It’s always a pleasure to visit places you’ve not been to in some time. But to get to where you fancy going from Northern Ireland, there’s always the added hurdle of water if you want to break away from the cityscapes of Belfast, Dublin or Derry and head off somewhere a little further afield.
That can mean a full weekend away, with hotel costs on top of travel. The expense mounts up, and that’s before you get round to the shopping, especially at Christmas.
The being there is the lovely part, the getting there and back again can be much less enjoyable.
I do like to go places, but the experience of the actual travelling, well, that can often be a different matter. There’s airports to navigate to get to the mainland. Flight times determine most of the arrangements, then getting from the destination airport to where you need to be. It can be pretty exhausting. Staying closer to home, I always end up driving, which has its own issues.
Winterfest in George Square, Glasgow city centre
Image, then, the delight of a seamless travel experience, a day at leisure in a different city, leaving one morning, arriving home the same night. Hassle free travel, no airports, no driving. Just turn up, sit back and relax as you let someone else take all the pressure of getting you there and back while you breathe easy and plan the day ahead en route.
My memories of getting the ferry from Belfast to Scotland are probably tarnished by the cattle market mayhem of the 1980s, the race to get a seat with the family so we didn’t prop ourselves against a wall to ride the waves.
It’s been a good seven years since I sailed across. Image again that delight at a comfortable reclining seat, television screens in abundance no matter where you sit. The delight, too, at arriving in Belfast port a few minutes before 7am on a Sunday morning, walking straight through check-in, strolling unhindered on board.
We’re off to Glasgow on a day trip.
And yes, it does take a couple of hours to cross the Irish Sea to get there but, really, what’s the issue when you can do as you please on the journey?
Winterfest in Glasgow city centre
Prices vary depending on day of travel and, of course, the time of year, with demand naturally higher at Christmas. But there’s a coach awaiting at Cairnryan where our driver George is pleased to tell us to sit back, relax some more and he’ll have us there with nae bother’tall.
And nae bother it is. Not yet noon on a Sunday afternoon and the coach pulls in to Buchanan Street station in the commercial heart of Glasgow.
And there, unfortunately, is where the relaxation ends. Self inflicted, of course.
It’s straight across the street and into the master of Christmas advertising, John Lewis, anchor tenant at Buchanan Galleries. The role of dutiful husband following in the footsteps of the better half who knows the way around such department stores much better than the likes of I, is assumed. Once more, someone else is in the driving seat. There are just short of five hours at our disposal, informed that the coach will be departing for the return journey from the same location at 4.30pm and “if you’re not on I’ll assume you love Glasgow and are staying for a bit longer,” George jokes.
We are, mostly, adults on the day trip, with a sprinkling of families who will be in for a treat. Many, it seems, are regular day-trippers and have the ‘big coats’ on ready to leap off a few minutes before I even realised we were in the city centre. They’re not likely making a dash for the Christmas markets, fun fair rides, ice-skating rink and beautifully festive log cabin stalls set up around the city, but for us it would be a shame not to take it all in.
Street food at Winterfest in Glasgow city centre.
Having successfully navigated John Lewis on the promise that we’ll be back this way later and carrying any bags would be a pain if we went hell for leather too early, it’s off down the slope of Buchanan Street, following the sound of Christmas music while mentally marking off Victoria’s Secret, the Lush superstore and Lakeland for drop-ins on the way back up the hill. There are a few Christmas presents to start ticking off Santa’s extensive list. Buying books is forbidden though. My arms are important to me.
The festive season is in full swing outside the St Enoch Centre on the banks of the River Clyde. Smiling snowmen, rockin’ reindeers, jolly Santas and hanging lights criss-crossing the alleys of chalets serving up cookies, waffles, sausages of the world. Kids are in full swing too on carousels and Christmas trains. Above our heads, feet dangle from what one half of this travelling party would call an adult torture device, swinging high over the rooftops. There are, I’m reminded, no real shops here. And as it turned out later, this Christmas village was just the appetiser.
Speaking of appetite, hunger was creeping up. Memory flashed back to a previous Glasgow visit where culture and food mingled. It was off to Sauchiehall Street where you’ll find one of the most impressive, historic lunching experiences the city has to offer.
Mackintosh at the Willow — part restaurant, part gift shop, part museum — takes you inside the creative design mind of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. The tea rooms originally opened in 1903 and there’s been barely a change since. It’s as black and white as ever it was.
Mackintosh at The Willow, Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow
Refuelling done for both the energy levels and the mind, it’s back to the high street and the afternoon rush has started as the Christmas shoppers have descended in their droves. But before hitting the shopping centre there’s one more port of call. George Square. And I’m glad lunch was taken as the smells wafting down the street would have been too much to resist had there been an inkling of hunger. This is where the real Winterfest is happening.
I refrain from the ice-skating rink set up in the gardens as nursing a broken ankle on the return journey is not on that to-do list. It’s more than enough just to stroll around, content in the knowledge I don’t need to queue at one of the chalets selling street foods of varieties all exotic. Nor do I need to stand in line with kids to satisfy their craving of a different sort for rides towering overhead, shooting them to infinity and beyond.
Instead we leave the families to their merriment, glad that merriment is being had. Sometimes the watching of Christmas alone is enough to put a smile on the face.
A Stena Line Superfast VIII
Buchanan Galleries is calling one more time and shop by shop the trek back towards Buchanan Street station and the waiting coach begins over the final hour in the city.
By 4.30pm, bags on board, all day trippers too, George starts his engine and it’s back down the coast to Cairnryan where Stena Line once more welcome us on board and the feet are lifted. Sit back, relax — but refraining from taking off the shoes as the feet had been put through their paces.
It’s days like this that remind you it’s not so much how much time you have that matters, it’s how you spend it.
On the road back to Cairnryan every town says farewell with a message ‘haste ye back’.
The temptation to take up that offer will be strong. The fudge and toffee of the Christmas markets did finally get the better of me, and next time Christmas cookies and waffles will be heading back to Belfast too.
Mark travelled as a guest of Stena Line. For more information, see stenaline.co.uk