Pedals, Pipes and Pubs
Summer 2025
Slainte
Slainte… the Gaelic word for “health” or wishing a person good health when sharing a beverage. Similar to “cheers”. The four of us had several slainte moments in the last 12 days. It certainly is a good thing to have the health (and wealth) to travel abroad or anywhere in the USA and explore by…
A ferry then Glasgow
Day 11 July 24, 2025 Stats: 19 miles, AIS: 1:37, Elev. 531 ft, Speed: 11.6 mph A 6:30 am start out of the hostel in Port Charlotte, Isle of Islay to the ferry terminal in Port Ellen. Our fastest 19 miles of the trip. The guys finally had a good nights sleep in their full…
Pedals and Whisky
Day 10 July 23, 2025 Stats: 29 mi, AIS: 2:48 Elev. 1023 ft, Speed: 10.5 mph This is our last day to take our time… pedal and stop for pictures. Go wherever we want and not be in a hurry. Are we ever in a hurry? The first stop today was a tour of a…
We saw the North Atlantic Ocean
Day 9 July 22, 2025 Stats: 19 miles, AIS: 2:05, Elev. 1092 ft, Speed: 8.8 mph Port Charlotte to Portnahaven to Port Charlotte loop. The hostel has a “wee” breakfast (continental) so we had that for breakfast. Then Jim and I had to move out of our nice single room to join the bunkhouses…men’s and…
Islay Island… big commute
Day 8 July 21, 2025 Stats: 16 miles, AIS:1:33, Elev. 485 ft. Speed: 10.1mph Today we had a big commute to Islay (eye-la) island on the west coast of Scotland. It is part of an area called the inner Hebrides. We needed to leave the hotel about 8am for a long drive (2.5 hrs) to…
Cycling the River Tweed
Last Day in the Borders Countryside Day 7 July 20, 2025 Stats: 20 miles, AIS: 1:41, Elev. 537 ft., Speed: 12mph The three of us took a nice simple easy-peasy ride this morning following the River Tweed along the Scotland/England border. Up one side of the river passing into England then crossing the bridge back…
Back in the Borders
Day 6 July 19, 2025 Stats: 27 miles, AIS:2:44, Elev. 1554 ft, Speed 9.8mph Today Jim, Curt and I were on our own as Sandy is busy with Civic Week and the Kelso Pipe Band. He’s piping the horse parade out of town as they ride horses to another village for celebrations and they will…
Timing the tide to ride
Day 5 July 18, 2025 Stats: 29 mi. AIS: 3:10, Elev. 790 ft. Speed: 9.1mph We were traveling in the van by 9am this morning to Berwick-Upon-Tweed, England. We needed to time our 15 mile ride from there to Holy Island to cross the causeway to the island when the tide was out. Today we…
Big Beautiful Borders…countryside ride
Day 4 July 17, 2025 Stats: 28 miles, AIS: 2:29 Elev. 1587 ft. Speed: 11.1mph We started our morning with breakfast at Sandy’s. He did some shopping early and came back with food for the week. My favorite was the Muesli (cereal)! The muesli cereal you can get in the states does not even compare…
From Isle of Aaran to Kelso
Day 3 July 15, 2025 Isle of Aaran, Lochranza, ferry, drive, Kelso (on the east side of Scotland) Stats: 14,miles, AIS: 1:27, Elev. 836 ft, Speed: 9.9 mph We needed a much earlier start today to arrive at the ferry by 10:30am. The hostel had a simple continental breakfast… toast, cereal, yogurt, juice, coffee and…
Scenic… and wet
Day 2 July 15. 2025 Isle of Aaran, Ayreshire Stats: 42 miles. AIS: 4:23 (Ass in saddle), Elev. 1814 ft. Avg speed: 9.4 mph The days are long in Scotland. Dawn is at 5am and sunset at 9:15pm. We woke up to sunshine but the forecast for today is some kind of rain all day…
Houston…. we have a problem
Day 1. July 14, 2025. About a 10 mile easy flat ride. It was a checkout ride to get our bike saddles the right height and make sure the shifting was working. The first order of business this morning was for Curt to reassemble his bicycle at the hotel. He just sat down (in his…
Headed to Glasgow….Scotland!
Day 0 Train from London to Glasgow July 13, 2025 We caught the 8:50am train from London and arrived in Glasgow about 3pm. Sandy and Curt picked us up at the train station. We immediately went to the bicycle shop to pickup our bicycles. They were all ready for us. They look pretty nice with…
A few days in England…3 cities
MANCHESTER. Day 1 We arrived safely and in time in Manchester from Reykjavik. Took an Uber to our hotel where we met Jim’s brother and sister (Tom, Annette). Tom was going to the ELO concert that evening so we had the afternoon with Annette checking out a canal tour in the city. Not recommended… pretty…
The trials and tribulations of air travel when things go wrong
Day 1. June 7, 2025 Billings-Seattle, Seattle-Reykjavík, Reykjavík-Manchester Depart Billings 2pm, Depart Seattle 3:45pm Depart Reykjavík 8am (June 8) I hadn’t intended to post on our travel to England for the blog but after the events of our first day of international travel I’ve decided to include this portion of our trip. Oh lord….Alaska air…
Pedals, Pipes and Pubs?
It’s a trip to Scotland… our first in Scotland, Great Britain, the UK! I had to learn the distinction between the country of Scotland, the “island” of Great Britain and the government (if you will) of the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). Secondly in Scotland the “pipes” refers to bagpipes not the…
cinnicrew 