Second Installment:

Edinburgh – Glasgow – The Trossachs and Loch Lomond – Skye – Inverness  

(Landscape photographs to be added soon)

The Thistle in Edinburgh near Waverley station was wonderful, but small.  The bed was thick and not lumpy!  And what a lovely comforter!  When I called downstairs to say I wanted to move to a different room since there was already a screaming baby in the next room, it was done immediately without complaint.  I saw my first fellow in a kilt as there were parties going on in the second floor (the kilt outfit (with jacket, purse, thick top-folded knee socks and sturdy leather shoes) is reserved for special occasions).  The next morning, since they didn't serve breakfast and the charge for it was more than 5 pounds (remember to multiply by 2 for dollars), I just had a snack.  I'd been filching the packet of hot cocoa that they provide in the rooms with the packets of coffee, tea, etc for use with the pot, so always have the possibility for that.  Since I was robbed of 2 hours in Edinburgh thanks to the bad advice on the platform at Nottingham, I thought the next day that I could spend some time in Edinburgh and get started driving to Inverness after lunch since it's only a few hours' drive.  My car hire company (1car1) said that would be fine.  So after sitting at a wifi enabled cafe on Broughton St. and sent out the Bristol report, I walked down to and took a turn through the Edinburgh Botanical Garden and took a bus back to Jessops off Princes St. (the main shopping street, bounded by the Princes St. gardens with a view of the castle).  This trip to Jessops was because the first solution to transferring photos from my Pro Duo card that I'd purchased at the Jessops in Bristol didn't work (waste of 5 pounds).  This time, not only put the item into the computer to assure it would fit -- in the store, but also put the card in and made Sure it worked.  (Another lesson… don't assume things work.) 

Having looked at the map I'd thought that the walk to the car hire was only a few blocks from the Thistle, but it was more like a mile or more.  I've noticed that most maps I've encountered of the UK lack a legend or mileage scale.  The car hire place was located way off the beaten path (the bus driver didn't even know the street) and they didn't have even the tiniest of signs for 1car1 at the address they were supposed to be, though at the approximate place they should have been, there was a huge sign for an iron monger.  This wasted more time finding them (thanks to a nearby Middle Eastern convenience store for knowing where they were hiding).  When I finally got to the car hire place they insisted on seeing my passport (there was nothing about this in any paperwork I'd received or during the phone calls or original reservation process in NY).  (Lesson 1 for the day)  Since I was a bit ticked off, back at the hotel where they were holding my bags, I tried to call Hertz since they were just a couple of blocks away.  After lost time with phoning the local number and getting national one anyway (and they didn't know if the local one had an automatic), I walked there, and no… no automatic.  Another hour and some later, returning to 1car1 with the documentation, and they didn't have the car ready (lesson 2), I was starting to lose it.  It was getting to be 3:30, about 3 hours before dark, and I was also starting to get nervous about starting my first drive in the UK under such circumstances.  I said, sort of by the way, that since I'd be leaving with the car so late, I'd only be needing the car for 4 days at that point, but they not only wouldn't adjust the number of days, still charging me 5 days for using 4, they didn't even understand why I was asking and were most disagreeable.  They'd earlier said they had no one to come collect me at the hotel, but when I got there the second time, there were 4 people..  But they protested that this one's job was something else and that one's was something else etc etc etc.

Since it was clear I wouldn't leave till 4 at the earliest, and by then it was starting to rain, I decided to walk out and change my plans, not wanting my first experience with driving on the left in a car with steering wheel on the right to be under duress, in the rain and partly in the dark.  I'm sure that was a good decision, but very expensive.  It did open up other possibilities.  So I headed out in the rain, no umbrella, no jacket, straight for the "i".  The tourist information sign is a small white "i" in a filled in blue circle.  The Spanish woman there was extremely helpful and knowledgeable about Scottish geography, patient, spending over an hour with me (I'm glad this was not summer, as there would have been a huge line and no reservations left to be had), and we explored various options, taking train or bus to Inverness then hiring a car from there, but alas, no automatic cars there ­ this is true throughout the UK, those being the hardest to find!

