i heart glasgow

No, I'm not being facetious, actually. It's a wonderful city - beautiful architecture, including a generous smattering of Macintosh - lots of green spaces & wide, tree-lined streets - a cool, relaxed vibe - plenty of welcoming cafes, comfortable pubs, great service and very, very good food that always seems quite affordable. Yet in terms of ingenuity of menu and quality of preparation, it's far and away beyond the standard pub grub served up all across England.

Edinburgh is billed as the prettier sister, but where she's all dolled up to impress the tourists, Glasgow is the one who is gorgeous just in jeans and a tshirt.

Dare I say I've also never met a Glaswegian I didn't like. You may think I haven't met many, considering I live more than 700 km away. However, I have met more Glaswegians than, say, Americans. Probably.

And then there's the wonderful weather. What? Ok, so perhaps that bit is an accolade too far. I've been to Scotland quite a few times now and, believe it or not, there has been only one occasion when the weather was unremittingly wet and horrid. Every other time I was blessed with at least some sunshine. True fact. The photos don't lie.



Bee-yoo-ti-ful apartment buildings with amazing stained glass in every window.



















Front of one of the many impressive buildings of Glasgow University. Wow!











Is this really just an empty, disused water pumping station? Really?






In addition to all these great reasons for visiting Glasgow, there is one more utterly compelling reason: Wendy & Scott live there with Karhu. And that is where I spent a few days this week.




Waiting for someone to throw the tennis ball.









On the snow mountain in the park (yes it's July - don't ask).









At the beach in Elie near St Andrews (of golf fame) on the east coast.








Sleeping off his walk on his custom-made window seat.