A Scottish Sojourn

Disaster Strikes

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My girlfriend and I had spent the weekend at a friend's wedding. This involved three nights of celebrations and plenty of alcohol. Therefore, as we took the bus to Glasgow airport we were looking forward to slumping into our seats and snoozing our way back to Nice (where we live) via a short stopover at Gatwick in London. We were both keen to get back as we had to work the following morning and wanted to get a good night's sleep. As you might expect, the sight of the word 'CANCELLED' next to our flight was not the most welcome. This was the beginning of one of the most unpleasant travel experiences I have endured. Once we had seen the announcement on the departures board we made our way to...Read More

My girlfriend and I had spent the weekend at a friend's wedding. This involved three nights of celebrations and plenty of alcohol. Therefore, as we took the bus to Glasgow airport we were looking forward to slumping into our seats and snoozing our way back to Nice (where we live) via a short stopover at Gatwick in London. We were both keen to get back as we had to work the following morning and wanted to get a good night's sleep. As you might expect, the sight of the word 'CANCELLED' next to our flight was not the most welcome. This was the beginning of one of the most unpleasant travel experiences I have endured.

Once we had seen the announcement on the departures board we made our way to the British Airways desk where we were greeted by a very well-dressed and very polite gentleman. He assured us that we would be able to get to London that evening. When we informed him that we were connecting to Nice his face fell and he informed us that he was not sure if that would be possible. He apologised profusely once more and asked one of the Customer Service Assistants to begin looking in to whether it would be possible to reach France that evening. He instilled confidence and it felt as though BA were trying to provide good service. However, at no point did he explain why the flight had been cancelled, which we found rather frustrating.

After speaking to the man, we were passed to the Customer Service Assistant. She told us that we would not be able to go to Gatwick, but that we might be able to get to Heathrow and connect to Nice from there. The problem was that the flight to Heathrwo was delayed, which meant it would be touch and go as to whether we could make the connection. After much deliberation, BA informed us that it would not be possible and that we would have to stay in a hotel. Naturally, this disappointed us. Our disappointment changed to anger when we arrived in London however. As we got off the plane, we were greeted by BA ground staff who were waiting to escort other passengers from the plane to the connection to Nice. We asked the ground staff why but were no explanations forthcoming.

The ground staff were unable to help us, so we went to a BA information desk. The staff there were also unable to explain why we couldn't get the flight to Nice. Instead they gave us vouchers for a hotel and transport to said hotel. After this rather frustrating escapade, we set off to the bus stop to get to the hotel. To our dismay, this was not a smooth process. The buses only ran every 30 minutes, so we had to wait for one to arrive. When it did, it was 10 minutes late. The hotel was also a long way from Terminal 5. It took around 25 minutes for us to actually get there. By the time we were in our room it was 22h00. This was the time we were expecting to arrive in Nice and was only 7 hours before we needed to be back at the airport.

Our flight cancellation was an absolute nightmare. Both my girlfriend and I were late for work and arrived rather bleary-eyed. BA have since offered us compensation, but it was not a process I wish to repeat. Read Less

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The Horseshoe Bar

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Restaurant | "Authentically Scottish"

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Before I begin to describe my brief but rather pleasant visit to the Horseshoe in Glasgow, I must hold my hands up and admit to a heavy serving of ignorance on my part. Before my trip to Glasgow, I was guilty of viewing the city through a rather stereotypical lens. Rather than judging it on its merits and considering the culture and history on offer, I imagined it to be rather rough and ready and I believed the streets to be full of incomprehensible drunks. However, after my friends and I got off the train in the city centre, we discovered that things were actually very different. It was rather nice and we had a very pleasant evening out.It was our first night in the city and we had all ar...Read More

Before I begin to describe my brief but rather pleasant visit to the Horseshoe in Glasgow, I must hold my hands up and admit to a heavy serving of ignorance on my part. Before my trip to Glasgow, I was guilty of viewing the city through a rather stereotypical lens. Rather than judging it on its merits and considering the culture and history on offer, I imagined it to be rather rough and ready and I believed the streets to be full of incomprehensible drunks. However, after my friends and I got off the train in the city centre, we discovered that things were actually very different. It was rather nice and we had a very pleasant evening out.

