August 30, 2023 - Fort William, Scotland

 We are thinking of our friends and family as hurricane Idalia comes on shore just west of Gainesville as a Category 4 storm with sustained winds at 130 mph.  That's a scary storm.

Yesterday we rode from Glasgow to our B&B at Ft. William.  It was a beautiful ride north officially entering the Scottish Highlands.  Weather was in the low 50s, windy and rainy for most of the ride.  Our heated and rain gear kept us comfortable.  

For a large portion of our ride north, we rode along the shore of Loch Lomond through the Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park.  As we rode north, the hills became higher, even passing by a ski resort.  At  the Glencoe Visitor Centre - National Trust for Scotland we stopped and warmed up and dried out a little.  Bidean Nam Bian was one of the peaks we were near, rising to 3,770 feet.

View from our room for 2 nights at the Onich Hotel

Sooz wondering if the heat is on at the Glencoe visitor centre

Scottish Highlands in the fog and rain, beautiful

Me, wondering how far it is to the visitor center - Sooz is behind me

Sooz patiently waiting in the rain at a turnoff as I fight the tourists to take a few pictures

Sooz unloading the GS at our hotel with Loch Linnhe in the background

August 28, 2023 - Glasgow, Scotland

 The last couple of days we have been running around Glasgow seeing the sites and checking out a few restaurants.  It's been fun and we have tried to not overextend ourselves.

One thing to note, we made airline reservations to fly home to Gainesville on October 18.  It seems like we are winding down, even though we have over 6 weeks left.

While we were strolling through the University of Glasgow campus, a walk for curing cancer was taking place including a choir of around 30 singers helping motivate the walkers.  One of the songs they sang as we strolled by was "Jolene", written and recorded by Dolly Parton.  You can't make this stuff up.

• The Tenement House - An authentic time capsule of life in early 20th-century Glasgow.  The National Trust for Scotland bought this property from the last owner, a single, self-sufficient woman named Miss Agnes Toward, in 1965 and kept all of the original furnishings.  They even replaced the electric lights with gas lights to reflect original lighting.  We associate the word "tenement" with run-down residential units, but in the UK, tenement is the typical term for working class flat or apartment.  This apartment was very nice and well furnished.
• University of Glasgow - UG was the inspiration for Hogwarts in Harry Potter and you can see it as soon as you enter the grounds.  It was fun walking through the campus.  "The University of Glasgow is a public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in 1451, it is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities."  
• Glasgow Necropolis - Everyone we asked for suggested places to visit said we had to visit this graveyard.  It is on the top of one of the highest hills in the City so the view from the top is impressive. The graveyard is from the mid 1800's. The entire graveyard is massive, with large monuments throughout.  "Fifty thousand individuals have been buried here. Typical for the period, only a small percentage are named on monuments and not every grave has a stone. Approximately 3,500 monuments exist here."
• Glasgow Cathedral - The cathedral is located across from the Necropolis, which kind of makes sense.  It is imposing, dark, and a little spooky.  We walked through the main church and into the below ground sections expecting to see ghosts at any time.  "The first stone cathedral was dedicated in 1136, in the presence of David I. Fragments of this building have been found beneath the structure of the present cathedral, which was dedicated in 1197, although much of the present cathedral dates from a major rebuilding in the 13th century."

Entrance to The Tenement House

Sooz was impressed by the kitchen scale

The kitchen stove used coal.

A shelf in the bathroom

Glasgow central train station

The main entrance to UG

The UG Cloisters - "The Cloisters (also known as the Undercroft), which connect the East and West Quadrangles, have appeared in many films and TV shows including Outlaw King, Cloud Atlas and Outlander."

This courtyard reminded us the most of some of the scenes from Harry Potter.

Sooz miraculously transported herself through the locked gate of the Necropolis and left me on the outside looking in

Entrance to the Glasgow Cathedral in all is dark and gloomy glory.  A restoration project is underway on a rear portion of the church

This is looking back toward the entrance to the church.  You can't tell from this picture, but the panels of stained glass above the doorway is spectacular.

