Cyclists on CalMac

On the penultimate day of our holiday we rode our tandem from Brodick on the Isle of Arran to Laura's flat in Glasgow (where we also stayed on the first night of our trip just over two weeks ago).

Apart from getting lost in the small town of Kilwinning (population ~21k), the journey was quite straightforward.

We stopped twice along the way. Our first break was for a delicious (and good value) soup and sandwich lunch in the tea room at Auchengree Farm shop near Kilbirnie. The second was for afternoon tea in the café of Morrisons in Johnston. This rather odd venue was determined by my school friend Barbara.

When Barbara heard about our route this morning on Facebook she contacted us to say that we would be passing her at work in the mobile X-ray unit in the supermarket car park. It worked out well that she finished work at 4pm because this was the exact time that we reached Johnston. We spent an hour together before it was time for Mr hazelh and I to set off again. (This is only the second time that I have seen Barbara since 1980. The last time was on 5th December 2015. Today she told me a story about my father. The short version is that he may well have saved her life when she was 9 or 10 years old. I need to see if he remembers this...)

On arrival in Glasgow this evening Mr hazelh and I leapt in and out of the shower in record time, then went out for supper with Laura and her daughter Katharine at the Hanoi Bike Shop in the west end of Glasgow. This was our first experience of Vietnamese food, and we loved it. The choice of venue was pretty good too given that we are on a cycling holiday.

In other news, we saw a fox walking along the street in Paisley.

My blip is the sign that shows the cyclists the location for stowing their bikes on the ferry from Brodick to Ardrossan.

Exercise today: 43 miles of tandem riding.