Ireland, Scotland, England…we have ridden by soo many sheep!  And I am a bit sheepish that it has been so long since I have written to you all.  It has been a combination of long days in the saddle, a busy “rest day” in Edinburgh, and poor internet connections in our accomodations.  Enough excuses!

So the last time I wrote we were in Belfast, Northern Ireland.  We left from there very early the next morning (yawn) and convoyed down to the ferry taking us to Scotland.  We headed up the coast on a spectacular ride with verdant hills:  Scots pine, masses of naturalized rhododendrons, many wildflowers, and (yes, you guessed it) sheep.

About midway through the ride we stopped at the edge of a village for lunch.  Peter and Vilma, our guides from Slovakia who have been on all three of our long bicycle tours, are manning our lunch stops and have been doing a superb job.  The food has been much better than on our previous tours and I am afraid that any thoughts of slimming down by the riders are not going to materialize unless they have far more willpower than Jim and me.  An awning is erected and a spread is laid out.  I am sometimes so hungry by the lunch spot that I am almost gnawing on my arm.

On this particular day, Peter had set up our lunch spot adjacent to a row of townhouses.

Throughout our rides so far, I have been very impressed with the generally tidy, lovely gardens that people have in front of their homes.  The yards are small by US standards but the gardens are kept with obvious care.  Many yards also have an assortment of ornaments, not necessarily to my taste, but obviously enjoyed by the residents.  In a garden nearest to our lunch spot, a gentleman was busy gardening and I really wanted a photo of his garden gnomes!  I went over and introduced myself, asking if I could photograph his garden.

It turned out that Grant was extremely friendly, showing me around his garden and walking Jim and me down the road where we could see the remains of a local castle once owned by the warlike “Laird” of the region.

The following day we rode into Edinburgh where we had a rest day and plans to see our good friend Chris, last seen in this blog a couple of years ago when he spent time with us in Paris.  Edinburgh has interesting memories for us. I gave a talk at the University there about 32 years ago and learned about the local forest management.  Jim and Aaron spent time in Edinburgh before we took a driving tour of Scotland with my parents.  For some reason, Jim decided it was a “village” and gave Aaron (about 10 years old at the time) permission to go off by himself for the day.  I won’t tell all of the family tales but Aaron was caught trying to climb up the back side of Edinburgh Castle (the rock wall pictured below).  Needless to say, I was less than pleased with Jim’s judgement!

This visit was so lovely.  The weather once again was spectacular.  Chris and Henrietta took us around.  We spent most of the day walking around the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens which were in full bloom with the recent warm weather.   My favorite blooms were the blue poppies.  A unique color that I had not seen before.  Thank you Chris and Henrietta!!

The following four days were quite long rides with significant climbs including many grades of 12-20+%.  Yikes.

These rides along the coast and into the moors were splendid but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t have to get off my cycle and walk on the steepest grades.  The busy traffic portions (rough roads, no shoulder, narrow—yuk!) of the ride are much harder for me as they make me dizzier and in fact I may break my reluctance to ride in the van to avoid the heavy traffic areas for the rest of the ride.  The coast and moors however have been just wonderful to see.

 

 

Liz, our friend from previous rides joined us for two days.  It was lovely to ride with her again and we have plans to dine with her in London.  For now, we are on a rest day in York and are catching up with life…shopping, laundry, blogging :-).  We take off again tomorrow.

I better get back to sorting laundry & packing for the next days.  Thanks as always for joining us.  Cheers!