, or alternatively taking train to Inverness to take advantage of my already-paid for hotel reservation there, then the train to Glasgow for the concert, then train back through Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh, right near the Isle of Skye, and renting a car from there, but again no automatics.  We finally settled on my giving up on Inverness (and 44 pounds hotel reservation), making a new reservation for Edinburgh for even more including their service charge (a small hotel right near the bus station a couple of blocks off Princes), plus a cheap 4 pound bus ticket to Glasgow for the morning, then a car hire from there returning to Edinburgh on the 6th.  I'd already decided earlier that I'd not be able to do any touring on the Isle of Skye unless I gave up either the Glasgow or the Ipswich show on the 6th , so chose to give up the latter since the seat was worse… Though at least I wasn't sleeping on the street in the rain, this entire afternoon was spent on logistics which was precisely what I had tried so hard to avoid in preplanning before I left the U.S.  I could have been doing wonderful things that you can only do in Edinburgh instead.  But one thing you learn about traveling is that you just can't seem to plan everything perfectly and you have to have extra money for those times when everything goes kablooey.

After checking into the hotel on York Place, and chatted with the Russian lady at Reception about accents, dragged my bags down 2 flights to the small room, but ensuite at least (that means bathroom is private and adjoining as in the U.S.) but lumpy bed.  I walked around Edinburgh in the drizzle / rain taking some dramatic shots that you get when it rains, walking up the Royal Mile to the castle (closed) past St. Giles (part of a construction site).  Ah well.  Tomorrow I see the Moodies again!

Glasgow

The breakfast this morning in my second Edinburgh hotel in two days was the usual English and I took a yogurt with for emergencies in the car.  I got to the bus station gate (having scoped it out the night before) right on time to see the bus had already backed out.  Another fellow got there a minute later and thought he was on time too..  It was 25 till the next, though the schedule said 15 (lesson ­ be early).  I started feeling like I did taking trains in Italy a couple of years ago.  The schedule is only a general guide…  I'd arranged the car for 9 am, so was already getting nervous.  I didn't want them to release the automatic to someone else.  Dragged everything several blocks to the "i" and this time it was a waste of time.  Asking the Scotswoman how far it was to the car hire, a total of 5 times during the course of the lengthy but unproductive conversation, I ended up just getting a cab anyway.  I had the place on the map, but since the maps don't have a scale, I didn't want to end up dragging everything a mile when it looked like a few blocks.  Lesson?  Can't count on the "i" all the time.  Budget even more time.

Thankfully the car hire had the car ready.  They were much nicer.  Turned out (quite by accident) that it was the same company (1car1).  Considering the kind of luck (bad) that I was encountering I figured it best to check in to the hotel first, then set out sightseeing.  I'd again underestimated the distance to the Erskine Bridge hotel, chosen since it was out of town and they had internet facility, and with a car, it was probably best to be out of town on a motorway.  Turned out the directions 1car1 gave were a bit casual, and I needed precision.  Thought the Erskine Bridge hotel was in a town called Erskine Bridge, and so when the road signs gave a choice of Erskine or Erskine Bridge, I took the latter and ended up going over this large suspension bridge over the beautiful green Clyde valley.  Overshooting by a few miles thanks to being on a limited access highway, doubling back to a town, getting directions back out then back in, got back to the general vicinity of the hotel.  But again, since the hotel didn't have a sign at the last of the 3 roundabouts off the bridge, as did the garden centre, I went towards the latter.  Asked some directions from a couple of gardeners (lawn mowers) a bit further on and got what I needed, though not before very slowly colliding with their large mower as I was leaving ­ first result of driving a car with steering on opposite side (no damage done).  Lesson…  make sure to have a good map, know where you are going on the map (directionally and by name as well as intermediary locations by name). 

