LISA

Glasgow Day 1

The day began with a quest for the city sightseeing bus. After some confusion and a bit of a hike up past the uni (which nearly was our home for this 6mths) we managed to hail one and took the tour through the city until we got to the Glasgow Tower stop where we jumped off (when it had stopped) and headed across the river.

The GlasgowTower is 127m tall and is the only fully rotating tower in the world. Its design resembles an aeroplane wing to reduce wind resistance and it rotates in response to data from two 'weather stations', one at its top, and one at its base. It was quite an experience to stand up the top with a birds-eye view of the city that was continually changing slightly as the tower turned. We made use of their penny squashing machine to help us remember our time there (in reality we're just little vandals who enjoy defacing money legally :D).

From new to historic, the next stop was the tall ship Glenlee. Built in the River Clyde in 1896, she had a varied life. She was refitted with engines at around 30years of age and travelled a distance equivalent to circumnavigating the globe 5 times before being brought back to her home town and restored in 1992. Boarding the Glenlee was rather like stepping back in time. There was even mock rigging set up so you could try your hand at walking along it, however I'm convinced it would be much harder at 60m up in the air on the ocean!

Finishing the bus tour we walked around George Square and then headed to the Barras, the markets which were actually originally called the Barrows but got altered with the Glaswegian accent. Here we made two momentous discoveries: Glickman's sweets shop selling traditional lollies for close to traditional prices (we got a toffee tablet, yum); and Vinnie's chip shop selling the best chips in the UK by our vote (we were rather preoccupied by food!).

The 13thC Medieval Glasgow Cathedral was our final stop for the day. We've been to a few churches now but this one was pretty amazing. The fantastic architecture, ancient wooden roof and colourful stained glass were nice enough, but more interesting was the 'lower church' - a whole other level built underneath the main Quire with each section having its own character.