Glasgow for food, art, architecture and a gig

I have been posting about some places we visited on a recent road trip. From Yorkshire we headed over the border to Scotland and on to Glasgow. There are some great landscapes along the way and you are not even into the big hills there. It is just more dramatic than our local area. We were staying fairly near the city centre so we could easily walk in. On our first evening we ate at a great restaurant called The Buttery. This is way out on the west side of town. You have to cross the M8 motorway and then the area looks like it has been redeveloped, but this place is about 150 years old.

Inside it is like an old gentlemen's club with wood paneling and elegant staff. I went for a Scottish beer with my meal.

They do a vegetarian menu as well as the regular one so we had options. I had asparagus with a poached egg that was somehow coated in breadcrumbs as my starter. We both had vegetarian haggis for the main course that was great.

I followed that with some Mellis cheeses that came with some lovely relish and tiny marinated onions. It was a lovely meal and not crazily expensive.

The next day we had a walking tour of the city that started by the city chambers. That is on George Square that is being renovated. I noticed this set of measures on the wall that I assume local traders used as standards.

Our guide was informative and entertaining. He was a proud Glaswegian. We did not go in the chambers, but he said it was rumoured to have more marble than the Vatican. When they extended the building these arches were built to link them, but then they have no real practical purpose. There was obviously a lot of money in the city from various trade.

We saw a fair bit of street art. This is Saint Enoch (aka Teneu) who was the mother of the city's founder Saint Mungo. It is by an Australian artist Smug.

Mungo is on the other end of this terrace in a more modern guise by the same artist.

This is very near to the cathedral where he is buried. It is not a huge building, but there is a big lower level that is well lit it sits on a hill so there are windows down there. There is a big necropolis nearby that we will have to visit another time to see who is buried there.

Our tour ended outside the Gallery of Modern Art. Like a lot of the other museums entry is free so of course we went in. We ate in the cafe downstairs where you also find the local library. It is a grand building with a classic Roman front with big pillars. It used to be a private house and the owner had expensive tastes.

I am no art expert and some modern stuff does little for me, but I found some to enjoy.

Talking of art, a famous local was architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh. There is a museum of his work at the Willow Tearooms that he also designed. You can still eat there, but we did not this time.

Part of our reason for being in Glasgow was to attend a gig by Holy Holy. I guess you can say they are a David Bowie tribute, but then the drummer Woody Woodmansey played with Bowie in the Spiders from Mars and Bowie's main producer Tony Visconti plays bass. The singer is Glenn Gregory who is best known from Heaven 17. We have seen them several times before, but this may be their last tour as these guys are not young. We had a slight concert as the sign says Wednesday, but it was actually on Thursday so we had the right day.

After the show Woody came out to chat to fans. He is 76, but can still rock. That gives me hope that I can be drumming for a few years yet.

We have been to Glasgow before, but there is still plenty to explore and we did not have time on this trip for more.

Stay tuned for the next episode...

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