After a hearty Scottish breakfast we parted with Merv (the second best and most demanding driver) and the first leg of our journey was off to Glasgow. We will all miss Merv’s thong collection and winning smile. Things began well with a brisk ride through the park. This avoided most of the rush hour traffic and continued until Rich had his first puncture of the day. We were fortunate that this happened outside a church with enough curtain twitching to keep the inquisitive residents of the local high rise accommodation at bay.
A short trip along the Clyde later we were able to have our photo taken outside Glasgow Dental Hospital. This 60s monstrosity was made even uglier by being at the top of a hill in the middle of a never ending one way system – at least Birmingham have the decency to be making plans to tear theirs down.
Rich promptly had his second puncture of the day, but being in a city it was not far to buy new inner tubes and tyres. We barely got a mile before his tyre was flat again. With the wind and rain biting and time ticking on, Rich hailed a cab to take him to our next stop and in the process earned the accolade of ‘Idiot of the Day’. If that wasn’t enough, he also forgot to hand back the room key from last night’s B&B and failed to pay the bill before we left!
We had a lovely curry brunch at Riaz’s parents, where Rich fitted new tubes and tyres. Riaz’s father then taught his son a lesson in local geography and not 2 miles later Ben had a flat and over the next few miles Riaz also suffered from two flat tyres. These all happened in a very salubrious area where the people seemed genuinely interested in our cycling gear and seemed to want to know exactly how much the kit was worth – very strange to see so many people with scarred rather butch dogs on leads.
The weather was brutal on entering the Highlands, but the thought of a pint of Cairngorm Ale kept us going. With snow on the peaks of the barren mountains beside us our fairy wings and tutus seemed slightly at odds with the surroundings, but at least the day glow colours made us slightly more visible in the murk.
We all decided that we were very glad that we were not camping on this trip – the hotel this evening has seemed twice as warm with the wind howling around us and horizontal rain outside.
A short trip along the Clyde later we were able to have our photo taken outside Glasgow Dental Hospital. This 60s monstrosity was made even uglier by being at the top of a hill in the middle of a never ending one way system – at least Birmingham have the decency to be making plans to tear theirs down.
Rich promptly had his second puncture of the day, but being in a city it was not far to buy new inner tubes and tyres. We barely got a mile before his tyre was flat again. With the wind and rain biting and time ticking on, Rich hailed a cab to take him to our next stop and in the process earned the accolade of ‘Idiot of the Day’. If that wasn’t enough, he also forgot to hand back the room key from last night’s B&B and failed to pay the bill before we left!
We had a lovely curry brunch at Riaz’s parents, where Rich fitted new tubes and tyres. Riaz’s father then taught his son a lesson in local geography and not 2 miles later Ben had a flat and over the next few miles Riaz also suffered from two flat tyres. These all happened in a very salubrious area where the people seemed genuinely interested in our cycling gear and seemed to want to know exactly how much the kit was worth – very strange to see so many people with scarred rather butch dogs on leads.
The weather was brutal on entering the Highlands, but the thought of a pint of Cairngorm Ale kept us going. With snow on the peaks of the barren mountains beside us our fairy wings and tutus seemed slightly at odds with the surroundings, but at least the day glow colours made us slightly more visible in the murk.
We all decided that we were very glad that we were not camping on this trip – the hotel this evening has seemed twice as warm with the wind howling around us and horizontal rain outside.
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