Somewhere north of Glasgow, Scotland
I can't remember what I wrote last or when...and I don't have access to my posts right now so I may have a skip in time. I have no internet because the SIM card I bought doesn't have service up here (but April does thank goodness so we have some mapping capability). I'll manage without, I guess. Do me good:)
So our bikes went on smoothly in Lisbon and we managed to cycle from the airport to our hostel, 10 miles away. I think I've written all that. And about our quick tour of London.
So next was our train trip to Glasgow. We were advised by a local friend not to cycle the Cornwall peninsula this time of year due to tourist traffic and narrow roads...she said Scotland was the place to go...all be it midgies' season. You know...no-see-ums!! So here we are in Scotland at the worst possible time and on bikes and camping, no less. Tonight they attacked for our first time...but then it's only our second day out of Glasgow. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
We stayed at a new hostel in Glasgow that had just opened in an old church. Nicely done! It was about a mile from the center of town, but we found not much to really see there. We got our first day of rain in awhile. The gloomy old buildings combined with the gloomy weather we found a bit depressing. We did explore their cemetery (on the way into town) and the Glasgow cathedral was interesting because it had churches under the main church. Never saw that before. We are a tad tired of seeing old buildings and have lost our enthusiasm a bit...yawn. And since we aren't spending any money, or trying not to, because the exchange rate is killing us, we don't go where there's a fee unless ISPs really spectacular...and nothing in Glasgow really grabbed us. We heard Edinburgh is better but we won't be going there. Can't see everything.
We're headed up to Isle of Mull. Slow as we're going (about 30 miles a day), it's going to take us a couple more days to get there. Coming out of Glasgow we ran into a parade. The first girl I asked what it was about I could not for the life of me understand her strong accent. I kept asking until I found someone who spoke "English":). Orange Walk. Something about the Protestants and they do it every year. Bigger parade in Belfast, I was told. Was fun to see just the same!
And then we found the canal path. Thought I was home! There was a canal path for 20 miles until we got to Loch Lomond. ( not sure about a lot of spellings, but with no maps or internet to check myself you'll have to suffer.). " You take the high road and I'll take the low road, and I'll be in Scotland 'afore ye...for me and my true love will never meet again on the bonnie bonnie banks of Loch Lomond." My mother singing this keeps playing in my head! And what a beautiful lake it is ringed by mountains! 23 miles long and not built up along its shores. Scotland is rural. Few roads. No shoulders. No turn offs. Nothing but cars, and trucks, and busses, and caravans, and other loaded cyclists on the roads. And nowhere to get away from them. But before we got to having to cycle on the road, we spent about 15 miles on a cycle path along the lake that was undulating and wooded and quiet. Too bad it came to an end.
The people who come up to chat are all curious, as usual. About the bikes and about us. It's nice to have someone else to tell our tale:).
In a new country it's always an adventure to figure out the wild camping bit. Like I said we've had few places to pull off, but last night found a nook on the edge of a field that was behind a golf course. It did have a sign that warned about the that but we decided the dense woods between us and the tee gave us some protection. And in the evening we took our chairs up and enjoyed the view after the golfers had gone home. Tonight we lucked out even better we a turnoff that took us to an isolated road that overlooked a stunning valley. A pastoral view, like many museum paintings I've seen over the years!
We'll just have to see what to tomorrow brings.
Livin' the life!
BagLady