It was our first night in the city and we had all arrived at different time, so it was rather late before we could reach the city centre. Because of this, many of the more authentically local restaurants had stopped serving dinner, so our only option was TGI Fridays. We stayed there until just after 11h00 eating, drinking and talking. However, as we didn't want to miss out on some local culture, we decided to head to a pub before closing time. My friend Matt - who lives in Glasgow - suggested the Horsehoe because it was close by, because it was very much a local pub and because it served a fantastic array of whiskies.

As soon as we arrived, the origins of the pub's name became clear: the bar - which is very large - is shaped like a horseshoe. Once that epic fact had sunk in we took a brief little tour before getting our drinks. The traditional local feel was emphasized well by the old-fashioned leaded windows and dark-wood bar and fittings that looked as though they had been there for over a century. It really was the type of place you could envisage as having played host to hundreds of Glasgow shipyard workers and seamen coming in after a hard day's graft to enjoy a pint of beer or a few glasses of malt whisky. It really had a grand local feel and a definite hard edge - it was certainly not a place to ask for white wine or a mojito. My friend Matt, who is a local Glasweigan categorised ir wonderfully when he said, LIt is the typz of place where you can feel the atmosphere and you think it might be nasty ... but it never is.

As it was late and we were in Scotland, I decided that there was only one choice when it came to drinks: whisky. As I was looking for the real thing, I was in no mood for Bushmills, Chivas Regal or Teachers. Instead I wanted some top quality single malts. I started with a Talisker, which was a tad harsh on the palate and burned the back of my throat. We followed it with a peaty and slightly over-powering grass of Laphroaig, which I preferred. Had it been earlier and had I not been escorting my girlfriend, I would have considered trying to work my way through the full selection that the Horseshoe had on offer.

The Horseshoe was a fantastic place to get a taste of Glasgow by night. I really enjoyed the decor, the atmosphere and, most importantly, the whisky. Read Less

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on July 17, 2013

The Horseshoe Bar
17-21 Drury Street
Glasgow
0141 248 6368

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Sauchiehall Street - The Perfect Area to Stay in Glasgow

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There are certain cities around the world where it just seems impossible to find the things you are looking for. In Lyon for example, everything seemed to be spread out in different corners of the city. Many of the hotels were to the East of the city in the business district. The shopping areas were rather more central, but the bars were on the very West of the city in the Old Town. It all made for a lot of schlepping our respective asses around the city. I had similar problems in both Nanjing and Hohhot in China where I seemed to walk for hours without finding any type of nucleus containing shops restaurants or hotels. I always dread encountering such cities on my travels. However, a fate worse than ...Read More

There are certain cities around the world where it just seems impossible to find the things you are looking for. In Lyon for example, everything seemed to be spread out in different corners of the city. Many of the hotels were to the East of the city in the business district. The shopping areas were rather more central, but the bars were on the very West of the city in the Old Town. It all made for a lot of schlepping our respective asses around the city. I had similar problems in both Nanjing and Hohhot in China where I seemed to walk for hours without finding any type of nucleus containing shops restaurants or hotels. I always dread encountering such cities on my travels. However, a fate worse than this is landing in a city where everything is centrally located … except the hotel you have reserved online. This was something that happened to my girlfriend and I in Marseille where we found ourselves a long subway ride from the Port and surrounding attractions.
When I booked the Premier Inn Charing Cross in Glasgow, I had all these concerns passing through my mind. We had thought about staying at the Ibis Budget close to the river, but were swayed because it seemed a little remote However, as I researched where there might be good shops and restaurants, I began to see that the Premier Inn would be a good choice as it was close to Sauchiehall Street around which scores of things seemed to be located. As it transpired, my predictions were correct as Sauchiehall Street provided us with absolutely everything we needed in Glasgow.
We were actually in Glasgow to attend a friend's wedding. This meant, to my girlfriend at least, that we needed to find both a hair-salon and a beautician to visit on the morning of the wedding. This proved no problem as we were able to locate both within 200m of our hotel. They both provided great service with my girlfriend enjoying a style and blow-dry for 20GBP and eye-brow-waxing for 10GBP. Whilst she was doing this, I was able to enjoy coffee in one of the many local coffee shops and then change our money – we had pounds and needed Euros at a pawnbrokers that also did foreign exchange.
After the wedding, when several of my friends and I were onto our ninth beer or so and we left the wedding venue, it was again Sauchiehall Street to which we headed. At the western end of the street there are several bars on the main road as well as a great array on the side-streets that adjoin it. We managed to find our way to Buff on one of the back-streets and had a whale of a time dancing away to sixties music and enjoying some of its very reasonably priced beer.
Prior to visiting Glasgow, my girlfriend had set her heart on enjoying a shopping spree and finding some local bargains. Again, we didn't have to go far as Sauchiehall Street is home to a fine variety of major UK High Street Brands. We scarcely had to walk a kilometre before she had visited over twenty different shops and relegated me to the role of pack mule as I lugged about the ever-increasing collection of bags filled with clothes, cosmetics and other such frivolities.
In short, Sauchiehall Street was a magnificently convenient area of Glasgow. It offered us everything we needed. There was shopping, there were cafes and restaurants, there were bars and there was accommodation. I would heartily recommend that anyone staying Glasgow pick a hotel in the vicinity. Read Less

