June 28, 2025
Bo’ness to Kirkaldy
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The party was over and in the morning all that was left was the clean up. Staff was out in the parking lot picking up the detritus when we came down and made our way to breakfast.
The restaurant was entirely deserted and we roamed around a bit before we found someone to take our order.
I have taken to having the vegetarian Scottish breakfast even though I can only eat about half of it; mushrooms, beans, grilled tomato, veggie sausage (tasteless) and an egg (poached). Today I skipped the tattie scone. I have never been fond of mushrooms but for some reason I am tolerating them pretty well over here. Dave is hopeful I am turning over a new culinary leaf because he loves cooking with mushrooms and I somewhat cramp his style with my indifference to them.
As we were eating we heard noise outside. We dashed out mid-meal to witness the Orange Walk - a local parade by the fraternal Orange Order celebrating the victory of William of Orange (a Protestant Dutchman) over the Catholic ruler James II in 1688, generally known as the Glorious Revolution. These parades go on all over Scotland during the summer.
We had a shorter and easier ride today so we spent some extra time working on the journal. Our productivity was somewhat dimmed by the fact that the internet in the restaurant kept cutting out so I lost a bunch of work twice by failing to save often enough. This happens a lot to both of us - it’s not new. We got on the road a little after 11, and believe it or not, we saw sunshine for the first time since we have been in Scotland.
It was a great day. We traveled the National Cycle Route 76. I am so impressed with the Scottish cycling infrastructure we have seen so far. The ride had a little bit of everything: coastline (the tide was out this morning), boats, parkland, fields, small roads, narrow paths, cycling trails, gravel, gates to open, small villages, short steep hills, sheep grazing, cute dogs on the trail. And, it was sunny and warm (enough) AND, we had a tailwind.
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The signature part of the ride was crossing over the huge Forth Bridge outside of Edinburgh, which has a lovely cycle trail and separate pedestrian path. The cross winds made for a tense but exhilarating ride.
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We stopped for lunch at Cafe 16 in Abedour, a charming little Scottish town. The cafe was busy with only one table free for 45 minutes until a later booking, so they let us sit if we would agree to just soup and scones for lunch, because the kitchen was overwhelmed. We happily settled for that and split a bowl of mushroom soup (!) and a scone.
We then had a short ride to our destination of Kirkcaldy, a small city right on the coast. We had some narrow uphill and downhill gravel trails, with tight site distance.
Kirkcaldy has a long promenade all along the beach and we rode in at the southern end after a beautiful climb and then descent into the area.
We passed the kissing trees shortly before the end of the ride.
It was a “Why We Tour” day.
Our hotel, Hotel Victoria, was an old place, no lifts, but pleasant. It was scenically located next to the local snooker hall which we noticed advertised a “snooker meal deal:” two hours of snooker and supper.
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We might have been better if we had opted for that because we ate in the hotel and had our first forgettable Scottish dinner- sort of like the food the Brits were famous for years ago but doesn't happen too much now. My first clue was when I asked for an aperol spritz and the waitress just stared at me like I was from another planet. Dave then asked for the wine list and the waitress orally reeled off the wine list: “Shiraz, Sauvignon blanc, Chardonnay.” So we ate a prawn cocktail with mayonnaise and a gammon steak, which turns out to be a cut of pork, with chips and a slice of pineapple (out of a can).
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The Peat Inn that’s just to the north of you about half way to St Andrew’s was one of only three Michelin rated places in Scotland in the early ‘90’s when we were there and it still has a star to this day. It was great back then so you might want to give it a try (and stay there too - they had eight wee rooms) to balance things out.
2 weeks ago
Anyway, we laughed about it and took the rest of our bottle of wine up to our room to watch Netflix!
Today's ride: 48 km (30 miles)
Total: 2,048 km (1,272 miles)
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