Inverness (Scotland to Iceland 3)

This entry consists mainly of excerpts from my daily journal.

Monument at Culloden

Thursday June 8, 2023

That was a pretty good day and we met some interesting people. Before we left I found an ‘Edinburgh’ sticker for my ukulele case and I also got a pin for my collection. This one has a Scottish flag and a Canadian flag on it.

Just as we entered the Royal Mile we stopped to chat with one of the locals. I don’t remember how the conversation started, maybe as a result of the Canadian flag on my hat. Anyway, she said she had seen the fires in Canada on the news. We chatted about our trip and as we parted she told us we had lovely accents. I stopped myself from saying, “So do you.”

There were a couple of women sitting across from us on the train and R talked to them quite a bit. One was going north to attend a conference of some sort and the other was a municipal councillor. The guy either directly in front of us or in the next seat up had a terrible cold, or something. There was much coughing and throat-clearing, and once that penetrated my consciousness I put on my mask. I sure hope he didn’t give it to either one of us. That would not be a great way to start a holiday!

After a few texts back and forth we found out where our accommodations were. It was a lovely walk beside the river Ness. We are in quite the swish guest house with a huge bedroom/ living area, a galley kitchen and a bathroom complete with a washer and dryer. We passed a couple of restaurants on the way and decided to walk back to one where we had fish and chips for supper. Now we are deciding what to do while we’re here. We had a lot of fun on the cycling tour in Edinburgh so we might look around and see if we can find another one while we’re here.

Friday June 9, 2023

R and I both had the grumpies today, I in the morning and he when he was trying to cook supper. He hates trying to cook when he doesn’t have good stuff to work with and I don’t blame him. These places come with just the basics meaning there are no spices and we don’t want to buy jars of spice which we will then have to carry or toss. The knives are dull and the pots and pans don’t match the lids. We’ve decided we’ll have one meal out and the other one we can make do with veggies cheese and hummus. We stopped in at Tesco on our way home and also bought some instant oatmeal that isn’t loaded with sugar: it’s just oatmeal. We got yogurt and milk for our tea and coffee. Today we had lunch in town and it was less than stellar. I had a chicken salad which was heavy on the chicken and light on anything green. I would have preferred it the other way around.

After lunch we took public transit out to Culloden and had a guided tour. The tour guide was a very good storyteller. It’s pretty rough country to be fighting in. One thing I hadn’t known was that it wasn’t a clear cut case of the Scots against the English. There were mercenaries in the mix and Scots were fighting on both sides. They’ve done a really good job of marking out where the two lines met each other and the signage is also good. Although I'm not much of a history buff but it was an interesting visit. It was stinkin’ hot though. So much for cold, rainy Scotland - at least so far.

I booked a two hour bike tour of the waterways for 10:00 tomorrow.

Saturday June 10, 2023

That was a pretty good day. Nice easy bike ride on cruisers that did have gears. There weren’t any hills to speak of and we were definitely on the experienced side of the people who were on the tour. One woman said she hadn’t been on a bike for 40 years. Yikes! Allison, our guide warned us that the brakes on the bikes were the opposite of what we were used to across the pond (the other folks were Americans.) On our bikes the rear brake is controlled by the right lever and the front brake is controlled by the left lever. Always put the rear brake on first so you don’t go sailing over the handlebars. Allison’s rule was both hands on both brakes. I found that if I kept my left hand on the brake lever and wrapped my right hand around the handle bar itself I had a suitable reminder of what to do with which hand.

The pre-tour chat

There were a couple of incidents with the folks who weren’t used to riding. I was ahead so I didn’t see what happened but I think one of the women fell when she tried to go through a narrow spot on the pathway in the bird sanctuary. We also stopped at a botanical garden and I got a picture of one particularly fuzzy looking cactus.

On our way back home we met a guy from Holland who is doing long distance hikes all over Europe. He told us that his kit weighs 9 kg and that includes his tent and everything. He said he is 76 and is still working so he does these hikes every summer when he has holidays. I think he said the hike he is on is called ‘The Great Glen Way.’ He said the midges are terrible and he had bites all over his arms. Not my idea of a good time!