This is looking towards the rear of the church.  Stairs down to the lower sections are on both sides of the rear area.

Sooz in the below ground section thought she saw a ghost, or maybe a pidgeon

Below ground.  The arches reminded me of the cloisters at UG

I did not use any lighting or flashes for these pictures, but my camera picked up a lot of light, more than is visible in real life.  In person, it was much darker.

We were amazed my the workmanship from the 12th and 13th centuries that went into in the cathedral.  This is a picture of the ceiling in the basement, made of large blocks of stone.  "The stone used in Glasgow Cathedral is a type of sandstone called whinstone. Whinstone is a hard, durable rock that is found in many parts of Scotland."

This picture is a more accurate showing of how dark the basement is.

August 24, 2023 - Glasgow, Scotland

 The last couple of days we've been moving.  After leaving the Lake District we visited: 

Vindolanda, an active archaeological site with a large exhibition area.  Archaeological excavations of the site show it was under Roman occupation from roughly 85 AD to 370 AD.  We were both blown away by the exhibitions showing how advanced their society was.  

Hadrian's Wall - Several people we met said this was a must see.  It is a former defensive fortification of the Roman province of Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian.  Remnants of it cross Great Britain from east to west.  It's mostly just out in the open that we were able to ride up to and take pictures of it.  It crosses pastures and runs parallel to a few roads.  It's wild to touch and walk on this structure that is almost 2,000 years old.

Motorcycle Museum, Mike Barry, Carlisle, England - Visiting this motorcycle museum and meeting Mike Barry was a blast.  Mike has collected and maintains all of the bikes.  He has raced a sidecar in the Isle of Man and still rides.  You can watch the 3 minute video above that I took of the museum with Mike telling Sooz a hilarious story in the background.  Once he started talking, we couldn't get him to stop, and it was great.  He had a can for collecting 5 pounds a piece for visiting his shop, you can't beat that.  Sooz found this museum when she was looking for things to do in the area.  We didn't know about it before, and I had never heard about it before.  Finding this museum and talking with Mike, was one of the joys of traveling and not over planning the trips.  Being able to carve out time to visit this shop is why we travel without booking all of time, minute to minute.

Balmoral Hotel, Moffat, England - we stayed here one night and enjoyed it.  It is the classic UK hotel and pub.  We stayed in a basic cottage in the back of the property and had dinner and breakfast in the pub.  Sooz and I don't drink alcohol, but we felt very comfortable having dinner in the pub.  Pubs are community meeting places, social, drinking, eating, listening to music, watching TV.  It's a really comfortable place to spend time.

Rosslyn Chapel - Sooz also found this historic site to visit.  It's a little south of Edinburgh.  We stopped here after staying in Moffat on our way to Glasgow.  Rosslyn Chapel, formerly known as the Collegiate Chapel of St Matthew, is a 15th-century chapel located in the village of Roslin, Midlothian, Scotland.  We listened to an interesting presentation inside the Chapel, where photography prohibited.  It was prominently featured in Dan Brown's bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code (2003) and its 2006 film adaptation. 

VIDEO at the Vintage Motorcycle Museum - England - Mike Barry - Watch HERE

Vindolanda cafe area

Yes, that's Hadrian's Wall behind Sooz and the GS

Mike, Sooz and me

Giacomo Agostini on the left, with Mike Barry

Mike with some of his bikes

This is the sidecar Mike raced in the Isle of Man

An incredible collection of motorcycles

Mike in his shop.  He is 71 years old and still working building and repairing gates and fences

The Balmoral Hotel and pub, where we stayed one night and enjoyed it.  

The former carriage house.  Our cottage is on the right.

This could have been a movie set, an old graveyard in Moffat

This captures a little of the culture and atmosphere of rural UK.  Having a community walk sounds boring to us active Yanks, but it's a significant community event.  Walking is an important pastime in the UK.

We saw this dog carrier on the back of a motorcycle in Moffat.  No sign of the dog or owner.

Rosslyn Chapel

Inside the shop and cafe at the Chapel site

West side of the Chapel