Day 6
Pt. Appin – Inverrary – Glasgow – One stop for petrol, one stop for a hot chocolate, lashing rain, 40-50 mph winds at times
Loch Fyne and Inverrary Castle
At least Glasgow was dry and mild. We headed straight for Ducati Glasgow to leave the bikes for 2 days while we had a night there and the next in Edinburgh. Charlie would check over the bikes and correct / fix any faults, adjust the KTM chain, replace a panel bolt the Log had vibrated out, fill the Multi’s Scottoiler, etc…
A front fork seal on the Multi needed replacing as it was weeping from a previous ride 2 weeks ago. I had given the shop a few days notice, but they hadn’t received the parts.
Had a long conversation with Stewart Miller at Motocycle Performance Glasgow, a suspension guru with 8 years experience at the top level of Moto GP and factory teams – about improving the Multi’s handling. He passed on some valuable tweeking tips that I’ll try once the fork seal is replaced. Stewart’s shop is next door to Ducati Glasgow and they work closely together.
Staff Ducati Glasgow – sheer quality people
Plugged into the Euro-Hostel Hotel on block from Central Station. Single and a double at £63 total = where else in central Glasgow can you get that!
A walk about town, bit of shopping for football jerseys for the boys back home, a 90 minute nap, then proper cocktails and lovely dinner at Rogano’s followed by single malts and ale at a typical Glasgow pub. Absolutely glowing when I pulled the covers over.
Day 7
Glasgow and Edinburgh
Glasgow is one of my favourite cities. Visually, the contrast between old and modern is very good, but not on the scale of Edinburgh for sheer old drama. What Glasgow has are the friendliest and noisiest people (in the best way) of any city I’ve ever visited. I had once gone to the Kelvin Museum and was waiting for a bus back to the city centre. Along came a gent who asked in rapid succession…
“Who are you? Where are you from? You’re nay from Aberdeen. Ah, California. What are you doing here? How long are you here for? Where are you staying? Are you married? Any children? Grandchildren?
Over the course of 2 minutes, he knew the answers to all these questions and I knew he had buried 2 wives, the 3rd had beat cancer 2 years ago, he had 7 children, 3 grandchildren and carried the family photos to prove it. You won’t find that in Edinburgh, London, New York, LA or Paris.
Next morning it was off to see the Burrell Collection in south Glasgow. When Sir William Burrell and his wife, Constance, Lady Burrell, gifted his collection of over 9,000 works of art to Glasgow, the city acquired one of the greatest collections created by one person. William Burrell had been an art collector since his teens, and the collection is made up of a vast array of works of all periods and from all over the world.
My favourite are the paintings and Rodin sculptures but the collection includes ancient Egypt, China and Rome.
And a very nasty piece of work in this lady – nice smile though
The Tartan Taxi
Train to Edinburgh
Edinburgh Castle
Carlton Hill Tower
Princes Street Gardens (Caretakers House)
Day 8
Train back to Glasgow, collect the bikes and head home
Glasgow – Duke’s Pass – Killin – Ben Lawers – Glen Lyon – Tummel Bridge – Pitlochry – Glenshee – Deeside – Aberdeen
Duke’s Pass and the Trousachs (again)
Killin
Ben Lawers
The Yew at the Kirk at Fontingall in Glen Lyon is the oldest living thing in Europe at age 5,000 years. There’s also a standing stone in the field across the road that marks the burial ground for the 200 inhabitants of Fontingall that died during the Black Plague. Legend has it that there was one survivor, a woman who had buried them all. Unsuprisingly, when found the lady had completely lost all sanity.
Glenshee
I don’t often ride with other people, not because I’m a solo person but because my work schedule is different to regular folk and they can’t just take off for weeks on the spur of the moment. The few people I have toured with in Scotland have ridden most of it, taken the photos and just get on with riding quickly.
Chere’ and Chick were on holiday and that calls for a photo shoot at every opportunity. The problem with Scotland is if the weather is halfway decent, there is always another photo op around the next corner and if one stops to take it all, one never gets anywhere. As it happens, they took an incredible 1200 photos over 8 days. Granted, 40% came from the handlebars of the KTM, but still that’s an amazing amount and still stay on some sort of schedule.
The special thing about touring with Chere’ and Chick was seeing those big wide grins behind the face plate and yapping about the ride, travels, views, roads and Scotland in general at the end of the day.
Chere’ returned to biking earlier this year and it was glorious to see her riding improve, growing in confidence with the conditions over 8 days and generally coping well with everything Scotland threw at her. The ride home from Glasgow to Aberdeen is fairly challenging and although the weather was dry, warm and kind, Chere’ was smoother and faster than she’d been before. Duke’s Pass, the run over Ben Lawers and down Glen Lyon, Tummel Bridge, Pitlochry and Glenshee were taken in good stead.
Back in Aberdeen the next day (4 July) and with Chick was off to play golf at the local championship links course – Chere’ and I nipped out to collect fresh lobsters in town and steaks in Westhill. The traffic was horrendous = filtering and passing at every opportunity – all the time Chere’ was in my mirrors like a Top Gun wingman. Nice one, Daughter – I enjoyed that ride in town as much as any in the countryside and that’s going some considering I hate riding in town.
By the way, Chick had a great time at the Royal Aberdeen and when asked how it was, he replied, “About as good as it can get considering the fairways are about out as wide as your kitchen with tall weeds either side and the ‘Har’ (coastal fog) was present for the outward 9 holes – which I take that as you can’t see where your ball has bounced into the rough. Golf people will identify with this. Still, if a golfer and in Scotland…
A few pics of what was missed with the change of route due to the bad weather – all taken the week before. Maybe next time!
Near Kyle Lochalsh – the 4 of the 5 sisters (Munros)
Castle Eileen Donan from the south side of the loch
Plockton with Skye in the distance
Coast road north from Plockton – Skye so close, yet so far across a sea of glass
A few of Scotland’s beaches and clear waters
A pic from the surf and turf evening before Chere’ and Chick departed. California and Aberdeen (Jen) daughters…Jen and I are 2 up on the Multi to the west coast later in the year.
This is what they are returning to – California stable includes Chere’s FZ6, her brother’s track 1098 S, my KTM 950sm and Chick’s VFR.
So far Chick is the only one to ride the 950sm, but I’ll get my shot in the Santa Cruz mountains this September. He says that this time I’ll be the one with the big wide grin. I think he’s right.
