Hotel Indigo Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom

September 2016, Our 1 night/2 days stay experience

When planning our trip to Scotland in September 2016 we thought long and hard which hotels to book in Glasgow. One of our choices was the Indigo Glasgow, because it was unusual in regards to its history and design.

Originally the building was the first power station in Glasgow, supplying the surrounding houses with electricity.

Indigo is part of the Intercontinental Hotel Group and their boutique offering, which means the Indigo brand within the IHG Group offers a more individual design and heritage as let’s say their Holiday Inn properties. 

This particular stay was our first experience with the brand during our one night stay.

The hotel is not far from the Main Train Station and the Hilton Glasgow [in which we stayed a few yeas ago] and housed in a Georgian building. There are steps leading up to the entrance with a revolving door.

The lobby was small, but full of character and original details with the reception to the left and the restaurant and bar by Marco Pierre White to the right. There was a seating area for two with complimentary local newspapers offered near the elevators.

We liked the high ceilings and stucco walls.

Check in was done quickly and Fraser, the receptionist, chatted with us about his trip to Berlin.

We were soon on the way to our Standard King Room on the 4th floor.

It was larger than we expected with very high ceilings and windows.

Our views were over the courtyard and surrounding houses.

The room had a feminine feel with red tones and flower printed wall paper. The flower theme continued throughout our room incl. the golden curtains and the carpet. There was also a wooden floor.

Another color used was white to give a contrast against the reds used.

We loved the room and its romantic feel. It was enhanced by a photograph of a Glasgow landmark and by a part of the wallpaper incorporating another local landmark.

The bed was comfortable and large. The headboard was made of leather and accentuated the theme of the room by having red buttons added.

On one nightstand was a modern but 50s inspired radio and IPod docking station. It was cool and we liked it. 

The writing desk had the “Sunday Times Travel Magazine” and “This is Glasgow” and “Welcome to the neighborhood” brochure including other Indigo hotels, for example Duesseldorf, Tel Aviv and Edinburgh. 

A small mirror was also a welcome addition by the writing desk.

The free Wi-Fi internet was blazing fast at all times when we used it.

The flat screen TV had only regional channels and the most important news channel available was BBC News. No real problem, but a more international selection would have been nice, especially when staying longer at this beautiful boutique hotel.

We enjoyed the chair with ottoman and coffee table.

There was also a wardrobe with mini bar, which was complimentary, and one that was sensible. It included one Schweppes Lemonade, one Diet Coke, two Strathmore still water, two Tunnock’s milk chocolate covered caramel wafer biscuits [More of these please!] and one pack of Real Crisps, hand cooked with sea salt and malt vinegar flavor. We took the wafers, the water and the lemonade. Having not tried Tunnock’s before we are now big fans and buy them regularly, even when not in Scotland.

There was a full size free-standing mirror too.

In room dining was 24 hours available. Some dishes were from Marco Pierre White Steakhouse, Bar & Grill. Otherwise there were for example sandwiches, starting from 5.25 GBP (ca. 5.95 Euro / ca. 6.70 USD), soup of the day 6.50 GBP (ca. 7.35 Euro / ca. 8.25 USD), Thai Chicken Curry 12.95 GBP (ca. 14.65 Euro / ca. 16.40 USD) and desserts from 2.95 GBP (ca. 3.35 Euro / ca. 3.75 USD).

Tea/coffee making facilities were available too and the tea was by Brodies of Edinburgh.

The bathroom was medium sized and stylish incl. beautifully printed tiles plus sink, toilet and shower only. There was a rainfall shower head and a hand held one. Amenities were by Aveda, which we like and use at home too.

The staff was responsive to any of our requests, like delivering more shampoo or replacing our hair dryer, when it didn’t work all of a sudden. All these services had been promptly delivered with a smile.

Our rate included breakfast, which was small, but of high quality and sufficient.

One hot item was included per guest and the cold items were served buffet style. There were three types of bread and pastries, two types of cheese and juices, some cold cuts, fresh fruits including watermelon and strawberries, one muesli, cereals, granola, milk, a smoothie, seeds and dried fruits.

The muesli was a bit difficult to get out of the container and I never figured out how the toaster was working.

Special mention has to go to the gluten free section.

We really loved our stay and thought the one night was too short. We would love to return again to this wonderful boutique hotel offering from IHG incl. Glasgow hopefully in our future.


©2017

Balfes @ The Westbury Dublin, Ireland

Since Balfes at the Westbury Hotel in Dublin was always busy, we pre-booked a table for brunch during a weekend in March 2017. There was a time we could simply “pop in” but this isn’t possible anymore due to demand during busy breakfast/lunch/dinner and brunch hours.

 

We were brought to our table and as expected nearly all others were already occupied. Our fellow diners ranged from couples to families, to a birthday party and a business group.

