I was having too much fun deciding the alarm bells for Coucou-by-virtue-of-cuccurucucù.app back in May and felt that a change of scenery might do me some good so I jumped on the sleeper train to Edinburgh and headed straight for Portobello Beach to take in the morning views.
Jackpot Innocent Railway Tunnel on the way to the beach and Roughcastle Tunnel leading to engineering marvel the Falkirk Wheel.
I had a Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36 (1877) planned in Glasgow that night, which I boldly missed gliding along the Union Canal and on to the Forth & Clyde Canal, pacing through narrow archways, learning to live with heartless insects dominating the atmosphere swarming blind in every direction not excluding mine.
Gorgeous The Union Canal takes you from Edinburgh past Linlithgow to Falkirk, about half the distance to Glasgow.
Glasgow has a different pulse today, but used to be about shipping and shipbuilding, which is why I also visited Port Glasgow passing by Clydebank's refurbished Titan crane and crossing over the Erskine Bridge.
The Forth & Clyde Canal connecting Firth of Clyde to North Sea runs 35 magnificent miles alongside the faded Antonine Wall. Antoninus Pius may have been one of the Five Good Emperors, legislating to protect presumption of innocence and favoring policies for the enfranchisement of slaves, but his successes trying to push the Caledonians further north proved short lived.
People keep pigeons for a pastime here. This first section of The Lochs and Glens Way linking Glasgow with ultimately Inverness is lined with pigeon lofts or dovecots or doocots.
Not in use The Finnieston and Titan cranes are giant. Found an older one in Gdańsk (Danzig) today for context.
Port Glasgow grew surrounding Newark Castle and prospered to a degree thanks to the Tobacco Lords of Merchant City legitimately monopolizing imports into France from English colonial plantations across the Atlantic, which they had access to behind 1707's Treaty of Union. Circling back east towards Paisley on a mile plus long climb to join Cycle Route 75 was near epitome of lovely, but the vistas made up for it completely.
Newark Castle's doocot and public art in Port Glasgow; the Camera Obscura in Dumfries is world's oldest currently in order and housed in a former windmill like the one in Lytham St Annes below.
Paisley is known for appropriated shawl designs and 19th century radicalism. It's of course where a newly pregnant Jean Armour retreated to gather her thoughts while Robert Burns seemed briefly caught up romancing another beauty. They are both resting little further south in Dumfries, where much earlier one more Robert, The Bruce, must have heard destiny calling when he summoned up the courage to take out the competition by method of stabbing, man to man in front of God the Almighty, and for the price of only temporary excommunication as the papacy was entering Babylonian captivity?
A year later, in 1307, in Sweden, minor stop on Gustav Mahler's nordic travels Halmstad received city charter. I took a break there recently following Sun Route (EuroVelo 7) and was reading about it having a role in Kulmar Union's political process. Kulmar Union was created to mostly counter the Hanseatic League and its last ruler, Christian II of Denmark, exercised his cunning apparently encouraged by a vindictive bishop to eliminate prodigious number of potential opponents in events since referred to as the Stockholm Bloodbath of 1520. The Bruce's move by comparison, calculated or extreme as it was, stands out for efficacy at least.
Home to an offshore wind farm, the Solway Firth area is adorable, but Lake District presents a different kind of idyllic.
From there, I took the road to Carlisle, traditionally a garrison and then mill town on the Anglo-Scottish border. There had been raiders haunting these lands victimizing common folk seriously enough that in 1525 one Archbishop of Glasgow was forced to issue a 1.069,00 word curse against them.
I then went around the Solway Coast and really appreciated cycling up and down the Lake District hillsides. Cute that those paths go through laundry hanging backyards.
Ashton Memorial in Lancaster's Williamson Park is named after a local baron who was passionate about his second wife so very much that he built this Taj Mahal inspired folly in her honour. To think he was made fun of that his title was bought not earned!
An hour outside Lancaster, of Red Rose, Duchy, Pendle and Samlesbury witch trial, and Luddite Westhoughton riot fame, on the ferry to Fleetwood, someone said my bike was handsome, which put a lot of fire in my pedals. I got to Blackpool in no time and was immediately greeted with Do I Love You (Indeed I Do) (1965) and Gone With The Wind Is My Love (1967) from literally a Hole in the Wall (1966). Exactly! For dancers only!
Blackpool Tower of 518 feet, at one point considered British Empire's tallest structure and the foundations of which include millions of Accrington bricks same as Empire State, was having mini repairs done. North Pier, second of Eugenius Birch's 14 total, made for a nicer picture.
Next, I fell for Preston Guild Wheel. Since 1790 there has been freedom of trade in Preston, but its guild is celebrated still even if every twenty years, hence the expression Once every Preston Guild, meaning Once in a Blue Moon. The Arkwright water frame and teetotalism were invented in Preston. During 1842's Chartist influenced Plug Plot Riots striking workers were fatally shot here in clashes with soldiers and police.
Formby is a National Trust designated SSSI and its wildlife includes the endangered red squirrel species. It was mildly dizzying wandering that beach in low tide due to the immense openness.
I covered a bit more of the Trans Pennine Trail and left it at Liverpool, host to Europe's oldest Chinatown, one with a very big arch. I spent a couple months there moving back to the UK from Germany.
Around Crosby, I admired Waterloo's beach facing terraces where White Star Line executives and captains had their villas, not your typical semidetached architecture. That company remarkably lost numerous ships pre and post RMS Titanic (1912), such as the SS Atlantic (1873), RMS Republic (1909), and HMHS Brittanic (1916).
And in Formby, I drew my line in the sand knowing full well it was going to be swept away by the rising tide as I got home. Soon as I did, I looked up hoping for a silver lining, which London skies tend to be generous with this part of the year, but no, níl, non, nein, não, нет, nothing but overcast far and wide that day. In any case, I chose to not take it personally and made some of my own instead.
Kent sunset starting a new trip.