Quezi

Glasgow - looking across the River Clyde to the Science Centre - photo by Francois Schnell - CC-BY

If you’re in Glasgow with children, you could spend most of the day in the titanium-walled Science Centre pictured above. As well as spacious halls full of try-it-yourself exhibits appealing to different ages, there are cleverly-staged demonstrations, a café, an Imax cinema, and fine views from the impressive rotating tower.

Staying near the river, visit the Tall Ship, a 19th century sailing ship anchored alongside other reminders of the city’s maritime heritage on show at the same spot. If you prefer modern boats, there are powerboat trips available all year round, as well as various river cruises in summer.

Other ideas well-suited to families include the Museum of Transport – with everything from steam locomotives to caravans – or the Scotland Street School where children can get a taste of education a hundred years ago.

If you want nature and space, you could go slightly out of town to the Pollok Country Park. Not just a park, either, as the extraordinary Burrell Collection is housed there in a light-filled modern building designed to fit harmoniously into its green setting. Thousands of treasures assembled by just one rich shipping magnate include Chinese antiquities displayed by a glass wall with woodland just beyond, and exceptional pieces of 17th century embroidered clothing preserved in a windowless, dimly lit room. In the same parkland is Pollok House, where you can get a sense of life in an 18th century mansion.

Back in town, art nouveau fans could spend all day visiting buildings designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, including the old school already mentioned. If you want just one taste of his unique style, visit the 1904 Willow Tea Rooms for a moment of refreshment in the city centre. You can shop there, and all over Glasgow, for household items and jewellery echoing his designs – or take a short walk to the upmarket fashion shops in the Princes Square mall.

A mile or so eastward, the cathedral, necropolis, and Museum of Religion are clustered together. You won’t easily find a museum like this elsewhere – with statues of Hindu gods, a Salvador Dali crucifixion painting, and a Zen garden.

Glasgow has many more museums. Kelvingrove is set in an attractive park – nice in summer – while  the People’s Palace social history museum has its Winter Gardens: a grand Victorian glasshouse with tropical plants. The Hunterian Gallery has a science display celebrating Lord Kelvin, the famous physicist with links to Glasgow University, and a reconstruction of Rennie Mackintosh’s own house.

As you explore, you will notice the substantial Victorian architecture and other signs of how Glasgow once flourished as an industrial city. You may also sense that it later declined, then suffered insensitive expressway-building and “slum clearance” in the 1960s and 1970s before experiencing a cultural and civic revival that led to its title of “European City of Culture” in 1990.