Hello from the first city of Buckfast, where I am down for work.

I’ve spent the evening catching up with friends, so haven’t managed to do something I’ve wanted to do for a long time (and never quite did when I lived there), which is do a photo tour of the city centre.

If you ignore the Neds, Glasgow is, architecturally-speaking, a phenomenal place. The city centre is full of lovely old buildings which – if you look high up – could almost be in early twentieth-century urban USA.

Just to the west, in a grid system I remember reading somewhere in fact inspired some American cities, there is an amazing mix of grandiose old office blocks and aspirational modern architecture just asking for the night-setting treatment.

To the east, the old High Street – Glasgow’s medieval heart – has been all but destroyed, but the nearby Merchant City contains Victorian-era banks and merchants’ centres now converted into a mix of trendy restaurants, clothes shops and bars, mostly housed in highly impressive and ornate old buildings.

At the south of the Merchant City is Argyll Street, where I took this photo on my iPhone (I’d forgotten my camera) – the tower at Glasgow Cross from underneath the arches of the Tron Theatre, both themselves beautiful buildings. I took this a wee bit ago, just after meeting a friend at the rather outstanding Blackfriar’s pub, a great place for fine beer, whisky and live music.

One of these days, I’ll do a decent trawl of the city centre and take some night-time photos.

But now, to bed. Stirling tomorrow.