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The Willow Tea Room

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Restaurant | "Tea and Design ... but bad food"

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My girlfriend and I did not really visit the Willow Tea Rooms for the food. This proved to be rather beneficial as the cuisine on offer was less than spectacular. Instead, we visited for the style and design, which was provided by Glasgow’s most famous historical figure, Charles Rennie Mackintosh. This, thankfully, was rather better than the food and made our visit worthwhile.The Tea Rooms are located on Glasgow’s busiest Street, Sauchiehall Street. It is one of the busiest areas of the city and is usually full of shoppers during the day and revelers and party-goers in the evening. However, amidst such chaos and frivolity, the Willow Tea Rooms are an ocean of calm and relaxation. The Team Rooms ...Read More

My girlfriend and I did not really visit the Willow Tea Rooms for the food. This proved to be rather beneficial as the cuisine on offer was less than spectacular. Instead, we visited for the style and design, which was provided by Glasgow’s most famous historical figure, Charles Rennie Mackintosh. This, thankfully, was rather better than the food and made our visit worthwhile.
The Tea Rooms are located on Glasgow’s busiest Street, Sauchiehall Street. It is one of the busiest areas of the city and is usually full of shoppers during the day and revelers and party-goers in the evening. However, amidst such chaos and frivolity, the Willow Tea Rooms are an ocean of calm and relaxation. The Team Rooms were designed and decorated by Mackintosh in 1896 at the behest of Kate Cranston the daughter of a local tea merchant. Rennie Mackintosh started the process with the façade of the building, which is black and white. The windows are small and almost latticed to create a wonderful art-deco effect. I would imagine that at the turn of the last century, this would have stood out wonderfully. Sadly, in 2013, it is somewhat swamped by the giant logos and plastic signs of major department stores that surround it. I would argue that this provides a fantastic contrast, but if I am being 100% honest, this little juxtaposition gets lost in the trappings of the modern shopping area – it was only on my third trip along the street that I found Willow.
The interior of Willow is far more spectacular and easier to appreciate. The black and white theme overlaying art-deco style continues with splendor. The room is on the second floor above a rather empty and ill-conceived gift-shop. It is essentially a balcony that is hemmed in by stylish iron railings and is furnished with black high-backed chairs. The whole place almost has the feel of being like a piano and gives an interesting jazz-age type feel. The walls are also decorated with prints and memorabilia of Rennie-Mackintosh.
The tea-room itself is wonderful. The cuisine it has on offer was far less so. Both my girlfriend and I ordered the Scottish Breakfast with tea. The loose-leafed tea which came served in a china pot complete with strainer was very good. However, the breakfast was both small and average. The beans were slightly cold, my egg over-cooked and the sausage pathetically small. In short, Willow was great to see and is good for a cup of tea, but it should not really be considered a good place to eat.
The Willow Tea Room is situated on Sauchiehall Street in the West End of Glasgow. Breakfast with tea cost me 12GBP. If I returned, I would go simply for tea as the food was pretty poor.
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Member Rating 3 out of 5 on July 15, 2013

