Day 3, afternoon: The guys at the shop showed me a back road that they said was like the one marked for the national route, but it was a good ride and not too busy. I took it and it was beautiful- I had to ride up over the mountains behind Pitlochry which was tough, (Dave if you're reading this we need to bike more hills this summer!) but after that I basically cruised down a valled next to the creek from the start where it was just a tiny stream to the end w...

Day 3! What a crappy day. Gray and rainy all morning, I slept in a little bit and then made the trek up to Blair Atholl (backtracking... ugh about 8 miles) to go to the Dukes of Atholl residence. It was really cool, they didn't allow photos inside but it was well worth it. I wish I had been born a duke-- huge house, ballroom the size of my high school cafeteria, gardens, CASTLE! Unfortunately they didn't take me anywhere cool in the castle, no secret passage...

Day 2! I made it about 200 meters out of their drive when I realized I had forgotten my nuggets! On my second attempt I made it about a mile before it started pouring on me, rain thankfully. It snowed last night up in the mountains, but only a dusting and none down in the valley where I was. It was a bright sunny morning, even during the rain. I should mention that weather in Scotland is not like anything I've ever encountered: read on. You can look up and ...

Day 1! So, did I mention that the bike hire didn't include a helmet? Probably not... haha but no worries, on the train to Inverness I met the manager of a bike shop, and he wrote me a note to give to his employees, and they let me borrow a helmet to return in Edinburgh at their other shop. So I left Inverness at about 3:30, had about a 25 mile ride to Slochd Mhor Lodge, in 'the Schold,' where I was going to spend the night. On the way I stopped at Culloden Ba...

Nessie hunting!! I'm in Inverness Scotland right now, got to make this short because I need to get cycling! 25 miles to go today. Spent the night in Dublin Airport on Thursday, got to Glasgow on Friday morning. On my flight I sat next to a super friendly Irishman on business in Scotland and a med student from New Jersey. It was great to spend pass the time talking about traveling with them, as we had an hour long train ride after the 50 minute flight. I was...