i guess because i waited a few days between posting the first and second parts of our day one biking, kevin forgot that i’d written all about “monty python and the holy grail” being filmed at doune castle, which we visited.  he commented about it on my last entry and i read that comment this morning and thought HOW DID I FORGET TO MENTION ALL ABOUT MONTY PYTHON?  AM I FINALLY LOSING MY MIND?

luckily, janet, who is very observant, pointed out that yes, i had written about mont p. and the h.g.  whew, i’m still fairly lucid, no worries yet about my mind completely going.

but kevin also wrote that he bought a celluloid frame of the movie at the gift shop, which of course i HAD forgotten, so it would be nice if he’d give some input to my postings…so i’m writing this here instead of walking all the way into the next room to tell him that directly.

not that i’m incredibly lazy or anything.

anyway, i’m happy to report that on day two of biking in scotland we didn’t get lost AT ALL.  it felt like we were lost on the second half of the day because we were on some very sketchy bike paths, but we managed just fine with all the maps and directions in our posession.

but on the second day was THE RAIN.

please bear with me, because i’m going to post all the selections from day two right now, and there are a lot of them.  i’m trying to be more and more selective about the photos i’m posting but there are just so many great ones…because i’m doing the entire day here, nobody, even forgetful husbands, will forget about anything that i’ve posted for the day.

we started out on monday july 13th at 9:10 a.m. because we had to get to Loch Katrine by 10:00 so we could get on the ferry that would take us across the loch.  it w 9.4 miles to the loch, according to our directions, so surely we’d make it in time.

unless it was hilly.

it was kind of hilly as i recall; all i mostly remember is that i was trying to ride as fast as possible in order to not be late.  the ferry was going to leave at 10:30 and the instructions from our guidbook said that the spaces for bikes on the ferry could fill up.

once again, kevin managed to take a photo of me trying to race up the road – i don’t know how he took photos while riding.

we made it in plenty of time.  turns out that there weren’t hordes of people, like we’d thought there would be.  actually, i think i already mentioned this, but i had been afraid that there would be tons of other bikers all along the various paths and roads, when in fact there was basically nobody.  there were some people in line for the ferry, but there was ample room for us and our bikes – most people were just there for the boat ride.  maybe there were about 10 people with bikes.

here’s the cute boat.

that’s the restaurant, where we had a great lunch after our travail back from the far side of the loch.  kevin took this while waiting to board the boat.

the people who were in line first got to sit outside in the very front, but we were happy to sit farther back.  the view was spectacular wherever we were, and the day was beautiful but a bit chilly.

when we started out, they made an announcement about general things and then talked about the food and drink available onboard, including beer and hot chocolate and hot chocolate with brandy.

wow, that sounded good, hot chocolate with brandy.  wildly decadant for me, but i got some anyway.  it was delicious. eventually it warmed up enough to stand around outside on the boat.

of course i spent a lot of time running around videotaping everything.  i went below deck where nobody was sitting. there was a TV on the wall, so kids could watch instead of looking at the spectatular views.  but at least nobody was down there, except us, briefly.

i think this next one is my favorite photo of the trip.  in my top two or three, anyway.  isn’t it spectacular?

this one is really great, too…and kevin says he took it from the loo!  you don’t find such a view in most bathrooms.

hmm, the clouds are starting to get a little darker now, as we travel across Loch Katrine…

after about an hour we disembarked and i documented all the people leaving the boat.  i was the very first person off.  there had been rental bikes back at the parking lot when we started, and most of the people either rented bikes there or brought their own.  one (incredibly fit) looking couple were there with two little kids.  they had an attachment for one of the bikes that one of the kids could ride – kind of like a tandem bike.  i can’t remember what they had for the other kid.  there was also a group of about four boys, all maybe 12 or 13 years old, with bikes, and they didn’t seem to have any adults with them.  i didn’t recognize the language they were speaking.

at least initially, i was going fine.  that’s me way up ahead.  we passed the four kids because they had stopped to repair a bike, but later they passed us and we never saw them again.

…and a half an hour later i’m pushing the bike up a hill.  this was a 13-mile ride back to the beginning of the loch, and you’d think it would be kind of flat around the loch…but it was very very hilly.

but oh so pretty.

it started raining.  i worried about the family with the little kids, but pretty soon all i thought about was the pouring rain.  it was raining so hard that it was difficult to see through my glasses when we went downhill.  i’d never ridden in rain and i can’t say that i’d like to do it again.  at least it wasn’t cold rain, but after a while it was just annoying.

peeking at us through the trees was the first shaggy scottish cow we saw.  very cute.

i love all those ferns.  we were getting close the parking lot at the loch at this point, and the rain had let up pretty much.  we laid our sodden coats over our bikes and had lunch – i had a grilled cheese sandwich “with pickle” – the waitress told me it wasn’t an actual pickle like i’d think of it, but i said, bring it on.  it was kind of like chutney, and very delicious.  the sun was out and we lingered over lunch, then strolled around the gift shop for a while and bought a couple of things.  we set out again,and our route back to Callander was going to be partly on bike paths instead of roads.

here’s a spectacular-looking hotel across the loch.

the bike path was terrible.  it wasn’t just gravel, it was rocky.  plus it started to rain again.  plus it was hilly.  hilly, rocky, rainy, and the path was ridiculously narrow at times and we couldn’t understand why anybody would even want to ride on it.

we were happy to see that it was only 7 miles back to Callander.

but then, more rocky bike path.

we finally arrived back on a road and kevin laid his bike down next to this enormous tree.

along the road was another loch and it kept raining on and off.  but way off in the distance there is a boat.

and here are some crazy people setting up camp along the rocky shore.  they had a big case of beer with them, which hopefully made the rain more tolerable.  but then again, if they’re scots maybe they’re used to doing everything in the rain.

up close and personal, the funny shaggy cute cow.

this house was very beautiful and we kept taking photos and video of the road because it was all so lovely.

this is another of my favorite photos.  don’t you just want to be there?  the rain on the road makes it look even better – that’s what they do in car ads, they wet down the road so the roads look better.  and they do.

coming back into callander, the sky looked even more threatening but we didn’t care because WE’D MADE IT!  about 33 miles that day, but we didn’t feel too tired because we’d had that nice break at lunch.  we hoped, though, that there would be no more rain.

we rewarded ourselves with pear and regular cider.

we had dinner at a little pub down the street and i had the best burger i’ve ever eaten there.  kevin took this picture because he thought the bar looked cool.

that night we watched a DVD in our roo.  this was our last night in Callander – we stayed here three nights, and the next morning were headed for the very tiny town of Killin.

ok then,

grace