The hotel was nice enough with large room, view of the bridge and lovely green valley.   The lady at the desk gave directions towards Loch Lomond for the afternoon, directions to the venue area in Glasgow, but vague directions back from the venue (you know what happened..)  But due to being new to the way directions are given in Scotland, I ended up going astray a couple more times, making unplanned visits to Linwood and Paisley before taking my direction into my own hands, not depending on (e.g., 2nd exit at first roundabout, then 3rd at the 2nd, left at the 3rd, etc.)  Being in an area with lots of limited access highways, mistakes were quite costly in time.  The atlas I'd bought eventually came in handy.

Loch Lomond was nice and the weather was nice too.  It was quite a blessing since the forecast had been so dire.  Stopping to take my first photos of the lake, I met a mature couple sitting on the bonnie banks, with the older man painting a watercolor of the lake.  We chatted and I moved on, up the left side of the lake stopping to take shots now and then (at one point throwing a leg over a metal guard railing, miscalculated and again through the sock and pant, scraped off a wad of skin and bashed in the same shin I'd done in falling into the Chinese restaurant in Zurich a couple years back ­ Yowtch!). 

Driving in a place with very narrow shoulders with steep dropoffs, you learn to look for pullouts and white P on blue signs, not so easy to grind to a halt for the former when going at 60 mph, especially with traffic behind.  Always with an eye on the time I mapped out a route through the Trossachs, a well-known area with dense forests and high hills, rivers and lakes that I'd seen back in '69.  Getting bits of advice here and there, I made sure to go to Killin, a lovely town with beautiful river and rapids and single track winding stone bridge (quite photogenic), quaint Callender, and finally, Aberfoyle.  The road to Aberfoyle was single track for much of it and I almost did a double-take when I saw that it led to a pass (did I read that right?).  Yup, and it was quite beautiful, reminding me of the road crossing the California coastal range.  I took lots of pix, as I was up above treeline on the pretty deserted road, just pausing in the road sometimes to shoot out the front or side window.  Feeling the pressure of time kept moving, got over the Erskine Bridge and to the tunnel under the Clyde river to the expressway into Glasgow, and after going to the wrong one of two SECC venues next to each other at the west end of town, I scored probably the last slot in the parking lot in front of the venue, and skidded in at 7:45.

Concert

The venue is a new one.  From the outside the Clyde Auditorium looks like the overlapping arcs of an armadillo, and the people at my hotel referred to it as that.  There were lots more U.S. fans at this venue, occupying much of the 3rd center row.  I was in the 5th behind them in my fan club seat.  The first thing I noticed was that John's bass was nice and loud.  Crisp too, and quite unusual.  I could easily hear all the bass parts (I like when that happens).  Justin's acoustic guitars were a little louder too. The voices were nice and crisp too.  I always wonder why this happens.  Is it the venue's shape that accounts for all the variation, or the sound man's work, or a combo?  Again for OMTTL happily there was no overdubbed vocal and Justin was again tinkering with chords, but sounding better this time.  Far fewer buzzes too.  I wonder how long he's had the instrument.  After Graeme's song and dance, he made a joke that since he's out of breath they'd do a slow one now.  Without missing a beat, Justin quipped that they'd change the set list (had the cutest wry smile (which I captured)).  Norda's antics during Singer and See Saw are getting to be so amazing, and in spiked heels!  The ovation for Nights seems to be getting longer and longer (I should start collecting data!).  After the show, a fair number (couple of dozen) collected outside, and we all had to wait quite a long time for John to come out.  Graeme was smoking in the bus… I wonder how that goes over with the Jays.  John looked very nattered when he did come out, but signed autographs anyway and took a photo with a fan.  There were fewer than at Nottingham.  I didn't get hassled by security (I was in the center of a row), but my neighbor was during the interval.  Again, security asked if the camera were video (or was capable of shooting video).  The answer is that the camera is for stills only. 

As expected, considering my luck, finding the highway wasn't easy, though I did retrace the way in faithfully.  It was made worse by the road back to the venue area from the north being closed for construction, but eventually, having a general idea of the geography and where the expressways were, I stumbled onto the M8 west and navigated all the roundabouts perfectly, arriving at the muddy overflow hotel parking lot.  The mud I got on the car that night spinning wheels etc (from the fenders to the window all the way up to the roof) gave the little royal blue Vauxhall that outdoorsy look…a christening of sorts.

