3 Days in Glasgow Part 1

Day 1: Glasgow City Centre, Duke of Wellington Statue, Necropolis, Tennents Brewery Tour

Our first stop in Glasgow has really started this trip off great! We were lucky enough to be hosted by Desta’s sister, Honor, who calls Glasgow home. She welcomed our tired travelling bodies (and all of our luggage) with open arms at her flat in Glasgow’s south-end. Then, we spent our first day in the city led with experienced, local eyes.

Our first stop was the city centre, where we found the equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington. The statue has gained some street cred over the past years. Pranksters place traffic cones (pylons) on the statue, and the city has to go to great strides to remove the pylons only to have them return shortly thereafter. The city actually wanted to raise the statue up by 6 ft. to deter the pylon pranksters from returning, but the proposal was met with a petition from residents. So there it is! A notable historical figure with a pylon on his head, and us underneath, who probably wouldn’t have thought to take the photo sans pylon!

The Equestrian Statue of the Duke of Wellington

We also had the chance to explore the city’s Necropolis, where Honor told us she often heads to during her lunch hour, while working at Strathclyde University nearby. We then stumbled upon the brewery for one of Dermot’s favourite beers, Tennent’s. In all the rush and excitement of our find, we signed up for the brewery tour – 1.5 hours, and some super cool hygienic explorer outfits later, we now know everything there is to know about making Tennent’s beer. Everything. After our very thorough (and interesting!) tour, the tour guide rewarded us with copious amounts of alcohol. Great way to end the tour and our first day in Scotland for sure.

City views from the top of the Necropolis

Tombs of the Necropolis

Found ourselves a Tennent’s tour

Looking cute at the brewery 😉

Hugh Tennent and Dermot

Tennent’s Brewery grounds

Good times all around at Tennent’s!

Day 2: University of Glasgow Cloisters, Kelvingrove, Tchai-Ovna House of Tea & Yoga!

We braved it on our own and made our way to the city’s west end. We explored the University of Glasgow, and asked a friendly man where we could find “those arches in all the pictures.” We learned “those arches” are called “The Cloisters.” Pretty cool.

The Cloisters – University of Glasgow

We then hit up a free museum called the Kelvingrove. Here we found one of the museum’s main attractions, Salvador Dali’s Christ of Saint John of the Cross. Dr. Honeyman, a former curator of the museum, met with Dali himself to purchase the copyright to this painting. There was lots of other cool stuff to see here too!

Hanging out at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Musem

Using Honor’s local expertise, we found a very well hidden Glasgow institution (as Honor describes it) known as Tchai-Ovna House of Tea. Super good tea, super hipster, but in all the best ways. Then, it was off to a yoga class! Yes, we are going to try to yoga every so often on vacay! Our Hatha Vinyasa teacher was awesome, and had us ringing out our clothes (and this wasn’t hot yoga…) by the end of class. We gained back all our electrolytes (among other things) with pizza and wine back at the flat. Day 2 – success!

Ready to get our yoga on!