July 2, 2025
Kinross to Alyth
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The day started with the knowledge that the weather forecast was bad. Rain was predicted for all day with cool weather (50’s) and not really a way to avoid it by timing our ride. Eric and Melinda are on rented e-bikes with rented panniers and the panniers are a bit bush league. One set doesn’t fit very well on their racks so there was a bit of fussing around, and all the while it’s pouring.
We liked our shabby, solid Scottish hotel.
Here we are getting ready to face the elements:
Eric and Melinda have very positive attitudes and are game for adventure, so there was no whining about the weather. It kept our angst in check. Thank you Eric and Melinda!
We were ultimately headed today to the village of Alyth, out of the way of the route I had originally planned. The natural destination for the night would have been Blairgowrie but I had a problem finding accommodations because there was a fair in that town. I originally booked at a little inn out of the middle of nowhere but they were so unfriendly about the bikes that I canceled. The innkeepers offered the open car park across the road as “suitable” bike parking even though I could see from the pics that there would be several fine bike parking locations that would be safer (ie: interior courtyard). They would not let us charge our batteries in the room, but they didn’t offer a charging station. If I insisted, they would run an extension cord outside but we would only charge our batteries between 4 and 10 pm. I probably had 6 emails back and forth with them and honestly, they just didn’t want to get to “yes.” They didn't appear to want our business and in the end I didn’t want to give my business to a place so unfriendly to cyclists. The inn was Bridge of Cally Hotel.
This was one of the experiences that led us to be concerned about cycling over here, and in fact we are spending less time in the UK than originally envisioned due to these kinds of challenges. On the other hand, now we are here we have felt welcomed and have had no problem with bike storage. However, I cleared it with every single hotel beforehand which was a pain in the neck. The upshot: We rode 10 km out of our way to stay at the Alyth Hotel in Alyth, which had no problem storing our bikes.
The ride out of Kinross was as expected; steady rain but traffic was courteous and we pretty quickly got on to country roads. After an hour the rains lessened. By that time I was soaked through and pretty chilly.
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3 weeks ago
We had a 30 km ride to our midpoint break at the Tiso outdoor store, in Perth, which is part of the chain we had visited in Glasgow. Dave had a minor mishap with his lone long-sleeved shirt while we were in Bo’Ness a few days ago. Having rare access to an iron in our room he wanted to iron the pocket (not a thing he typically ever does) because we were meeting our family the following day in St. Andrews. Hey, he wanted to look spiffy. Unfortunately he inadvertently turned the iron heat up to “nuclear” and a light touch on his shirt caused a big burn in the chest area. So much for looking good for the relatives! So, an outdoor store was now on the agenda. If he couldn’t find a replacement in Perth he likely wouldn’t find anything until Edinburgh two weeks later. The Tiso was on the extreme north end of Perth so we saw a lot of the town riding through from the south end. Fortunately, this Tiso had a cool cafe so we were able to warm up and have lunch while Dave roamed the men’s clothing section and found a replacement.
I also bought another pair of warm cycling gloves. The ones I wore in the morning were soaked and the slow attrition of our stuff is starting to happen. I carry an extra pair but lost the right hand somewhere a few weeks ago. Here is what I have resorted to when its cold and rainy out:
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Dave cut the fingers off the right handed glove so I could have touch screen capability (and then I lost the left handed glove, so I am using another pair of shower pass gloves on the left.) These black and grey gloves were sort of a bust. The grey flap turned out to be useless for cycling and just flops around getting in the way.
I can (more or less) use them to touch my phone in the rain - good enough.
I generally have found that waterproof gloves are not waterproof for very long and the best strategy for me is to have replacements midway through the day. Dave on the other hand doesn’t ride with gloves unless it’s very cold and he likes the yellow shower pass gloves (his are similar to my yellow glove shown above).
We have some concern about the battery capabilities of the bikes Eric and Melinda rented. The batteries are much smaller than the ones Dave and I have. Eric is a big guy so he uses more battery life just being in motion. While settling down for lunch we located an outlet at the Tiso so Eric was able to do a short recharge. Running out of juice in the pouring rain didn’t sound particularly appealing. We have some climbing days ahead so we will feel our way on this issue.
We had a long break and wound up chatting with a fellow at the next table who was from Northern California but looking at moving to Scotland (he was born in Scotland and also has a UK passport) due to US politics. Imagine that. After lunch and a successful Icebreaker purchase by Dave we got on the road at 1:30 pm. It started to rain as we departed but it eventually abated and we rode hard for 35 km to arrive in Alyth at 4 pm. The ride was pretty much a Komoot special; no major cycle route but just a route created from small roads, a few busy ones for about 7 km and a beautiful but short cycling trail out of Perth. We were on a road with fast moving traffic for a stretch at the end but there was a gravel shoulder that kept us out of traffic.
Melinda and I were very happy when we walked into the bar at the Alyth Hotel and saw Wimbledon on!
The Alyth Hotel is newly remodeled and a bit more upscale than the old classic Scottish hotels we have stayed in, but it is out on the middle of nowhere. It had interesting bike parking.
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We cleaned up and eventually made our way to dinner downstairs. We survived the day in good spirits: rain wasn’t as bad as expected, Dave got his replacement top, and Eric managed his battery. All good.
Today's ride: 65 km (40 miles)
Total: 2,230 km (1,385 miles)
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3 weeks ago
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