The Willow Tea Room
217 Sauchiehall Street
Glasgow, Scotland
011 44 0141 332 0521

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House for an Art Lover

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Attraction | "Rennie Mackintosh Reborn "

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One of my absolute favourite books is Simon Mawer’s wonderful tome, The Glass Room. It charts the building of a piece of modernist architecture – fashioned from glass as you might expect – in 1920s Czechoslovakia and the lives of the people who subsequently inhabit it. It is a truly wonderful piece of literature. A house for Art Lovers in Glasgow, at which I attended the wedding of one of my friends, put me in mind of this even before I had a fascinating conversation with the groom’s father.Prior to the happy couple engaging in their nuptials, a small group of us sat outside to enjoy a glass of beer in uncharacteristically pleasant Scottish weather. As we did so we admired the fantastic art-deco...Read More

One of my absolute favourite books is Simon Mawer’s wonderful tome, The Glass Room. It charts the building of a piece of modernist architecture – fashioned from glass as you might expect – in 1920s Czechoslovakia and the lives of the people who subsequently inhabit it. It is a truly wonderful piece of literature. A house for Art Lovers in Glasgow, at which I attended the wedding of one of my friends, put me in mind of this even before I had a fascinating conversation with the groom’s father.
Prior to the happy couple engaging in their nuptials, a small group of us sat outside to enjoy a glass of beer in uncharacteristically pleasant Scottish weather. As we did so we admired the fantastic art-deco lines of the building. It looked absolutely wonderful. Many of the lines are very simple and straight, but are off-set by a series of wonderful twists that include checked, windows and a very elegant balcony. The exterior of the building is white and is finished by a grey slate roof. This was to the rear of the house in its garden, which attracts the sunshine. The front was little different, it looked far more lively with more curves and stairways that almost gave it the appearance of an M.C Escher picture. It was also a little greyer as it attracted far less light.
The interior is also wonderful. It is done in very elegant and understated dark woods and features a wonderful spiral staircase as well as some fantastically high-backed chairs and large French windows that allow light to pour into some of the main rooms – this really had my mind going back to the Glass Room. There were also some wonderful pieces of tiling and mosaic work that gave the place a wonderfully delicate feeling.
Had I not spoken to the groom’s father about the house, I would have left and still felt suitably impressed at the venue. However, when I indulged in a semi-drunken conversation with him, he provided me with a fascinating history of the place. Apparently, it was designed by Glasgow’s most famous son, the renowned architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh at around the turn of the century and was originally intended to be built in Austria. However, the project fell through and the plans were left gathering dust in his office until the 1980s when a Scottish architect had the idea of finally recreating the work long after Rennie Mackintosh’s death. This got the project started and he succeeded in getting the main shell of the building finished, but then ran out of money. Therefore, it wasn’t until the mid-1990s when Glasgow council stepped in that it actually came to fruition. He went on to explain that the interior was the work of Rennie-Mackintosh’s wife Margaret McDonald and that the designers had taken her original ideas and fitted them into the constraints of using the venue for weddings and public events.
The House for an Art Lover was an absolutely wonderful setting for a wedding and is also simply a great place to visit. There is a heritage centre and it often houses art displays. It is also a great place to sit and enjoy a drink in the sunshine.
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Member Rating 4 out of 5 on July 15, 2013

House for an Art Lover
2 Dumbreck Rd
Glasgow G41 5BW

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Friday Night in the Buff

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I am sure that anyone who has ever spent an evening at Buff Club in Glasgow will have either made a joke or thought about making a joke that relates to the name Buff being British slang for native. I can imagine hundreds of Facebook updates that might read something like: 'Having fun in the Buff' or 'Can't believe Tom is in the Buff tonight'. As I almost always give in to peer pressure rather quickly and pitifully, I decided to do the same with the title for this article. However, terrible puns aside, my girlfriend and I had a great time at Buff.To set the scene, we had been at my friend's wedding during the afternoon and early evening. As a consequence, we were very much in the party mood. So, ...Read More

