Weekend in Glasgow

Scott Andrew BirdScott Andrew Bird
July 18, 2005




It was never going to be a weekend which followed much of a plan.

Taru phoned me on Friday evening and wanted to get away for the weekend. Nowhere in particular, although the idea of a couple of days in Helsinki didn't seem too bad at all. We decided to pack enough stuff for a couple of days, grab passports and head for Glasgow International Airport.

We arrived at the airport a little after 10am Saturday. Unfortunately we quickly discovered that the government had stopped the airlines from offering Standby tickets some time ago, and it was ridiculously expensive to grab a last-minute ticket - especially at this time of year (as an example, a single ticket to Helsinki was £700). Time for coffee and a rethink.

The airport doesn't offer much in the way of transport (apart from the international flights) - there is no rail connection, or buses to major locations other than Glasgow city centre. Having few options, we took the bus back to town.

It was now almost lunchtime, and the thought of spending hours sitting on a bus somewhere was gradually losing it's appeal; not aided by the rising temperatures. Yes, Glasgow can get quite warm. We elected to cool off in a few of the local shops.

After wandering around Glasgow shops for a couple of hours, it was time for a trip to that Mecca for landlords everywhere - Ikea. With the store taking up more room than many airports, spending several hours there wasn't a problem at all. And that's without pausing for a while in the cafe.

One of the great things with this particular Ikea is the Swedish food shop there - complete with several types of chocolate, vodka and a weird pear cider; the makings of a great night in.

Sunday began around 8am, and a quick glance out the window was enough to convince us not to head west. Abandoning any thoughts of visiting the islands, we headed towards Stirling; specifically the Blair Drummond Safari Park.

Driving through a large area home to lions, camels, buffalo, ostriches and ducks seemed quite similar to walking around a good zoo anywhere - until the lions decided to walk over to the car. Suddenly the window felt very, very inadequate.

As well as the drive-through area is a small zoo, complete with various animal shows. We squeezed in to a sea lion show, which contained all of the usual tricks (clapping, balancing a ball on the nose etc). Light and relaxing (especially after the lions).

Heading back towards Glasgow, we stopped in the tiny village of Luss (near Loch Lomond) for a particularly late lunch in the beer garden of one of the local pubs. A walk in the sun down to the water's edge polished off an excellent day of impromptu sightseeing.