To Skye

By the second day in my little blue Vauxhall I was feeling almost natural in driving on the left.  Even the heavily traveled single track stretch on the northwest side of Loch Lomond didn't freak me out as much the second day in a row, though I admit that when the lorries would meet me, normally taking up an entire lane on a two lane road, I'd grit my teeth a bit as we'd pass and I'd hear the vegetation which was growing out of the steep walls on the left brushing against the car.  Doing this in the rain was really a challenge.  I found the way the roads were laid out interesting.  The four lane highways that are "A" roads are often signposted at 60, but then now and then you'll see the familiar narrow sign with 3 stripes, then 2, then 1, which was the signal that something major is about to change on the road.  Sometimes it's the speed limit going down, but sometimes it's that a roundabout is coming, so be prepared to stop.  It's quite simple navigating them..  stop if something's coming from the right, go if not, and the rest will stop for you and watch for your exit. 

Tarbert was again such a lovely setting on the lake with the green lawn extending to the lake, the lovely castle-like hotel, and what looked like redwoods (I took some pix, of course).  Heading northwest from Crianlarich this time into the Argyll forest, I soon ascended into a mountain area called the Munros, named after a fellow (I didn't read the whole story).  Those are the highest mountains ­ I won't call them peaks for the most part since they are rounded and not forested.  The main plants are grass, heather and burned ferns (frost-nipped) making a pleasing trio of colors (bright green, hunter green and light brown, dotted with white sheep, sometimes with black faces).  The road works were again aplenty and sometimes they were in quite spectacular areas, visually.  Some parts were quite steep with creeks cutting deeply into the slowly rising hills creating waterfalls here and there.  I mentioned slowly rising because these areas, like Scandinavia and Canada, were covered by a mile or more of ice just 10,000 years ago and the lifting of the weight is causing isostatic rebound of the land.  Think fjords but on land.  Much of the time the weather cooperated for photography, though there were some bits of rain. The low hanging clouds were spectacular at times.  Stopping off at the nature center at Glencoe, I learned that the valley immediately to the east was the remnants of a volcanic cone, and that Scotland had originally been part of North America before all the landmasses became one as Pangaea, and that is why the mountains in Scotland and Nova Scotia (note the name) down to Acadia in Maine are all part of the same orogeny (the Acadian, something like 400 million years ago), and then, since merges and subsequent splits are usually not precisely along the same lines, Scotland split off with the rest of Europe a couple hundred million years later.  I took pix of the displays to read later.  The lady at the till was very nice and gave me a lot of bright shiny coins for my collection.  Coming out of the center, there was a lovely rainbow against the side of the U-shaped glacial valley (preserved for posterity, of course).

Soon I was at the coast wending my way amongst the fingers jutting into the sea.  Fort William was pretty, but I didn't have time to stop long ­ just a few snaps of the flowers in the foreground, waters, then next finger to the north.  Blew past Ben Nevis up to Ft. Augustus, which is the south end of Loch Ness.  The town was really lovely, and I did stop to walk about a little, got myself a Magnum (choc covered ice cream on a stick).  Lots of people were watching boats being lowered down the 3 locks to lake level.  I could have gone straight on to Kyle of Lochalsh, right near Skye, but wanted to see more of Loch Ness, so continued on.  Compared with the spectacular scenery earlier in the day and the day before, Loch Ness was a bit of a let down, as the other side was not so high and wooded all the way, and it started to rain.  I went up as far as Urquhardt castle ruins, took some shots and headed back south to the turnoff for Kyle.  I was pleasantly surprised to see some much better scenery and went through some more highlands, lakes and woods, and the rains let up allowing more photography.  I got to the castle just east of Kyle, which beckoned, so I pulled into the car park to see about a dozen people, more than half with tripods all busy photographing the castle at sunset.  In the background was the inlet of the sea, Skye, and some really amazing threatening clouds just up from the horizon.  As darkness approached, the fact that the castle was lit up became apparent, and made for more good photography.  I was getting chilled, so drove the last few miles to the hotel.