I am sure that anyone who has ever spent an evening at Buff Club in Glasgow will have either made a joke or thought about making a joke that relates to the name Buff being British slang for native. I can imagine hundreds of Facebook updates that might read something like: 'Having fun in the Buff' or 'Can't believe Tom is in the Buff tonight'. As I almost always give in to peer pressure rather quickly and pitifully, I decided to do the same with the title for this article. However, terrible puns aside, my girlfriend and I had a great time at Buff.
To set the scene, we had been at my friend's wedding during the afternoon and early evening. As a consequence, we were very much in the party mood. So, we jumped on a bus from the wedding venue – the rather nice A House for an Art Lover – and headed onto Sauchiehall Street in the city centre. Buff is located on a rather dark backstreet that runs parallel to the large shopping street. If we had not been accompanied by a few locals, we may not have ventured down there, but I am glad that we did.
The first surprise in Buff was the prices. I ordered two bottles of cider and two pints of lager and was charged for 11GBP. Considering it was a Friday night in a night-club in a major British city was expecting to pay roughly double that. So, I was delighted – it put me in even more of a dancing mood! On top of this, the beer was good; it was crisp and cold.
Buff is separated into two floors. The bottom is more of a bar. It plays modern music – rock and indie music rather than techno or dance - at rather loud volumes. We settled in to enjoy our beers and chill out a little to the music. It was not bad at all and I could easily have spent a very nice evening like that. However, our desire to dance and the fact that it was rather crowded downstairs pushed us upstairs to the dance-floor.
When we got there, I was both delighted and astounded to find that not only was the dance-floor busy buzzing, but that the music was 1960s British music of the mod variety. I am a huge fan of such sounds – The Small faces and the Spencer Davis Group are a couple of major favourites – which meant my girlfriend and I were onto the dance-floor extremely quickly. There were a couple of factors that conspired to make the dancing fantastic. The first was that we had been at a traditionally Scottish Wedding and had been 'enjoying' Caley dancing. There had been no modern music at all, so we were very much ready for a change of pace. The second was that we were all dressed rather formally because of the wedding, so we fitted into the 1960s vibe very well.
We had an absolutely fantastic time at Buff and I would heartily recommend it to anyone who is visiting Glasgow and looking for a good evening out. It was free to enter and the drinks were cheap. Read Less

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Kelvingrove Park

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Attraction | "Sunshine in the City"

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It is something of a cliché that as soon as the sun peeks out from behind the clouds the English are stripped down to shorts and sandals in an effort to acquire a healthy tan – efforts that usually fail and result in heavy sun-burn that creates something of a lobster effect. Being from the north of England and being quite light-skinned, I am a classic example of this little phenomenon. I thought this was a bizarrely English quirk until my girlfriend and I visited Kelvingrove Park and realised the Scottish took things to a whole new level.When we set out on a surprisingly clement Saturday afternoon to explore Glasgow's scenic North-West, we were not particularly planning to walk through Kelvingro...Read More

It is something of a cliché that as soon as the sun peeks out from behind the clouds the English are stripped down to shorts and sandals in an effort to acquire a healthy tan – efforts that usually fail and result in heavy sun-burn that creates something of a lobster effect. Being from the north of England and being quite light-skinned, I am a classic example of this little phenomenon. I thought this was a bizarrely English quirk until my girlfriend and I visited Kelvingrove Park and realised the Scottish took things to a whole new level.
When we set out on a surprisingly clement Saturday afternoon to explore Glasgow's scenic North-West, we were not particularly planning to walk through Kelvingrove Park. Rather, our objective was to go directly to the Kelvingrove Gallery and Museum. However, we were distracted by the Trinity Building, which stands out above the skyline of trees and Edwardian houses rather splendidly. We walked to this and snapped a few pictures before stumbling upon the entrance to the park. As there were signs pointing to the museum, we figured that it would be nicer to stroll through the park.
We were, of course, correct. Kelvingrove is a mass of greenery in the middle of a major city in much the same way as Central Park and Hyde Park. It was a very refreshing change of pace. There were plenty of gravel paths that ran between large areas of greenery that were chock-full of locals – and the odd tourist – relaxing in the sunshine. There were games of volleyball, there was sun-bathing and there were even barbeques. It was all very very nice.
Aside from the simple greenery and relaxation, we were also impressed by another couple of aspects of the park. The first was an area that has been kept wild in order to attract migrating birds. I found this terribly interesting as the park had signs designating these areas and explaining which birds they were aiming to attract. I also loved the bridges in the park, which were rather more industrial. They crossed a small stream and were clearly built during the industrial revolution. Their strong brick and iron lines contrasted beautifully to the flowing greenery all around.
We spent a very pleasant 30 minutes or so strolling through the park and made a special effort to use it on our journey back to our hotel as well. I would heartily recommend a stroll in Kelvingrove Park as it is very nice in itself and also offers great views of the architecturally stunning Kelvingrove Gallery. Admission is free and it is easy to find. Read Less

