Glasgow city break: The chic, gleaming city with a European atmosphere
Its not every day you see a Hollywood star in Glasgow Grand Central Station, says a local as Brad Pitt and his extensive family arrive in Scotlands largest city.
With Halle Berry and others currently in the city for the filming of Cloud Atlas, he may soon be eating his words.
In the world of movies, Glasgow is apparently a dead ringer for Philadelphia and is being used as the setting for zombie action blockbuster World War Z during our stay. As we stumble upon the shoot Brad is getting ready to smash his Volvo into a speeding ambulance while 400 extras flee the living dead.
Modern hotspot: Gleaming Glasgow makes for a great city break
Glasgow was rebranded as a City of Culture in 1990, but Im even more surprised to find a modern European city that feels like Madrid or Lisbon, than I am to be wandering the streets with zombies. There is a hush to proceedings, a calm that says everything will get done, but in its own time.
Where is the fire and ferocity Glasgow is famous for? In the Grand Central Hotel where my family and I are staying, the clues as to what has been happening in this town begin whispering from the walls.
The hotel was completed in 1883 as a Queen Anne style railway hotel and over the years fell into a state of disrepair. Its recent 20 million refurbishment has seen its style updated without compromising its rich and patterned history and what a history.
Enormous photos on the walls depict the heavy industry that the city was founded on: a window into another world of men in caps leaning on spanners taller than themselves and of railway engines spinning around factories on huge ! chains.< /p>
Cultural palace: The Riverside Museum explains Glasgow's modern history
As this is Glasgow there has to be a touch of bling. The high ceilings, vast halls and sweeping marble staircases of the Victorian hotel have been given a decadent feel; a magnificent five-storey chandelier runs the entire length of the stairwell. Our bedroom is big enough for the whole family and I particularly like the grand breakfast hall and tiled delicatessen, open to the street and serving coffee and sweet smelling pastries.
I find the answers about Glasgow's past at the Guggenheim-like Riverside Museum which has just opened in the old docklands and where the modern story of Glasgow stares back at me as sharply as the edges of its pleated fluid roof.
Glasgows heavy engineering crumbled in the Seventies and this gleaming cultural palace stands like a signpost to a new future. Shipyards and steelworks have been replaced byart galleries and concert halls, the noise and factories overwritten bythe new leviathans of the Clyde as the city rises from the ashes of shipbuilding. The leader of the city council even smashed a champagne bottle on the Riverside as he launched the museum in June.
Inthe not so distant past Glasgow was so dependent on the fires of industry that it wasnt just a question of opening a few call centres when the work went East. The city needed a whole new identity and this shines back from the metal walls of architect firm Zaha Hadids first major building in Britain.
Family fun: Neil's three children Alice, Emily and Jo, are enchanted by the Science Centre
The construction is world class, from the pistachio-green interior to the way the floor-to-ceiling doors hiss closed in the toilets. Glasgow has spent 74 ! million on this edifice to say one thing: we are a city of culture.
The Riverside is not the only architectural icon reflecting from the Clyde. Norman Fosters Armadillo pays homage to a famous opera house and BDPs Glasgow Science Centre is a titanium shell with a precise, interactive heart. We spend the best part of a day playing with the exhibits and gasping at the 3-D effects in the only IMAX cinema in Scotland, before jumping back on the open topped bus that rounds the city every 15 minutes.
One evening we take advantage of the hotels babysitting service to check out Glasgows nightlife. Ashton Lane, home of the drinking and talking in cobbled streets experience in Glasgows West End is similar in feel to Dublins Temple Bar area and just as colourful.
In pub/eatery the Ubiquitous Chip, loud tables of people dine in a lush green courtyard where fish swim languidly round a pool. In the equally cool cafe opposite a girl with a guitar steps up to the mike and begins to sing just as unselfconsciouslyas if she were serving drinks. Later she is serving drinks.
Aroundthe corner in Oran Moor, a church effectively converted into a drinkingand dining den, a man with a handlebar moustache strikes up on the clarinet, a fiddle-player and guitarist right behind him.
Glitzy: The Grand Central Hotel certainly has the bling factor
There is live music everywhere in this city, from the buskers on street corners to the venue voted best in the UK for live music; the small but mighty King Tuts Wah Wah Hut, where Alan McGee first spotted Oasis. The latest addition to Glasgows City of Music credentials is another huge building project amongst the giant cranes in the docklands - the 12,000-seat Scottish Hydro Arena, due to open in 2013.
Glasgow has bars, restaurants and cafes in abundance and during our four days here we are always able to find exactly wh! at we wa nt within walking distance of our hotel.
At the Italian Cafe on Albion Street the food is tasty, prompt and cheap. At the family-friendly gourmet burger restaurant Ketchup we all find something to our taste, even my wife who orders a vegetarian, gluten-free, dairy-free burger...
More...
Although this is a busy city, it lacks the compressed rush of British urbanism, giving it an almost Mediterranean vibe though without as much sunshine. By way of compensation, the buildings in the city are further apart and possess bigger windows to maximise precious light. The Charles Rennie Mackintosh influence on so many buildings is pleasingly apparent.
Details stand out to the visitor: thedark flagstone pavements are clean and smokers dispose of their butts in posts on street corners. Friendliness comes as standard. Both times that I look lost passer-by stop and touch my arm. Can I help you? Are you lost?
Itsnot hard to make friends here. Everyone wants to know why we are visiting and where we come from, and they all have suggestions on how toget the best out of a visit to Glasgow.
Thereis so much to see in the city, but we still manage to hire a car and escape into the surrounding countryside for one day. We make straight for Loch Lomond.
Beyond the city: Loch Lomond is a very accessible beauty spot for those looking for a little relaxation
The moment we emerge from the sandstone suburbs, mountains loom at us out of the mist and suddenly we are driving through forests, hills and lakes. Arriving at our destination within the hour we rent three kayaks and paddle off for the forested island of Inchcailloch, first inhabited in the 8th century and the place where the Clan McGregor burial ground contains some of Rob Roys ancestors.
As we paddle into the great loch, storm clouds begin to gather and by the time we pull our kayaks onto the islands sandy beach we are soaked through. Wed been told the weather comes in blasts in Scotland so we take shelter and wait, eating sandwiches and drinking hot apple juice beneath moss covered trees.
As the rain clears and sky turns a watery blue, we are in such high spirits that we decide to strip off to our underwear and leap into the black water from a small jetty. It is cold. Very cold.
Later, after multiple baths at the hotel, we are still trying to get the feeling back into our extremities and are wondering quite what overcame us.
Despite mild frostbite, the family is loathe to leave this European corner of Scotland that has fascinated us all, from the 10-year-old to the 40-year-old.
But I have one more trick up my sleeve to keep our adventure alive, we're heading home on the Caledonian sleeper train to London.
There couldn't be a more romantic way to bid farewell to the urban delight that is Glasgow. As the train pulls away from the station, we toast her skyline with a whiskey at the bar.
Then off to bed, to sleep blissfully through the journey until a morning arrival in Euston.
Travel facts
Neils family stayed at the Grand Central Hotel, 0141 240 3700 www.thegrandcentralhotel.co.uk
They travelled with National Rail and ! on the C aledonian sleeper with Scotrail www.scotrail.co.uk
Other linkswww.glasgowsciencecentre.org
Glagow city tourism board www.seeglasgow.com
Comments