A word about this hotel, the Balmarcaral, I think, named after the town with that name.  I'd booked into it, a single for 35, for two nights, since the plan was to tour the isle of Skye the next day.  There was no one at the desk, and ended up waiting a while after ringing.  The young woman was serving food in the restaurant, making sure that the sound system was playing the right music, and as a last priority, tending to welcoming me.  She gave me some poor directions to the room (right at the top of the stairs, when really it was a right U-turn, then right again).  As said, I was chilled, and when I finally got into the room it was cold and the heater didn't work.  This seems to be a theme in some hotels…  (The one at Erskine bridge also didn't have heat, but they wheeled it a portable radiator.)  No matter, I asked and she moved me to a different wing, a twin room, a view of the inlet and said no extra charge, and which had a Bathtub!!  Looking at the restaurant menu, it looked great and a lovely setting, but that was not to be.  There was a wedding party there for the next two nights and they were fully booked with special caterer, so I'd have to eat in the bar, outside, around the corner.  The crazy thing was that it was the same person who would make the food, and from a limited menu (mostly seafood and spicy food, with the only other choice being a burger).  Not surprisingly, that wasn't very good and the chips seared the roof of my mouth (still burned 3rd day later).  The first night it was ok.  A friendly sort from Orkney wanted to buy me a drink ­ showed me pic of his wife (was working a local job, which I guess a construction worker from Orkney would have to do much of the time), but the bartender, a fill-in for the night was much more interesting, a high school teacher from nearby Plockton who was setting up special projects for students (those intending to leave school at 16, but not yet old enough), including creating gardens.  He put the big screen onto their weather channel (about a

2 minute loop with much less info than the U.S. version, though he thought that theirs was also done by CNN).  This showed an even more dire weather forecast of an incoming front with 50 to 60 mph wind and rain.  But watching closely, it looked like there was a pocket of clear for the early morning so I got to bed asap.  The second night at the bar wasn't so nice…  different people, blaring video screen, blaring juke box, and blaring people all at the same time.   Had to wait an hour for the food since the wedding took priority.  And the owner the next day had the chutzpah to ask for 10 pound per day single supplement for my getting the twin room.  That bar is where I was trying to get one of my posts out, but the wifi spot just shut down without warning.

Skye

This was to be a day without pressure..  No venue to find, no show to get to on time, no new hotel to find, and just one island to explore, and less opportunity for getting lost, not that I had after that first day.  Early in the day I was stopping a lot, finding wonderful things to photograph.  At one point there were sheep in the road, so I got out and took some pix.  There were 3 Shetland ponies in one field near the road, so I stopped and made friends with one of them.  The first one (black) had bangs inches below his eyes.  I was wondering how he even saw things.  The next one, a chestnut with shorter bangs, was very friendly and allowed me to pet him and I got a good closeup of him looking at me.  I stopped into Portree, the largest town on the island ­ a very pretty town with some trees that had turned red-orange (the first of those I'd seen) and stone-walled buildings, a lovely harbor with single track road, outfitters for hikers and kayakers, and a health food store (Whole Foods, but not the chain) where I stocked up on my beloved Green and Black's organic mint dark chocolate bars.  I was lucky again with the weather.  Though it did softly rain on and off, the really bad rain didn't begin until mid-afternoon, and most of the good sights were in the early part of the day (the northern part of the island).  Here there were views to nearby islands and the mainland, steep cliffs, waterfalls (think fjord), as well as interesting rock formations ­ columnar jointed intrusions, and in one case, a waterfall coming off one dropping quite some distance down to the sea.  There was a lot of one track road, and I was actually getting to enjoy it, since this bit was mostly out in the open, fields and sheep with the occasional farmhouse, moors with heather, ferns and grass.  The turnouts were frequent and you could see out to the next one most of the time. 

