Sightseeing in Glasgow

As many of you will know, Mr Maggie May and I recently enjoyed a lovely weekend in Glasgow - you might have read my post about our incredible meal on the Friday night, or ogled all the pictures I posted on Instagram. Well we had a pretty amazing day on the Saturday and I have wanted to share the details with you all for ages - finally, here they are...

We woke up early so we could fill up with breakfast before our big day ahead. Having slurped lots of coffee (nursing a slightly fuzzy head from the night before, ahem) I dashed off to the south of the city for a morning of meetings, leaving Mr MM to explore. He managed to get a few nice snaps along the way.

Before too long it was lunchtime, and we arranged to meet at one of the stops for the City Sightseeing bus - the folks at People Make Glasgow had very kindly given us some tickets, so we couldn't wait to hop on and get a tour. I dragged along my friend too (yes, the same one who we'd been knocking back whiskies with the night before) and the three of us excitedly boarded the bright red bus.

It was a slightly blustery afternoon, but that didn't stop us from marching to the top deck so we could take lots of snaps of our surroundings and giggle childishly as the wind tickled our faces.

Having studied my Rough Guides book fairly carefully, there was one spot which I knew we simply had to visit whilst in Glasgow. The Willow Tea Rooms on Sauchiehall Street were designed by famous Scottish artist Charles Rennie Mackintosh way back in 1903, and they are still in use today. As a huge fan of afternoon tea in any way, shape or form, I was very keen to indulge in a selection of sandwiches and cakes for lunch, and even better, the City Sightseeing buses give you a fabulous discount if you buy a ticket on board. 

The tea rooms themselves are just lovely: the words quaint and cute are the ones which immediately come to mind, and our food was very yummy indeed.

I would definitely recommend visiting this delightful place if you're in Glasgow. We sat in the main room at the top of the stairs, which had a bustling, comfortable feel to it, but there is also the Room de Luxe up a few more stairs, which is filled with the ornate original work of Mackintosh and provides a charming view of the street below. When we were there, I think the atmosphere was better in the main room - but have a look in both and see what you think!

The Willow Tea Rooms are at 217 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, G2 3EX. If you do pop in, send me a pic of your afternoon tea on Twitter or Instagram - I'd love to see! I'll probably get a bit jealous that you're there and I'm not, though.

The great thing about the sightseeing bus is that you can jump on and off to your heart's content, so  it was very easy for us to find the stop again and make our way towards Glasgow Cathedral and the Necropolis.

The cathedral is stunning; as we got there late in the afternoon, the light behind the dark, slightly foreboding building made for some excellent shots.

I decided to do some dancing about in the dusky light too...

For those of you who haven't been to Glasgow, one of the city's most famous sights is the hauntingly beautiful Necropolis. As one of the locals said to me on the Friday night, "it's just a graveyard" - but it's a graveyard filled to the brim with magnificent obelisks, mausoleums and gravestones, erected by the wealthiest Glaswegians in years gone by.

I'm not gonna lie - as night starts to fall, it's a pretty creepy place.

But so stunning at the same time.

As an aside, we are CERTAIN that an episode of Doctor Who must have been filmed here - or at least this is where the writers got the inspiration for the Blinking Angels!

Having crept our way around the graves for half an hour, we decided to head back to our respective hotels before it got too dark. (Deciding that I would not want to be there around Hallowe'en!)

We arrived back at our hotel with a few hours to get ready for the evening ahead... Featuring a bar with over 70 different gins, and a meal which may well be one of the best I have ever had, my next Glaswegian blog post is one you don't want to miss!

A big thank you to People Make Glasgow for providing me with two tickets for the City Sightseeing Bus Tour.