Merchant City Public Art Trail

Sometimes there’s nothing better than spending a sunny Sunday afternoon being a tourist in your own city. I’d heard about the Merchant City Public Art Trail last year and had it on my «to do» list ever since, and we had a few hours to kill yesterday afternoon so started our wee wander around Merchant City. It’s a self-​guided trail and is suitable for nearly anyone — there is a very steep hill in part of it, but apart from that it’s an easy ramble around Merchant City.
Sadly they didn’t have any printed versions of the trail at GOMA so we made do with the online version — it’d be better to have a printed copy though as the online version is a PDF file which doesn’t make for the easiest viewing. Starting at GOMA, you follow the trail to Royal Exchange House, the Mercure Hotel, Jigsaw, the Italian Centre … and on and on.
The guide tells you where to look and some information about it — I think the snippets of information are perfect as they’re long enough to give you detail but not so long that you’re standing there reading for ages. The guide also gives you instructions where to walk next so you don’t have to flick back to the map each time to check. We found so many wee (and not so wee) pieces of artwork we’d never noticed before on this wander that it really was a totally delightful afternoon. I can’t pick just one highlight as I genuinely found each stop really interesting. It really makes you appreciate just how much there is to Glasgow and what an amazing city we live in.
(Note: we only made it to 14 on the trail, there are 21 in all so we are planning on finishing it off over the summer. There are so many great bars/​restaurants in the area that it makes for the perfect bar-​hopping or pre-​dinner activity. And it’s also a good walk!)