Ah, but things were going too good.  At one point on the single track a few miles before Uig, where you take the ferry to the outer Hebrides, I decided to back up to get a better shot of some lovely orange lilies (at least I think that's what they were…  but the flowers were tiny and the foliage slightly narrower).  I'd done this before plenty of times on narrow, empty roads.  This time, luck ran out, and though backing slowly, the rear left rolled into a steep ditch, and the front left followed before I could react.  Tried to drive out of it, revving the engine, but no dice.  The edge of the road was in contact with the undercarriage.  Before I had a chance to get upset or freaked a lady appeared from the house in front of which I'd ditched, all smiling saying that she'd get a guy with a tractor out in a jiffy.  A Canadian had done something quite similar in the same spot just last week.  While waiting, I had more than enough opportunity to take pictures of her flowers, her house, and the surrounding view to the sea.  She refused to take any money (I only had about 7 pounds on me at the time), saying she would hope that if she ran into a ditch in the U.S. someone would help her out.  The tractor (huge) came, but since no hook in the boot (trunk), they brought a jeep by and putting the car in neutral, dragged it out from the front.  Thankfully, there was no harm done (phew!).  Drove off, thanking those drivers who had been waiting (remember this was a single track), too some pix of Duncan castle, and got to Uig for a late small lunch (egg in a roll) with hot cocoa.  The rain had begun just as I was about to leave the house with the orange lilies, and it was coming down for most of the rest of the day, though here and there, there was opportunity to photograph a nice scene without getting the camera too wet.  I learned how to quickly aim, focus, shoot before the lens got wet (2 secs max).  I guess that's where Moodies guerrilla photo!

To Inverness

This day was meant to be rainy in the west, but nice in the east, and I was heading east.  I thought to go to Inverness and drop the car there rather than drive back to Edinburgh and face that awful lot at the 1car1 there, or face the long drive in the rain back along the same western route to Glasgow, then have to take a bus to Edinburgh. The best option (though again more expensive with a 25 pound drop-off charge) was to make the shorter drive up along the wester Ross coast over the Highlands to Inverness.  That was a nice drive despite the rain in the beginning.  There was some single track, but a diversity of scenery, some coastal, some highlands, some inbetween.  I'd gotten 1car1 to fax the hotel specific directions to get to their location in Inverness.  Good thing because I never would have found it if I didn't have it all in writing.  This car company has a penchant for siting themselves in obscure locations.  I had brought several index cards on which to write daily cue sheets (something I've done plenty of leading bike rides all these years), but hadn't needed it till now.  On the fly with directions for five or six roundabouts and round the bends, and next to this and that, there was no way I could spend much time deciphering which roundabout went where.  Thankfully, when the time came, I had just enough information to make the correct decisions, despite some of the roundabouts not being identified by name, and some having somewhat different options.  As I learned before, you have to be familiar with all the names enroute to your destination (and the order you are to encounter them).  Getting to 1car1, next to Sally's hairdresser's ( It didn't faze me to much that no one was there at 1car1 to receive me despite my having told them I was coming (and them having faxed directions), but I had a chat with the nice lady in the office next door, and she phoned them to say I was waiting.  Meanwhile I cleaned the mud off the car and noticed a nasty new scratch on the passenger door (one of those close shaves with vegetation and walls, no doubt), and chatted with her about 9/11 and she with me about Inverness, drawing me a nice map (so unusual to find someone who can do that!)  Thanks to her, I used my time in Inverness very well.  Thankfully, when they got back, they didn't check for scratches, and drove me to the train station.

Although I had an earlier idea to get back to Edinburgh in time to hike up to Arthur's Seat with a great view of the city, I decided with this map and locations that I would take the train 2 hours later and spend the time in Inverness.  It was a good choice.  I walked through the Victorian market and bought some very interesting dark chocolates (rose, kiwi, mountain berry, as well as the more pedestrian orange and mint).  The weather was the usual changeable as I got down to the River Ness.  This river flows out (fast) to the east.  Having driven most of Loch Ness two days before and the adjoining Loch to the west, and noticing the canals / locks, it appears as if you can go straight across Scotland there.  From a geological perspective, if you look at the island, it looks as if the part above that line has been offset to the southwest (i.e., I'll bet it was an active fault at one time ­ maybe now?)  But I digress.

