We have friends living nearby, so we met for lunch at Mono, a nice restaurant and music venue that serves delicious vegetarian food. We then spent the rest of the afternoon around some of the many bars in the city centre.

THE COMMONWEALTH GAMES

Scottish summer weather meant the athletics session we saw was very wet. The women in the pole vault struggled to get any results, as did the men in the triple jump. But the atmosphere was great and we had lots of fun.

But the definite highlight was the men’s 4X100 relay. Not only did we get to see Usain Bolt competing, but he was right in front of us! We were immensely lucky with the tickets.

Bolt is extremely powerful, and I was really impressed at how he controlled the crowd. And he also seemed to have fun in the process, even dancing to Scottish classic ‘500 miles‘. The Jamaican team won as expected, and this was a climatic finish to a nice day.

 HOW TO DO IT:

• Tickets: I’ve said this elsewhere, but the key to going to any major sporting event is planning in advance. We applied for a whole bunch of tickets and were lucky to get these.
• Stay: Glasgow doesn’t actually have that many options, and because this was a busy time we ended up staying at a rented room we found through Airbnb. Aimee‘s flat was ideal for us – a spacious flat close to the stadium and with good links to the city centre.
• Go: The main airlines fly to Glasgow, but for more options consider flying to (and staying at) Edinburgh, which is quite close and offers more choice.