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on July 8, 2013

Kelvingrove Park
Otago Street
Glasgow
0141 334 6363

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Premier Inn Glasgow City Centre (Charing Cross)

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Hotel | "Great Glasgow Hotel"

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I am not sure whether it is indoctrination because I work for a major international company or whether it is because I am a child of the new millennium and its era of global brands, but, when I choose a hotel, I tend to opt for large chains. There is also the added factor that they also add an element of reliability and standardisation that can never be 100% relied upon in smaller establishments. It may also stem from my time in China when I stayed in a few shocking examples of smaller hotels and regretted it firmly. Regardless of my reasoning, one aspect of my accommodation policy is that it is difficult to write imaginative reviews of the places I stay. However, I feel that the Premier Inn in Glasgo...Read More

I am not sure whether it is indoctrination because I work for a major international company or whether it is because I am a child of the new millennium and its era of global brands, but, when I choose a hotel, I tend to opt for large chains. There is also the added factor that they also add an element of reliability and standardisation that can never be 100% relied upon in smaller establishments. It may also stem from my time in China when I stayed in a few shocking examples of smaller hotels and regretted it firmly. Regardless of my reasoning, one aspect of my accommodation policy is that it is difficult to write imaginative reviews of the places I stay. However, I feel that the Premier Inn in Glasgow allows me to do so with at least a taste of individuality.
As it is part of one of Britain's largest hotel chains, there was of course a great degree of standardisation. The room for example was like Premier Inn's everywhere. It was well furnished with purple décor and a large and extremely comfortable bed. We stayed three nights and we found it to be easily comfortable enough and spacious enough. The one negative aspect was the bathroom. Although it was very clean and well-equipped it was a little cold in its style and gave the feeling of being like a public toilet – with far better hygiene I will quickly add. The hotel building itself was not at all pretty. It is housed in a large 1970s block that I suspect was once an office block. As it is shaped like a brick and covered with white panels, it is very easy to spot when you arrive in Glasgow. However, unless you are a fan of 1970s formulaic architecture, it is not one for the cultured. The one benefit of this was that the building's height affords some fantastic view across the city. Our room looked west and we could pick out the West End of the city, which was punctuated by Glasgow University and Kelvingrove gallery, both of which are fantastic old buildings.
The element of the the Premier Inn that I feel most obligated to describe was the service. It was very good. Everyone behind reception was extremely friendly and very helpful. I asked for an iron, for scissors, for directions and for help finding a beauty salon for my girlfriend and they managed to furnish me with what I needed for all of these requests. They were also great at sorting out transport around the city: pointing us to buses and reserving taxis.
We also ate breakfast at the Premier Inn. Unfortunately, this was not included in the price and came to 8.25GBP each. As it was a buffet, this proved to be relatively good value as the English Breakfast items were very good and there was a fantastic selection of cereals. We also ate breakfast out and the meal we got outside the hotel really paled in comparison. The only problems was that the coffee and tea were rather weak.
It cost roughly 40GBP per night at the Premier Inn Charing Cross. All in all, this was good value. The rooms were good and the service excellent. It was also very well located as it was convenient for the main shopping and restaurant areas on Sauchiehall Street and was a 15 minute walk from Kelvingrove Park. Read Less

