Today I am taking the train to Glasgow for a day trip! I am traveling out of
Edinburgh Waverley Station about an hour to Glasgow. When I arrive there is a taxi parade. I have no idea what this is about but there are a ton of taxis driving around town, they are decorated with balloons and some of the drivers are dressed up! Several are dressed as Aliens or Spiderman.
On my ride in I searched for free activities in Glasgow. There are several free museums, including The Gallery of Modern Art. They currently have a Banksy exhibit that you have to pay for, but the upper floors are free to visitors. The museum is beautiful, I highly recommend visiting it if you are in Glasgow.
After the museum I walk around town admiring the fun architecture and grab a grilled cheese sandwich from a local cafe.
Another free museum, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum is about a 40 minute walk from downtown and worth it! Some of my favorite pieces of art were Sophie Cave’s Floating Heads sculptural installation, the stained glass window The Coronation of the Blessed Virgin by Harry Clare, and Rembrandt’s A Man in Armour – possibly Alexander the Great. Sleeping Beauty is one of my favorite fairy tales, I mean who doesn’t want to get excellent sleep and then wake up to a castle and a prince? Sign me up! Anyways, seeing The Briar Rose or The Sleeping Beauty by Walter Crane might be my new favorite art piece. It is rumored that my family is a distant relative to Elvis Presley so whenever I see my “cousin” I have to take a picture with him to annoy my family (The statue is Return to Sender by Sean Read). It was great to see a familiar face so far from home! 😀
After Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, I head over to Kelvingrove Park to rest my feet and relax in the sun before I make the trek back into the city.
I have sometime before my train ride, near the train station is a fun looking pub, The Ark. I want loaded fries without meat (vegetarian) however, they are out of some ingredients so I ask for cheese fries. Rookie mistake, that does not mean the same thing as it does in the states. I was given fries with unmelted sprinkled cheese on top. The atmosphere and staff are incredible and if I am ever in Glasgow again I will return, but will be sure to only order things straight from the menu.
Once back at my Airbnb I called it a night. I walked 15.8 miles today totalling 36,273 steps!!!!
Today’s Helpful Tips
My favorite train apps for getting around Europe:
M-Tickets – I used this in Scotland before I found out about other apps. It worked great and when you arrive at the station you can print your ticket.
This is a great app since it will search for trains, buses, and planes for your trip. If I was booking a plane I would switch to Ryanair or whichever I could find cheaper but for booking train or bus this was my go to app around Europe.
Very much like Omnio except it only searches trains and buses. I liked to switch between the two apps to find the cheapest and best trip for me.
I am finding that Europe is big on free art museums or at least one day/night a week that is free. Be sure to google free things to do in _____ city to find a list. The ones I visited today were:
