2023 - Our Rides in Words, Photos, Maps and Videos

RabH said:
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My legs had recovered sufficiently from Thursdays epic ride so I set out in the morning sun on another local ride, it was a little windy but not too bad! The wind was straight from the west today and around 20-25mph so I picked Kirkmuirhill as my turning point, I started off heading south towards the Clyde Valley and as I descended into the valley at Garrion Bridge I came across a big line of cars which were stopped because of work on the bridge! No problem on the bike of course and I continued on and grabbed a couple of photos crossing the bridge!
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I climbed out of the valley with a big line of cars behind me, I'm sure they were cursing me after being held up at the bridge 🤣 Luckily for them its just a short sharp climb before turning right back into the valley heading towards Hamilton where I had a big climb up towards Glassford where I would join the quiet back roads for a bit with lots of ups and downs and twists and turns towards Strathaven, its such a fun road to ride!

This is the view from the top of the climb at Hamilton on the back road to Glassford!
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I reached Glassford and continued on towards Strathaven where it would be time turn to the east and enjoy a nice tailwind for a while on the road to Kirkmuirhill, another couple of photos just after leaving Strathaven!
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Just after these photos there is a lovely big descent down into the valley but an immediate big climb back out of the valley! I was almost at Kirkmuirhill now where I would join the road back to the Clyde Valley at the opposite end from where I was earlier! This is just before descending into Kirkmuirhill!
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I reached Kirkmuirhill and was looking forward to the big descent down past the church into the valley where I hit almost 39mph today, another couple of photos were grabbed just before the descent!
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Of course after the drop into the valley its time to climb once again, as you can see from the profile photo it was very much an up and down day which I just love! :D I went up through Auchenheath and then enjoyed the long descent back down to the Clyde Valley where I followed the road to Crossford and turned north over the bridge and up the huge climb to Carluke, I remember struggling up here many times before purchasing my lovely e bike! Level 3 assist got me up the climb with ease where I passed through the main road in Carluke and immediately turned off back to the quiet back roads through Morningside and Allanton with almost 50 miles covered!

Looking towards home it wasn't looking very promising with a big squall moving from Glasgow towards my home town, it was a matter of hoping I wouldn't get a soaking but thankfully with only 7 miles or so to go I made it home dry and very satisfied with another great ride! I put my bike on its stand to give it a thorough clean when the skies opened, a quick dash to my garage ensued and I waited for the squall to pass through! What a fantastic ride in lovely conditions for the time of year, this wraps up January with 367 miles covered from 6 rides! More than happy with that and my awesome bike passed 24,000 miles today with 2 months to go until it will be 5 years old!
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One of the many things I enjoy about your ride reports: The interesting place names. No surprise that many if not most resemble place names in England. But others hint of a Scandinavian influence.
 
Jeremy McCreary said:
One of the many things I enjoy about your ride reports: The interesting place names. No surprise that many if not most resemble place names in England. But others hint of a Scandinavian influence.
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Scottish place names are less posh than English place names ;) If anybody can pronounce Strathaven correctly I will be very impressed😂
dodgeman said:
Let’s face it, RabH doesn’t go for bike rides, he goes for epic journeys in the country side.
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You rumbled me🤣
Chargeride said:
Hes never got a photo of a Haggis though.
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Have you any idea how elusive they are?🤣
 
Working on a friends house in Hightown, nipped out for a quick ride and found this guy from the council with a sort of Google Earth backpack, turns out he is measuring the dunes and returns every six months to check on storm damage.
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On the way to the River Alt and there was a 4x4 on the beach returning to the Altcar army training ground, red flags up mean firing, but Ive never seen them drive on the beach before.

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Of course straight away my mind reaches for..theyre ramping up for Ukraine!
I like to big things up.

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This part of the camp ways gives me a Thunderbirds, secret spy camp in the forest feel, though its probably just an admin block.

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Just rode around for a few hours up the coast and got the train back.
And the good news?
This year I'll get a free pass on them.!!

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Ordered a cheese and ham toastie from the cafe next to the station, strangely the young girl behind the counter couldnt understand a word I was saying and wasnt trying to help at all.
So I realised she was Eastern European.
Polish? I politely asked with a strong hint of you are fully welcome to live and work in our lovely country on my face.
Hungarian!! She barked.
She was a right misery.
This has happened to me before...
Are the Hungarians the French of Eastern Europe?
 
Chargeride said:
Are the Hungarians the French of Eastern Europe?
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You're right on the spot here. Our Magyar "nephews" (or, as they describe themselves with relationship to the Polish "mates") seem to be reluctant to learn foreign languages. A friendly nation, yes, still not willing to recognise anything else than the Magyarul, their own language. Some Magyar can speak German, a few can speak English.

There was a Hungarian hero of the American War of Indepedence Michael Kovats de Fabriczy (one of the two founding fathers of the U.S. Cavalry). While in Paris, de Fabriczy wrote an application letter to Benjamin Franklin. The Hungarian wrote the letter in Latin, and apologised he did not know other foreign languages except of Latin and German.

Historically, Poland and Hungary shared the border (and some kings). There is a famous saying from that era:
"Polak Węgier dwa bratanki..." /Polish/
"Magyar Lengyel ket barat..." /Hungarian/
The full saying translates to: "The Pole and the Hungarian are two nephews/mates, good with sabre, good with wine" :)

Once, I went in a Hungarian restaurant in South London. Although the personnel could speak English there, I made a big grin on their faces by greeting them in Hungarian! :)
 
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Been to quite a few countries with languages written in Latin characters, and none was as totally opaque as Hungarian. Not even vowel-free Czech. Whose idea were all those diacritical marks, anyway??

To make matters worse, we found few English speakers and almost no English signage in beautiful Budapest ca. 2002 -- and this with no Google Translate. The people seemed quite friendly, but communication was largely hopeless outside our hotel.
 
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Jeremy McCreary said:
Whose idea were all those diacritical marks, anyway??
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"The language has been written in a modified Latin alphabet since the 13th century AD, and its orthography was stabilized from the 16th century with the introduction of printing." Who knows? Add to this the fact the Hungarian is a Finno-Ugric language, which is totally different from other European tongues (Finnish is another one but it is completely different from the Hungarian; Baltic languages such as Lithuanian, Latvian or Estonian are strange, too).

There is a Hungarian language specialty which is especially difficult to us Poles. For some historical reasons, the Hungarian character "s" is pronounced "sh" while their "sz" is our "s" :) Like in "szex shop" (sex shop). The Polish "s" is just "s", and our 'sz' is 'sh'...

Jeremy McCreary said:
To make matters worse, we found few English speakers and almost no English signage in beautiful Budapest ca. 2002 -- and this with no Google Translate. The people seemed quite friendly, but communication was largely hopeless outside our hotel.
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Now fancy the communication if by chance you are in China and live in so-called "Chinese International" hotel as opposed to the "Western" hotel. You feel comfortable in the latter. You are completely stranded in the former as it is meant for Chinese speakers coming from, say, Hong Kong...
 
Sorry to keep the language topic going.
But when thing are bad us Brits love to wallow in it and there is the most depressing crime drama at the top spot, which is actually called Happy Valley..anyway theres a woman in it who keeps correcting grammar..the like of them, those, these, could of/have.
I always cause irritation by pointing out there is no correct spelling or gramma.
English is based on convention and if enough people use the 'rong way', then it becomes the right way.
 
Several days of rain left today's sky crystal clear. So I rode up the Coast Highway to commune with the Pacific. Along the way, did a few laps on a pleasant single-track loop in an open space on the inland side of the road.

On the way home, took the late afternoon shots below from the bluffs above North Ponto Beach.

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The Santa Margarita Mountains -- 3,136 ft high and some 30 25 miles distant -- dominate the northern skyline. The closest rocky point is Terramar, just south of Carlsbad Village. The beach sand lost during the big Pacific storms of recent weeks seems to be making a comeback.

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A closer look at Terramar halfway to high tide. At exceptionally low tides like the ones we had 10 days ago, tide pool aficionados flock to the broad rocky wave-cut flat below these cliffs.

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Looking south, I was treated to an unusually clear view of the La Jolla Peninsula, with Mount Soledad (832 ft high and 20 miles distant) at its summit. The name "La Jolla" may or may not have come from the Spanish for "the jewel". But to many, La Jolla is indeed the crown jewel of the SoCal coast.

Correction: The Santa Magaritas are only 25 miles from this vantage.

Correction: A seemingly authoritative college website on local geology led me to think that the bold dark ridge on the skyline in the 3rd photo up belongs to the Santa Margarita Mountains. But after taking some compass bearings from Carlsbad and plotting them in Google Earth, that can't be right.

Instead, it's the high ridge above Camp Pendleton. Must have a name but can't find it on any map. The much higher but more distant Santa Margaritas are the lower-looking ridge to the right.
 
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Stefan Mikes said:
Oh, you seem to have Legoland California around, Jeremy?
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Yes, just a few miles north of the vantage point in my last post. Have yet to visit and not sure I will.

Several of my fellow AFOLs (adult fans of LEGO) have waved me off -- mainly just for little kids, very crowded, and way overpriced. Bear in mind that these are people who spend most of their disposable income on LEGO and wouldn't think twice about driving 50 miles to pick up sets on sale. They'd also kill for a chance to visit the original LEGOLAND in Bilund, Denmark -- a very different experience, I'm told.
 
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Art Deco said:
I don't mind an amusement park (or anyplace else ) if there isn't a crowd 😏 ... BTW a crowd is more than a few dozen other people ...
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Well, Legoland in Billund is not any different from the many amusement parks found in Denmark (and I confirm they have many, starting with Tivoli in Copenhagen) and the only difference is the entourage is built of LEGO blocks :) Yes, it is very good for children.
 
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