The riverside was lovely.  There was a narrow park along each side with a footbridge (a small suspension bridge across) as well as a string of lovely B&Bs on the south side.  The castle, which is used for municipal offices now (much like what they do in Winchester), was stately on a hill overlooking the river and I made my way towards these river islands that the lady near 1car1 recommended.  Taking shots looking back towards town I had a déjà vu moment, realizing I'd been there in 1969 and had probably taken the same shot then.  The islands were almost magical.  I pulled out the remains of the sandwich that the Erskine bridge hotel had made for me that night after the show since I was starving, had some yogurt from I'm not sure where, and some of the nice Green and Black's and had a fine picnic, sitting on a bench on an island in the middle of the Ness river, watching the ducks play.  Got back well in time to collect my bags from the Left Luggage place in the train !

station.  They'd charged around 4 pounds to keep the bags for the 2 hours.  I scraped it together.  Things are not cheap!  And the cash point (i.e., ATM) at the train station didn't take my Cirrus (i.e., Citibank) card, so had to go to the nearby bank and use its cash point (oddly, they said I couldn't get cash from the teller).  Good to know these things.  I can't remember the last time my Cirrus card wasn't taken.

The Scotrail train didn't have wifi, but no matter, I started catching up on these travelogues plugged in for electricity anyway.  The first leg was to Perth, and there were several loud-mouthed, drunk players of some sort in the seats just ahead.  One kept yelling Go Scotland.  They'd brought their own cases of beer or ale.  Towards the end I said, Oh, Really! after a particularly loud shout of theirs, and after the guy looked around saying "Who said that?" they got quieter.  The second part of the trip was much nicer (and more peaceful), since at every turn I experienced lots of déjà vu having been in Fife on a bike after the Moodies tour just four years before.  I remembered the flat farmland south of Perth since we cycled through that at the very end, then were the towns overlooking the Tay, crossing to the Firth of Forth coastline, we came into good old Kirkaldy (mentioned in John Lennon's song Cry Baby Cry ­ as in Dutchess of.. ­ you pronounce it Kirkoddy).  I distinctly remember having cycled into Kirkaldy around 5pm that "finicky dee" from somewhere in the interior, headed for Aberdour taking the hill route.  Though it was a very long climb out of Kirkaldy, the view across the firth was breathtaking.  One of these days I need to find those shots (not digital, of course) and scan them.  Then stopped at Inverkeithing, where I remember taking a break the next day, and over the striking Forth rail bridge to Edinburgh.

At this point, it was getting dark, I left my largest bag at the Left Luggage (5.50 pounds per piece this time!) and found the small Cairn hotel under construction just off London Road, off Leith St, and went to another Italian place for dinner near Giuliano's, the place I'd gone to while staying at the Thistle.  This was a meal of starters (appetizers) ­ salad and eggplant parm, with dessert of tartufo, but again, not the kind you get in the States with the hard chocolate shell, but very good nonetheless.  The rest of the evening was spent in the Cairn hotel's wifi-enabled living room.  I was still hoping to fit in a hike up to Arthur's seat, but after extensive research of train schedules using my laptop, I realized that this would not be possible.  Taking the train on a Saturday down to Brighton meant that not only would I again miss the pretty east coast route due to track construction, but also that I'd have to zigzag across the country again, making multiple changes.  There was also track work north of Brighton, requiring a change to a bus in Haywards Heath.  Well, it will be interesting to see the town a little bit.  But, I realized that, for safety, I'd have to take the early train leaving Edinburgh at 8:40.. argh.  My fall-back plan of hiking up the Sir Walter Scott monument on Princes street (about 2/3 of the steps of the Eiffel Tower to the second level) was also, therefore, toast, since they didn't open till 9:30.  Something for next time.

1. Prelude – Bristol – Nottingham – Edinburgh

2. Edinburgh – Glasgow – The Trossachs and Loch Lomond – Skye – Inverness

3. Brighton – Beachy Head – London

4. Liverpool – Birmingham – Oxford

5. New Forest – Bournemouth – The Jurassic Coast – Hampshire

6. Amsterdam and the Netherlands