

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

24 hours in Glasgow with the kids, things to do, places to see

So Monday beckoned and I realised we were into the second week of the summer holidays and I'd not spent as much time with the kids as I'd have liked, I love my job but it can make for some really crazy hours, a split second decision was made and I quickly booked some train tickets and a hotel through Late Rooms and just an hour later Looby, Abigail and I were on the train to Glasgow, now we usually escape to Edinburgh but Glasgow has been somewhere I've wanted to explore ever since Abigail and I spent a day there a couple of years ago.

So 24 hours to enjoy Glasgow with Looby (8) and Abigail (10), we wanted to cram in as much as we possibly could, here's what we got up to in photos....

we stayed at the Grand Central Hotel which is literally on the edge of Central Station, if you have kids it's perfect as you get off the train and voila, there's your hotel!

Although this building is now a co-op, the architecture is from Venice, it's beautiful even if it is now a supermarket.

No trip to Glasgow with the kids would be complete without a trip to Hamleys, yes it's not just in London, it's based in the corner of the St Enoch centre, Abigail and Looby loved Hamleys!

while in store a helpful young chap (well sort of) called Snudge did some magic tricks with her new set of Muppets playing cards, Abigail is not a massive fan of magic as she's someone who needs to know how everything is done so it kills her when someone does something she really doesn't understand.

The Glasgow Museum of Modern Art

One of our favourite things to do in big cities are go on the bus tours, for £22 for the 3 of us we got a 24 hour pass to jump on and off the bus as much as we wanted, the first time round we did the complete tour, it was a great opportunity for me to be able to sit and take photos and Looby tested out her new binoculars!

The Armadillo, part of the S.E.C.C

The Glasgow Science Centre, more on that later....

The Glasgow Botanic Gardens, more on those in a moment too!

Our tour guide, lovely but mad as a box of frogs, very entertaining!

The worlds tallest Cinema is in Glasgow, bet you didn't know that!!

This fountain is the largest of it's kind in the world, it's just been moved from the other side of the park at a cost of £4 million, not entirely sure what made it worth that but it's a lovely fountain.

The Italia Building with Italia on the top

So todays first stop was the Glasgow Botanic Garden, home to the national collection of Orchids, it's the perfect place to go with the kids, they have plenty of places to run around, a play area, a childrens garden and lots of fabulously unusual plants

and so our second stop today was the Glasgow Science centre, the only museum in Glasgow you actually have to pay for, it cost £33.98 to get in for the 3 of us but that included the planetarium show which was brilliant

in reality I think you could easily spend an entire day in the science centre, in the summer it's open every day in the summer from 10-5 and there is so much to do, we just really rushed about the place because we had to be back on the train at 5pm

I hate when photographers take these type of photos but if I hadn't there would have been no photos of me in Glasgow with the kids!

Giant Abigail or a very small room?

I think a giant Abigail is enough to terrify most people so I'll leave this blog post now....

Glasgow is a super place to take the kids and you know what, there's 20 museums owned by Glasgow City Council and every single one of them is free, you could spend a week and not have to pay a single admission fee, next time we go back I'm planning a week of free activities, I don't think they'll be bored for even 1 minute!

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