Day 17 - Boarding the Ship

We said goodbye to Pisa and caught a train to the port of Rome in Civitaveccia to board the "Costa Serena". We partly dismantled the bikes and put them in the bike bags, adamant we were going to carry them on ourselves. We were loath to hand them over to the porters and let them take them on board, no protection in our flimsy bags. Obviously no one had ever done this before and it created much excitement for the Italian security, unable to fit our bikes through scanners etc. anyway, we made it through and boarded the ship, ghastly decor welcomed us. Our rule of no lifts, only stairs, was going to test us, our room on level 2 and the highest floor on level 12.

Being the Costa Concordia sister ship we took the Safety drills REALLY seriously.

Sunset on Anne-Marie at sea.

The first sunset we actually saw in 17 days.

Day 16 - To Pisa

Getting better at ripping down and rebuilding our bikes. Our 500 gram Tardis bike bags finally proving their worth having dragged them all across Britain, stuffed hem with 15m of bubble-wrap for good measure. We landed in Pisa it's hot and confusing. Our hotel obviously in the dodgiest little section of the city, bidet, tower, tourists and pizza.  By complete fluke our one night in Pisa falls on the Night of the Luminara of San Ranieri festival, thousands of candles line the buildings along the river and the streets are full of families and street sellers. It all culminated in a one hour+ story set to fireworks and music all along the river. I swear if you plan for this stuff it is never quite so amazing.

Anne-Marie foregoes the normal holding up the tower tourist shot.

Our first Italian Pizza! In Pisa even.

The candles of the Lumiara of San Ranieri festival outline the buildings, you can just make out the crowds lining the river.

Reuben was disgustingly pleased with himself after taking this shot of the tower.

Day 15 - Download Festival

We first headed off to a French restaurant for lunch and enjoyed a bottle of bubbly. The festival was dramatically different to Rockness, we went from lush green grass, blue skies, colour and dancing, to rocks, mud, rain, lots of black and standing around nodding. We still had a ball, Anne-Marie's highlight was Enter Shikari, we enjoyed seeing Queens of the Stone Age, Motorhead, Iron Maiden, and lots we had never heard of. We can understand the English folk much more than the Scottish. *New Camera*

Reuben transporting our bike packing bubble wrap for tomorrows trip to Pisa.

Obligatory Download sign photo

Anne-Marie gets down with a more interesing couple of  ?Downloaders?

Day 14 - Edinburgh to Derby - Stress and Trains

British rail is crazy, disorganised and stressful. One trip 22 tickets, three train companies, 3 bicycle policies, 34 timetables, and one helpful Scotsman with 3/4 of an hour to get us sorted out. Made it to Derby. Scottish food is better than English. No Pictures today.

Day 13 - Rest Day 2

After organising new tyres for Reuben's steed we spent the day in Edinburgh being tourists. We visited Edinburgh castle, at the top of a huge hill smack bang in the center of the city, with about 100000 others. We then did the Scotch Whiskey Experience, a surprisingly well done drinking tour, Reuben benefited from Anne-Marie's limited appetite for the golden liquid having all 10 tastings largely to himself.  Edinburgh was a definite highlight of Scotland, somewhere worth visiting for a proper holiday.

Anne-Marie gets a big one.

Reuben gets lots of little ones.

Anne-Marie makes a Scottish soldier laugh.

Day 12 - Glasgow to Edinburgh (100km)

Changed plans, we decided to follow the canal paths to Edinburgh. Set off East with a stiff tailwind and bumped our way surprisingly quickly over the gravel tow paths, all the while fretting Reuben's worn rear tyre would give out at any moment.
We rode past the Falkirk Wheel and into a 500 odd meter canal tunnel that was dark, cold, wet and slippery where GoPro decided to try to commit suicide (see video below soon). Stopped to chat to two old fishermen, accents so thick we gave up and rode on. Approaching Edinburgh Anne-Marie cracked it because the paths where so crap so we found our way to the main road and an awesome Scottish cyclist took us under his wing leading us the final 20km right to our B&B's front door.
B&B was amazing, opulent rooms, complementary port, chocolates and fantastic service all round.

(Pictures to follow Italy is stingy with it's free wifi data limits)

Day 11 - Crianlarich to Glasgow

Our first wet day started with a long downhill and then progressed along the Loch Lamond Cycle Way an example of a cycle path done right. The rain couldn't spoil the joy of cruising down the smooth bike path next to the lovely lock Lamond. We stopped for lunch at a little restaurant where apparently we where on the menu because during lunch the midges dined glutinously on our tender legs. We then followed the picturesque tow path into Glasgow.

Enjoy our first attempt at uploading one of our GoPro movies.