 

The waitress was attentive and offered tap, still or sparkling water. We ordered a large bottle of still Acqua Panna, a Florsheim signature cocktail made with white rum, Vermouth, Crème de Cacao, lime juice and grenadine and two chili hot chocolate.

 

The cocktail was at first creamy and a bit dry and turned later floral and sweet. A beautiful offering.

 

Our chili hot chocolates were very spicy with real red chili peppers, so if you can’t take the heat or don’t like spiciness I wouldn’t recommend you order it, as for us, we enjoyed our beverages.

 

Our starters were Tuna tartare with avocado, Goma Wakame seaweed and Kimuchi sauce. It looked colorful and the sweetness of the seaweed went well with the tangy sauce, the tuna and the creamy avocado.

 

Main courses were the BodyByrne Turkey Burgers topped with guacamole, paprika sweet potato wedges, salsa and healthy coleslaw.

 

The Westbury works closely together with BodyByrne in order to offer nutritious and healthy food.

 

The burgers came without a bun.

 

The coleslaw was Asian inspired and the sweet potato wedges were a delight. The whole combination was very tasty. Some foods can make you tired, but our main courses left us energetic, satisfied and not hungry at all.

 

A meal wouldn’t be complete with dessert, so our indulgences included grilled peppered pineapple with rum sauce, pink pepper and cardamom ice cream and crème brulee. Both desserts weren’t overly sweet.

 

The pineapple’s sweetness went well with the peppery notes, the generous sauce and the spice of the cardamom.

The crème brulee was beautifully presented with ice cream and flowers on top and was not sweet at all due to the Matcha green tea used.

 

We enjoyed our meal. The staff was busy, but attentive and brought our bill quickly. It was ca. 107 Euro (ca. 120 USD).

 

This is a restaurant we visit regular and will do so in the future.

©2017

Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain

One of the purposes of our visit to Bilbao for a weekend in August 2016 was the Andy Warhol exhibition “Shadows” at the Guggenheim Museum.

We stayed very conveniently at the Gran Hotel Domine, just across the road. Please see our review.

The Guggenheim - the architect was Frank Gehry - has wonderful flowing lines and we enjoyed the design.

We liked also that artwork like Jeff Koons’ “Puppy” and other sculptures were accessible outdoors around the museum and the artificial lake without paying entrance.

The entrance, hall and atrium felt monumental, bright and airy, something to be explored when visiting this iconic venue.

Due to us having booked our tickets online we could avoid all lines of people, we showed our  tickets at the check point and could enter without any delays.

One of the first art installations we encountered was “Installation for Bilbao” by Jenny Holzer. You can walk through it and there are digital displays of phrases in different languages.

“Shadows” was on the ground floor in a very large exhibition room. Andy Warhol created it in 1978. It started out as one painting in multiple parts. It was the second time only that all 102 prints which belong to this series had been exhibited in full.

We loved the high white walls and the contrast to the colorful artwork. Some of them were quite gloomy – different shades of grey, black and white, while others were popping into the eye (different neon colors, like green, pink and yellow) or warm (red and earth tones).

It wasn’t monotonous at all and we found it quite inspiring, sitting sometimes on one of the benches to watch how other people reacted to the art and study the prints from afar.

Photography is generally not allowed at Exhibitions we found out.  While “Shadows” and the atrium were an exception, here we could take photos, which we enjoyed beside the other visitors. The museum itself can be seen as one fascinating artwork which should be studied rather carefully in detail of architecture, detail and elegance in the heart of Bilbao.

Other exhibitions we visited including: “Louise Bourgeois. Structures Of Existence: The Cells” and “Windows On The City: The School Of Paris, 1900 – 1945”.

Both were very impressive and very different.

There were many other paintings, sculptures and the building itself including terraces to be explored. Visitors could spend the whole day there.

There are two restaurants and one bar on the premises. All of the outlets are run by Josean Alija and Nerua holds 1 Michelin star. The Bistro offers good value with a three course for 25 Euro per person (ca. 27.95 USD).

We went to the bar and enjoyed snacks. It was self-service when sitting indoors and waiter service on the terrace.

Like the whole environment of the museum, the bar space was stylish.

To our surprise birds found their way into the bar area too and one of them was hungry, so it took a bite out of one of the cakes and was gone as quickly as it came. What a fascinating bonus!

We had one still water, two cod omelets, two white tuna and vegetable empanadas and one ham sandwich. It was very tasty indeed. A quick and satisfying taste of Spain.

We paid 17 Euro (ca. 19 USD).

We were amazed by the art on display, the building and the great food. The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is definitely on our list of museums to re-visit, when visiting beautiful Bilbao in our future again. It’s a memorable city, friendly people, and as experienced at the Guggenheim, a cultural destination which shouldn’t be overlooked when planning on which city to visit when in Spain.

©2017