It was 26C here today and I think we have a good chance of getting rained on either here or in Glasgow or both tomorrow. Our train leaves at 12:07 and we get in around 4. All our paperwork for Adventure Canada is up to date and Glasgow is where we board the ship for the second part of this adventure.

One slightly annoying thing: I brought a small wooden phone stand with me and I can’t find it. I’ve looked behind all the furniture and under the bed. I know I had it here because I used it to watch videos on my phone. It seems to have disappeared into thin air. I’ll have another look in the morning but I don’t have much hope of finding it now. I wonder if it somehow got thrown out.

A fall bike ride

If I look back in the blog I find another post about cycling in the fall. I wrote that one 16 years ago when I was newly retired. The bike is different but I think the route is similar to the one I took last Friday. I debated about whether to go for a ride or not and then I checked the forecast for the next day. Rain. That settled it. Much better to get out when the temperature was just about right and the sun was shining. I think it was 13C when I left. I had on a light fleece, a wind vest and gloves.

The bike is the e-bike R gave me for Christmas last year, although we didn’t get around to actually buying it until May. Last Wednesday, we stuffed both e-bikes in the van and headed to Canmore where we parked and rode the Legacy Trail to Banff. On that ride my saddle slipped down about an inch even though I tightened up the clamp as hard as I could.

When I set out Friday I had no particular plan except to drop in to the bike shop to see if they could rectify the problem. The guy took the bike right away and, while I waited, he cleaned off the seatpost and regreased it. That was entirely counter intuitive to me. If the thing was slipping, why would you want to grease it? But it seemed to work. I thought of just riding around the neighbourhood and then decided to ride down the Edworthy Park hill.

The road down to the river has improved a lot over the years. When I first rode there it was mostly gravel and now it is mostly paved. That makes the riding nicer both up and down the hill. At the bottom of the hill is a parking lot and a playground as well as a few picnic spots and one picnic shelter. At the north end of the parking lot is a concrete barrier with an opening in it that leads across the train tracks. I decided to carry on across the tracks and the bridge to the north side of the river. As I approached the tracks I saw a young woman with a camera and a tripod taking photos. If you look either way along the tracks it’s easy to forget you are in the middle of a city of 1.3 million people. You might be looking along any treed section of track in the foothills.

I crossed the bridge and turned to the east along the divided pathway, one path for cyclists and a separate one for pedestrians. From there I could make a shorter loop on the pedestrian bridge under Crowchild Trail and come up the hill by a golf course, or I could carry on, turn around at some farther point and go back up the hill the way I came. Thinking of the photographer I opted to carry on and get some photos with my phone on the way back through the park.

When I decided I had gone far enough I turned around and retraced my route, stopping this time for a few photos along the way.There were a number of people out on bikes and walking along the river pathway. As I toodled along a few guys on road bikes and mountain bikes passed me. I’m happy to have fit individuals on light bikes blow by me. The point of having an e-bike is not to go as fast as I can but to enjoy cycling again with a little less effort.

Don’t get me wrong, the kind of e-bike I have is still work. If I don’t pedal it doesn’t help. You can get e-bikes with throttles but mine doesn’t have one and the info from my fitbit tells me that I’m working hard enough on these rides. Today I was in my vigorous heart rate zone for 50% of the time, the moderate zone for 40% of the time and the peak zone for 9% of the time. I don’t know where the other 1% got to. Perhaps it was for the photo stops.

I set out to ride for 40 minutes and by the time I got back home I had ridden for an hour and 59 minutes. It was a very satisfying and enjoyable ride. I certainly used the highest level of assist to make it back up the Edworthy Park hill and that probably accounts for the 9% of time at the peak. It’s the difference between struggling with each pedal stroke in the lowest gear on a normal bike and feeling that going up the hill is hard sustainable work.

I hope to go on as many rides as I can before it snows and the paths get icy. Next summer I’ll test how far I can go on a battery charge. So far I haven’t even drained the battery half way.