Burning the Inheritance

Glasgow, is the largest city in Scotland with 1 million people in the urban center and about 2 million in the metro area.  It is located along on the River Clyde and is known for its beautiful old buildings which are evidence of its prosperity as a trade and shipbuilding center during the 18^th to 20^th century.  As countries like Germany and Japan developed industrially in the 1960’s, Glasgow went into an economic decline with rising unemployment, poverty, and crime, but it has rebounded in recent decades thanks, at least in part, to tourism and now has the largest economy in Scotland and the third highest GDP of any city in the UK.

For reasons I will explain in a bit, Glasgow commands a certain reverence and respect from us, although we have never been there before. We arrived in Glasgow ahead of our travel companions who were flying there and checked into our apartment in Merchant city which is the old town of Glasgow.  On the way there, we grabbed the extra suitcase we had stored at Denny and Wendy’s hotel in order to get it packed for a hand-off to Greg and Kim when they departed the next day. 

Our apartment in Merchant City was nothing fancy but it had a lot of space, some nice views, and was strategically located for a tour that Colleen planned on taking us on the next day.

We pretty quickly realized that central Glasgow is a great walking city.  It does have some hills, but, as we discovered the next day, it is just small enough that you can walk from one end to the other in less than an hour.  Merchant City, where we were staying, is a bit dark and gritty, but it is full of beautiful old buildings (also dark and a little gritty from the days of coal).  There are several avenues which have been closed to traffic and have become great pedestrian malls for strolling, shopping, and eating.

We had dinner at a restaurant called Mowgli, a hip upscale restaurant which features reinvented Indian street food in small plates. We had tried to have dinner at a Mowgli in Edinburgh, but were unable to get a reservation.  The atmosphere was great, as were their cocktails and we ordered an assortment of dishes to share.  Everything was amazingly good and we ordered more of our favorites. 

Unfortunately, the evening was disrupted a bit when Denny and Wendy learned that one of their flights home had been cancelled.  They were forced to spend much of dinner on the phone trying to find an alternative flight and ended up needing to retire early as the solution to their dilemma was to be at the airport at 4 AM in order to catch and early connecting flight to Amsterdam and, eventually to Grand Rapids where we are happy to report they eventually arrived safe and sound.

On Friday May 18^th, Greg and Kim came to our place in the morning to drop their luggage as they had a flight out that afternoon.  We walked up High Street from our apartment and toured Glasgow Cathedral, one of those must-sees in Glasgow.  Unfortunately, the Cathedral was undergoing renovations with scaffolding marring its exterior but the interior was beautiful with lots of interesting crypts, sub-crypts, and chapels beneath. 

We were happy to discover that a local brewery (Dry Gate) had a brew pub just down the hill from the Cathedral and we retired there for flights of beer and a nice lunch while watching the beer brew.

The highlight of the day was definitely a tour of Glasgow street art which Colleen choreographed for us, both before and after our Cathedral tour and lunch.  Glasgow has a pretty impressive collection of commissioned street art, much of it by an artist named Smug.  We were all quite impressed by Colleen’s ability not only to locate the various works, but to provide us with an explanation of each work, its artist, and its origins.  Pretty impressive all around.

Sadly, at the end of the tour we had to return to our apartment and send Greg and Kim off  to the airport, our extra suitcase in hand, for a couple more days in Dublin before returning home.  Not to be outdone by Denny and Wendy, they managed to have their flight back to the U.S. canceled and had to spend a night at the airport before getting back to New Jersey a day late but safe and sound as well.

And so, just like that, it was just the two of us again.  For our last full day in Glasgow before flying to Morocco, we walked across the city, hitting some of the remaining street art sites as we made our way to the University of Glasgow. The University of Glasgow, where one of our nieces had studied for awhile, was founded in 1451 and is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world.   The campus is really very beautiful, particularly the Cloisters which do seem like something from Harry Potter. 

And then it was time for lunch!

I mentioned earlier in this piece that, although we had not been here before, we regard Glasgow with a certain degree of reverence and respect.  This is primarily because it is a city which the travelling chef, Anthony Bourdain, held in high regard, calling it not just his favorite city in Scotland, but one of his most favorite cities in the world.  We are and have, for some time, been big fans of Anthony Bourdain (despite the sadness) and have regularly referred to episodes of his various television series when preparing to visit a place which he also visited. And, when possible, we find it particularly interesting and entertaining to be able to eat in one of the places where he did.

We’ve had couple of near misses on this account during our recent travels.  We found Don Vittorio in Valparaiso Chile but arrived too early once and then found it closed when we returned later.  Although we found Osteria Ca’ del Vento in Venice, it was closed for renovations when we visited.  But all indications on the web were that the University Café, one of the places Anthony ate in Glasgow (twice in fact, once in 2001 for A Cook’s Tour and again in 2012 for Parts Unknown), was alive and well and open for business.

Not only were the indicators right, but the place appeared virtually unchanged from when he was last there and, in reviewing the Parts Unknown episode again, we realized that we sat in the same booth that he did! The Café has these funny narrow tables that require alternate seating from side to side.

One thing that has changed at the University Café since Bourdain’s last visit is the addition of a menu item known as the “Bourdain Special”, which includes, among other things, deep-fried battered haggis.  Also included in the Special is a can of Irn Bru, something new we discovered on this trip. If you’ve not heard of Irn Bru, it is a Scottish beverage which gives you energy but leaves you too relaxed to do anything with it. (Kinda awsome, right?) 

It doesn’t get much more Bourdain than this and so, of course, I ordered the Bourdain Special. 

I have to report that the haggis was pretty damn good (and, as I say that, I hear Tony saying “but isn’t anything that is battered and deep-fried?”).  Honestly, it really was good, better than the deep-fried battered cod or the chips!

After lunch, we spent our last afternoon in Glasgow wandering the city and eventually made our way down to the Clyde Waterfront which has a beautiful promenade for walking and biking with some nice views of the river and a mix of beautiful old buildings and newer ones as well as some very interesting bridges. 

For me at least, 3 days in Glasgow was not enough time and I have vowed to come back again some time in the not-too-distant future to experience more of its uniquely gritty but beautiful urbanism.  And so, still with heavy hearts after seeing our friends depart, we made our way back to our apartment, stopping to see the last couple of street art works and doing a bit of last minute shopping for some necessities before packing up for our flight to Marrakesh the next day.