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on July 8, 2013

Premier Inn Glasgow City Centre (Charing Cross)
10 Elmbank Gardens
Glasgow G2 4PP
0871 527 8438

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Hunterian Art Gallery and Museum

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Attraction | "Misleading, but interesting"

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One of the primary reasons that I chose to live a life of travel and adventure – or at the very least a life of what I deem to be 'adventure' – was Giles Whittel's fantastic book, Lambada Country. It was written in the very early 1990s and charts his journey across Eastern Europe by bicycle in the weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of Communism. It was a truly fantastic book about one of the most fascinating series of events in recent history. As I loved it so much, I was quick to buy his second book, Extreme Continental, which charted his journey across Central Asia. Whilst not quite reaching the levels of interest and poignancy of Lambada Country, the follow-up was extremely in...Read More

One of the primary reasons that I chose to live a life of travel and adventure – or at the very least a life of what I deem to be 'adventure' – was Giles Whittel's fantastic book, Lambada Country. It was written in the very early 1990s and charts his journey across Eastern Europe by bicycle in the weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of Communism. It was a truly fantastic book about one of the most fascinating series of events in recent history. As I loved it so much, I was quick to buy his second book, Extreme Continental, which charted his journey across Central Asia. Whilst not quite reaching the levels of interest and poignancy of Lambada Country, the follow-up was extremely interesting. There was one particular passage that really caught my eye. It described the town of Seimipatalinsk in Kazakhstan, which was once the testing centre for Soviet nuclear weapons. Whittell visits it and sees a fascinating museum full of examples of animals and children with horrendous birth defects caused by the tests in the area.
I have never really had the opportunity or, if I am honest, the courage to take myself out to the wilder areas of Central Asia. So, I have never been able to visit Semipatalinsk. However, I have always longed to see the museum and the surrounding area as I imagine to be a fantastic piece of Cold War history. Recently, though, I thought I had found an opportunity to experience the next best thing. When my friend Matthew informed me that he would be getting married in Glasgow this summer, I began to search for attractions that I might visit in the city. A place that caught my eye almost instantly was the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow University, which claimed to have a fine collection of surgical and veterinary exhibits that had a similar tinge of abnormality. My appetite for this was whetted with some fantastic pictures of cabinets containing all manner of scientific exhibits.
The Hunterian took some finding. We had visited the Kelvingrove Gallery and Museum beforehand and were expecting to find the Hunterian easily as they are less than one kilometre apart. However, no-one we asked had any idea where it was. Even two police officers we encountered had no clue. This was probably a telling sign. When we arrived we were massively disappointed. The entire museum seemed to take up just two rooms and the majority of this was a small collection of historical artefacts – this included a few pieces taken from Scotland in Roman times and some Egyptian artefacts.
The surgical section was meagre to say the least. It amounted to three rather small cabinets that were tucked away against one of the walls. They were, in their defence, quite interesting. They contained preserved body parts taken from early surgical procedures and autopsies. It was rather strange to think that the people from which the parts were taken had been dead for upwards of 200 years. There was also a small display of animals with birth defects. This included a deer with six legs, a Siamese deer and a pig with one large central eye. This was all very interesting, but I must admit that I found it rather strange to see this display next to one on Roman Britain. It certainly seemed rather out of context.
After we left, we pondered why the Hunterian was such a let down, but it was only when we returned home that I understood why. The first reason was some rather selective photography on the part of the museum's website and the websites of the Glasgow tourist board that made the display look for larger than it was. The second was that there is also a Hunterian Museum in London that plays host to a far larger surgical display – type 'Hunterian' into Google and this is what you find.
The Hunterian is located in the grounds of Glasgow University. It is free, nut is no great wonder. It is close to the much more interesting Kelvingrove Museum and Gallery, so perhaps it is worth a short visit. Read Less

Member Rating 2 out of 5 on July 8, 2013

Hunterian Art Gallery and Museum
University of Glasgow
Glasgow, Scotland G12 8QQ
+44 (141) 330 5431

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