Glasgow
UK & IRELAND diary : Day 09 - 19th April 2017
In the excitement to check out typical "modern city" life in Scotland, we chose to visit the port city of Glasgow. This city is known for its unique architecture. It is home to many universities, museums and is also the cultural hub of the country. We had allocated an entire day to explore this city from Edinburgh. We chose to do it our own way. As mentioned in the SNAPSHOT, we stayed in Edinburgh and travelled around Scotland from there.
A local bus No. 10 from right outside our apartment , dropped us off at the Edinburgh bus station. We got there in less than half hour. A CITY-LINK, direct bus to Glasgow had been booked online, in advance, on their website. The Scheduled departure was at 8:15 am. For the very first time we experienced Inter-city buses. It was highly comfortable and got us to the BUCHANAN bus-station , Glasgow, in exactly an hour.
We stepped out of the bus station and waited for the CITY SIGHT SEEING hop-off-hop-on bus, which made its second stop right in front of the Buchanan bus stop. It was super convenient. The tickets for this bus was also purchased in advance, online on their website. We got on the bus, expecting some exciting sight-seeing around Glasgow city. Suddenly it started to pour. We were glad to be inside the bus, but we were not sure if we could Hop Off at the favourite spots. The rain poured incessantly. Water smudged the clean glass panes of the bus, throwing up different designs. The first half of the journey was therefore blurry. The Inside of the bus got more crowded with every stop and reeked moist air mixed with sweat and wet mud.
There was no way out but to accommodate more and more passengers. Not one Homo Sapien got off at any stop. The excitement suddenly vanished turning into disaster. The views were unclear from the bus. All we could hear was the recorded narrative. We could hardly catch glimpses of the corresponding sights, monuments or buildings. We had to request people to move away in order to click pictures. It got tiring as people kept crowding to get their share of photographs. After all, every single soul in the bus was a tourist.
The rain did subside after a while, but we were still unable to get off at any stop. Even if we could, our moods were swinging the other way. Somehow, the shape of a particular building caught our attention and we finally decided to get off the bus. It was a unique building within the Scottish event campus - The SSE HYDRO. It is a multipurpose arena hosting live shows. It seats around 12000 people. It also allows a thousand and odd standing audience.
Various sports, concerts and cultural events are regularly held here. The outer structure is extremely attractive and unique as you can see in the picture. The rubber tyre like structure was completed only in 2013 and has been popular ever since. It has found its place in the tourist list of all those visiting Glasgow. We had to distance ourselves as far as possible from this structure to capture it as a "whole". The sun was out by then, the clouds seemed to be moving away. Looking high up in the air, we stood marveling at the gigantic structure. It could be compared to a huge stylish rubber tyre, placed right in the middle of a green mound. This was designed by London based architects. The campus area is huge.
We looked to the left of this Arena to find another attractive auditorium structure - THE CLYDE AUDITORIUM now called the SEC ARMADILLO. The name Armadillo obviously came from the animal that it bears a close resemblance to. This structure also looks very similar to the Opera House in Sydney, but it is said that the Sydney building is in no way an inspiration to it Armadillo like shape. The night views of these structures are said to be outstanding. We missed it. This auditorium also hosts varied shows , sports and seminars. It is the smaller one in size and seats around 3000 people. After a quick walk around and a few clicks we continued on our journey.
The next stop was at the RIVERSIDE MUSEUM. It was designed by a lady who was the first woman to be awarded the "Pritzker prize" in architecture. This Hyper-modern museum is known for its interactive displays and a huge collection of ancient vehicles. We got off once again at this stop, just for a few photographs. Unfortunately our spirits which had a damp start remained not so great throughout. What could have been a super experience ended up this way. The other important sights which we saw were the Glasgow Cathedral, Kelvingrove art Gallery, People's Palace, George Square, Hunterian Art Gallery, Clyde Arc bridge (widely known as the squinty bridge), the pictures of which is displayed in the second gallery above.
We completed a single circle in the HOHO bus and reached the Buchanan Bus station. We requested the CITY LINK staff to pre-pone our return ticket to 4 pm instead of the earlier 6 pm and they obliged. We reached Edinburgh by 5 pm and called it a day. End of day 9 :)).