made from pork blood, with pork fat or beef suet, and a cereal, usually oatmeal, oat groats or barley groats. Doesn’t that sound delicious?

We left the guys and went in search of a dinner place. Our landlord had suggested one close to our flat which we could not find. But don’t you know we found it. And guess what? They just happened to have Stornaway black pudding with scallops as a starter. Vic, of course, ordered it and said it was delicious. I tried it as well (just a wee piece) and surprisingly it was very good. I couldn’t get past the ingredients though so limited my taste to that one tiny piece. I did, however, have more scallops.

Back to the flat. We have one more day in Glasgow.