Scottish tours and Shore Excursions

We have experienced another great cruising week with the MSC Magnifica, the Queen Victoria, Le Boreal and the Ruby Princess docked in Greenock. We decided on touring Glasgow this week and we have just started offering a new service called the Glasgow Bus which is a return pick up and drop off service between Greenock Ocean Terminal and Glasgow City Centre. For £20 per person return, it is proving a viable alternative to the train and taxi services.

Anyway, what a week. We welcomed many nationalities on our trips, including French, German, Russian, American, Chinese and Chilean. They all brought the weather with them and we had a fabulous time enjoying the delights of Glasgow. Please see the tour details below:

Our Glasgow Tour - £39 per person and includes complimentary glass of whisky and bottle of water.

• Pick up: Ocean Terminal
• First stop: Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery - 1 hour.
• Next: Glasgow Cathedral, Oldest House in Glasgow and St Mungo’s Museum of Religious Art and Culture. 1 hour
• Next: Stop on Buchanan Street in Glasgow for a spot of shopping and / or coffee and lunch break. 1 - 2 hours dependant on ship departure time. We can miss this stop if required.
• Finally a stop at the People’s Palace Museum and Winter Garden.
• Return to Greenock.

(Depending of consensus of group we can include a stop at the Auchentoshan Whisky Distillery and the Riverside Museum.)

Kelvingrove is a winner with every group we have had so far, igniting emotions and passions in some of our guests which reduced a few to tears. The building is so spectacular and the exhibition of Glasgow showing at the moment is a must see. The museum is host to a few masterpieces from some of the greatest painters of all time; Monet, Rembrandt and Dali. The Crucifixion by Salvador Dali was a bucket list item for one of my Chilean guests who had no idea the painting was there until we were close to finishing our visit. He couldn’t believe it was there and was overcome with emotion when he finally saw one of his favourite paintings (for free).

The Glasgow Cathedral, Oldest House in Glasgow and St Mungo’s Museum stop, although very different from Kelvingrove, is magnificent all the same and gives you a real sense of the city’s past. The Cathedral is arguably the best preserved in the United Kingdom as it was barely touched by Oliver Cromwell and his supporters which saw the demise of so many of our ancient religious buildings. All my guests over the week enjoyed the Cathedral and were very happy that it is included in the Glasgow Tour.

Now the Oldest House in Glasgow is as quoted by my Chinese guests “better than Shakespeares House”. The residence of the keepers of the Cathedral, the house was visited by many of Scotland’s famous folk including Mary Queen of Scots. Like the Cathedral, it is still very much intact and you can breath the history in that took place between those walls. The garden outside provides a well earned treat for climbing all the stairs earlier, especially when the weather is as glorious as it had been all last week.

Finally when visiting the Cathedral district, it is only natural that you visit the adjacent museum named after Glasgow’s Saint Mungo. This is an optional stop as on a few of the days we were under tight time constraints but you will be wowed by the Peter Howson Crucifixion painting and other elements of all religious art and culture within the museum. If you are feeling a little peckish, there is also a lovely cafe in the museum.

We include a little bit of shopping on our tour allowing for some “free time”. This was very popular and Glasgow was absolutely magical. The hustle and bustle of Buchanan Street provided the perfect atmosphere for some retail therapy and for our guests who wanted to relax and enjoy the ambiance, there are many street cafes. I was treated to a lovely lunch by my Saturday Chilean couple. I must visit Chile one day, the people I have met so far have been so warm and welcoming!

Our last stop was the People’s Palace and Winter Garden. This is a very inspirational stop and one which my French guests loved - Egalite, Liberte, Fraternite! This was our usual toasting spot which we hope to continue to make a habit of.

We are off for the next week and look forward to welcoming the Ruby Princess back on Monday the 9th June. Something tells me, we will be off to Glasgow again :-)

 If you would like to take part in our Glasgow tour, please get in touch!