July 1 - Train to Glasgow, and flight home

Easy return to Glasgow. I got up at 5:00, ate breakfast (which my nice hostess insisted on fixing, despite the early hour), and cruised on down to the train station. After I pumped up my rear tire, which I discovered had become flat. I guess I ran over some glass or something on the wet pavement yesterday. But the tire held long enough for me to get to the train station. I found the entrance with the bike sticker (the blue sticker on the door of the train in the following picture), and put my bike on the rack provided. Then it was just a matter of settling back and enjoying the beautiful scenery, some of which I had cycled through a couple days previously.

Wick Train

I was forced to change trains twice, in Inverness and Perth. This was not a problem, except that I couldn't dally in the train station. Connections are usually just 20 minutes or so. So I pretty much had to take my bike off the train, go into the station and find the train status board, find my next train, then proceed to the right platform immediately. But, no problems since all trains were pretty much on time.

When I got to Glasgow, Bill and Ian were waiting for me on the platform. They weren't at all upset that I gave their bike back to them in such rotten shape. They were just amazed that I had biked the whole way to Wick. I expect that my weight, plus the 30+ pounds of gear, were more than the bike wheel could really handle. Like I said, I wished I could have had my bike, especially for the second week. Oh well... next time.

So, since I couldn't get the later train that I wanted, I was stuck in Glasgow for six hours or so. Bill offered a ride to the other Glasgow station, and even stuck around to make sure that they had luggage lockers so I could wander around while waiting for my train. They did, and I wandered back over to Buchanan Street and the shopping district. A bustling city, for sure.

Buchanan Street in Glasgow

Easy train ride back to London (I slept the entire way), and easy flight back to the U.S. Small snag upon arrival: thunderstorms in the area were producing lightning, and the grounds crew at RDU had called a "ground halt", which means no one was unloading our luggage from the plane. So we sat in Customs for an hour. Once the luggage was off the plane, we had to wait in line for another hour getting rescreened so that we could reenter the airport terminal area. I could certainly see why we had to wait the first time, but gee whiz, I didn't have to go back into the terminal area, so I shouldn't have had to wait to get rescreened. The only reason I had to go back that way, was because there was no alternate exit that would take me straight to the baggage carousels. Oh well... a small price to pay for security.

The only other minor occurrence was that I had to get my shoes sprayed for Foot and Mouth Disease. Could I answer "yes" to any of the following questions:

• Did I visit a farm while in the UK?
  
• Did I go on any hikes while in the UK?
  
• Did I visit any B&B's while in the UK?
  

Well, I guess I qualified, since I did all three. So I got sprayed.

Then, a quick trip on the TTA shuttle back to work, where I picked up my car and laptop, and I was really back. Bummer.....