Miles today: 181
Miles so far: 2221
U-turns: excluding the first 10 minutes, none! (but 3 in the first 10 minutes)
Culture: 2 - one modern and one not
First off a wonderful view of all three forth bridges from the hotel garden. Not bad for starters - and the weather is looking fab. Although you can’t see the wind in this picture - sorry I mean the howling gale that greeted us on the entry to the bridge and didn’t really let up till we hit the west coast. Not really complaining, it has been another fabulous day when unbelievably I think we have crossed Scotland for the 4th or is it the 5th time! And mostly the sun shone.
On setting off we were drawn like magnets to the Kelpies. This makes it my 4th visit! And they still don't have any top-box stickers! But the kind parking attendant sorted us with an illegal parking sticker - sadly it doesn’t actually say “The Kelpies”, or have a picture, but The Helix Park is where they are located so it will have to do. And it makes us look like hard don't care where we park bikers - so not all bad!
To wax lyrical briefly (ok, not so lyrically, or probably briefly - I don't know the meaning of the word), the Kelpies are the most magnificent outdoor sculpture in the world - bar none! At least in my view having not seen that many but they are just brilliant. Based, if I remember correctly, on the horses that used to draw barges along the canal they celebrate the contribution these fine animals made to the commercial development of the area. OK, I’m starting to make stuff up but it was something like that.
We did manage to keep the stop brief, given that we had timed tickets (as you have to for most places these days - but not the Kelpies, note!) for Stirling Castle, the royal pile built mostly (maybe all, as usual the detail escapes me) by James VI, pre-union with England. And a fine place it is too, with lots of beautiful ceilings, halls and stuff. And particularly fine views over the surrounding countryside, including the Wallace Monument, which we didn’t have time to visit. Need to leave something for next time. Eric of course would rather it was ruined, but each to their own!
So, as usual with 1pm not just approaching, but gone, we had covered all of 40 miles and we had an appointment in Greenock with Amy, last met at Fingal’s Cave on Staffa, to ride the old road to Largs and down the coast a little way. Foolishly having read the blog she thought we must be really interesting people to spend time with - that and we wanted to see her Ducati Multistrada - which I have to say looked very cool, and I am now thinking of test driving one when I get home! Chosen rendezvous was in a car park full of broken glass in Greenock which might have been inauspicious, but as it turns out wasn’t. We had a lovely ride over the old road, got held up by sheep several times and pitched up Nardini’s Ice Cream Cafe in Largs just in time for tea and scones! It gave us an opportunity to disabuse Amy of any notion of being interesting, but despite this she rode with us all the way down the coast to Ayr, inland to a place called something like New Crumbly, before she peeled off and headed home. Actually seriously, lovely to see you Amy and ride with you and I hope we will do it again some day - either in Scotland or perhaps down in the south east of England.
I hope you are honoured Amy - to feature in one of our famous idiot selfies!
The last part of the day, featured a bit of a dash down the A78 to Ayr, but from there a fabulous cross country road to our place to rest our weary heads tonight, Sanquhar, somewhere north of Dumfries. It is our last night in Scotland, which makes us a little sad. The roads have been fabulous; long, winding (there’s a song there somewhere) and mostly unpopulated. We have reached the north coast and the west and east coasts several times! I wish it was a little closer to home - and some days a little warmer!
So back to those u-turns... To be fair to Rob, his only ones today were due to trying to find a good vantage point to photograph the Forth Rail Bridge. It turns out that North Queensferry has quite a few dead ends. But having persuaded us to dismiss those as not counting he was determined to be “blemish free” for the rest of the day. Even to the extent of parking (sorry I mean abandoning) half his bike on the grass and half on the road, when a photo stop looked like it might require a reverse! I should also point out he pulled up in an abandoned petrol station to fill up!
I’ll leave with you some more pics. It’s time for the land of nod...
It’s all about the bikes!
Ditto, but this time with the road bridge.
Not sure what the Viking is doing in Largs but there he is!
The Wallace Monument from Stirling Castle and Nareesa’s university - the one she went to; she doesn’t own it. Bad jokes, mean its time to quit.
Night night.
Nice to see Largs again and Nardini's . I worked in Fairley just next door to Largs. Spent a year at a holiday home for under privileged children in the Glasgow school system. They had a two week (vacation) by the sea shore. I agree about the Kelpies Awesome...Journey on.