The story starts here The start of an adventure…
The sun was warm, although the sky was grey; the air reminded me of London, yet the feeling I got from this city was very different. It was as if when I spoke people softened.
Maybe it was hearing my southern English accent or maybe it was just the way I spoke. Whatever it was, it was very welcoming.
The train assistant walked me out onto the street beside Glasgow Central station and told me to turn right and then right again at the corner. To go to the crossing and I would find myself beside the river, from there I should turn right again and walk alongside The Clyde and I would reach The Glasgow Crowne Plaza.
Walking towards the Clyde had another reason; according to google maps, it was where the closest patch of grass was for Fizz to be able to have her breakfast and do ‘her business’ after all I was very aware that she had been on a train for eight hours without any option of relief!
The walk was lovely, calming yet refreshing and i was able to enjoy the varying architecture and engineering of the many different bridges we passed. (I later discovered just how many bridges there where)
The hotel was sat just after an odd ‘armadillo’ shaped building. I later discovered this to be The SEC Armadillo (yup that its official name) beside the SSE Hydro, a large exhibition, show and conference space.
While on the other side of the river there was The Glasgow Science Centre, IMAX cinema and The Glasgow Tower. But given the mix and mismatch of buildings and paving shows how there has been an increase in renovation and regeneration within the area in recent years.
This would do nicely, very nicely as a base to explore from. Surprisingly even at 8am in the morning my hotel room was ready for me, so instead of just leaving my bag at the hotel, I was able to check in, refresh with a lovely shower and sort myself out read for an adventure.
The hotel was beautiful, with 16 floors I took the opportunity to go upto the very top floor to look at the views (after photographing them and then zooming in) here are just a few of them.
When initially researching the hotel I had found that there was a train station closer to the hotel, but because this would have been involving walking away from the grass area i had decided against it originally. However I re-looked at it as a way to get back into the city centre for part of my exploration.
And when I did I discovered not only that the train station was just 3 minutes walk away, but that it was fully accessible over a large dual carriageway thanks to this beautifully designed fully covered in, ramped bridge.
Can you tell that the design geek in me was happy?
The train took me less than 5 minutes to travel back into the center of Glasgow. Where I quickly found that my google maps was struggling a little because of the high buildings and built up area just like it does in London.
We (Fizz and I) walked for hours, admiring buildings, discovering Glasgow Queen Street station which would be the station I would need to continue my travel later. And in finding other station just a few moments walk from The Central Station I discovered this beautiful mosaic.
I could continue to bore you with photographs from around Glasgow, but actually all I will say is that I walked over 20,000 steps in this beautiful city and saw some amazing buildings along with meeting many MANY many tourists from lots of different countries.
Fizz walked her paws off and she was a superstar for me. With the odd little ‘mischievous quirk’ when she discovered a near by costa and clearly felt we had walked enough for the moment and walked me quickly to the crossing, causing traffic to stop before I had realised what her plans were …
Who am i to argue with a guide dog?
Stop, refuelled and ready for more…. off we go again.
TO BE CONTINUED …
