view from Helensburgh

The weather was perfect for a day out to Helensburgh. Unfortunately, the public transport wasn't!

I went off with a pal who was convinced that there was a direct train through to Helensburgh from Edinburgh. But the information man at Waverley told us to get off at Partick, get a bus to Dalmuir station and then a train to Helensburgh. So, off we went. At Partick - it was like not being able to organise a drinking session in a brewery. Eventually the bus that they said was due as 12.02 turned up just after 5 past, and by the time everyone had clambered on board, it was 10 past. We went to Dalmuir via every station on the line, which meant all the back roads over speed bumos. We got to Dalmuir at 2 mins past 1, and the train to Helensburgh had gone at 12.59, the next one being 1.29!! Dalmuir station has no facilities at all. By the time we got to Helensburhg at 2pm, we went straight into the first cafe for lunch and their facilities. In fact it was a very nice lunch, and the bus journey took us to see lots of that bit of Scotland that neither of us had seen before.

After lunch, we wandered along the pier to watch the ferry from Gourock come in, and I took this blip from the pier.

Neither of us fancied a similar return journey, so we checked out the service buses from Helensburgh to Glasgow and ended up catching one back and took the train from Glasogw Central back to Edinburgh. As we both have old bats/codgers cards, the service bus was free
:-]

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