Stirling's Sleepy Dragon

Please allow me to introduce you to some fairies you might meet on your tour round the North Sea. For example this dear sleeping dragon. He is guarding the bridge of Bruce in Stirling.

Study your map and u will learn, Stirling is not exactly located alongsite the North Sea Cycle Route. It may be about a good day's travel from Edinburgh or Dundee. And it is worth the way to check old Scotland's center. Stirling is a place of glourious victories, badly defeats, sleepy dragons, proud Scots.

Accomodation: Aberdeen

Oilprices are somewhere up in the clouds this days. For Aberdeen, center of british oil industry this means business and wealth. Any empty room is rented as B&B to business people working for American, British or Saudi Companies with well known names.
I cruised town for several hours without any result. Hm, bad is not to know where to sleep the fastcoming night. A lovely elderly couple finally offered their sofa. Uh, I cannot accept this! So Mrs A. phonesearched for a room and managed to book me into crowded Aberdeen Youthhostel. Wonderful old lady! I stayed in Youthhostel's posh room for one night, and in a three bed room on night number 2.
At breakfast I learnd that Aberdeen is overrun by oil industrie for real. In the morning at 7.00 were four or five oil manager having their morning tea at the Youthhostel, while I started my tour south.

Inverbervie's Glorious Witch

You will see a witch on the North Sea Cycle Route. Please meet Mrs Cutty Sarg, famous for being the patron of a 19th century mergant ship. Inverberie is located half way in between Montrose and Stonehaven, on the eastcoast south of Aberdeen. Cutty Sarg is not only name of witch and ship, but also of whiskey, the people of Inverberie produce somewhere around their homeplace. So why not stop by to enjoy some hard stuff to honour Mrs Witch?

Colchester's Black Knight

Wonder if you can think of a male english person, being more english than Sir Black Knight. "Nobody shall pass" is what he says, he will not accept a defeat. To stop in front of this famous person, chose the passage from the Continent via Harwich.

Starting in Harwich it may be about 40 kilometers of paddlebiking until you arrive Colchester.

Colchester is said to be the oldest english town. And for that not suprisingly guarded by the Black Knight. Want to say "hello" to Mr. Black: You better be armoured, haha. His guarding place is down mainstreet, please ask for the war memorial at England's oldest castle.

Great Cycleways III

John from Swansea sent a mail and ask, whether it is risky or danger to cycle on roads in Scotland. Sorry, I have only been once to Wales, so I am not sure about ur standard.

You will find a network of great cycleways in Scotland and England. Furthermore there is a huge number of small roads you might use for riding. NSCR guides you along there.

England is well known for hedges and walls, planted along all streets. At least they remind tourists, they are staying in England and to use roads careful.

No walls or hedges in Scotland, as I remember. And no trees in northern Scotland or on the Orkney Islands. The only huge traffic I have seen on Orkney Islands was at the Lidl supermarket carpark in Kirkwell.

Mostly streets are comfortable and empty as B9055 between Loch of Array and Loch of Stennes shown on the pic. B9055 is part of NSCR, connecting the famous stonescircles to surrounding world. Ring of Stennes on the right side and ring of Brodgar somewhere left uphill.

Hei John, no thiefs, no robbers, no warlords by the way.

Great Cycleways II

My favorit cycleway: bike tourist, who are staying in Whitby are being asked to ride this route to Robin Hood Bay - the former railway, known in the old times as the most lovily trainroute all over Britain. Standing on the bridge crossing the Esk 1 understands how romantic things can become, if constructed by english engineers. Please find Cathedral, St. Mary and Northsea in the distance. I understand this cycleway is part of North Sea Cycle Route.

As always the nice things are hard to search for: Whitby townmap might not give you a clue how to enter the cycleway. So please let me give you a hint. Cycleway starts at the former station to Robin's Bay, which does not longer exist. Station were near todays Whitby Mainstation, or somewhere here, or round the corner, who can remember I donnot know. Cycleway climbs up steedily onto the hills and the Esk bridge.

Great Cycleways I

Scotland is covered with a network of great cycleways. A number of them are dismanteld railways, which are now used for cycling or walking.

You travel the countrysite as train did in old times: Riding not over the mountains, but through them. There are a limited number of street crossings and no cars to be seen in 20 kilometer distance. As I understand, the most famous and most beautyful cycleway is north of Aberdeen, leeding into the Highlands. The cycleway on this pic as a little offsite the NSCR - connecting Glasgow with the Irish Sea.