Peebles to Melrose

July 19, 2025

The morning journey was the tale of two halves.

Last night it looked like the weather was going to deteriorate at noon so we agreed to shoot for a 9 am departure; our sleep wasn’t great due to the drunk guy drama in the middle of the night. When we awoke the forecast had shifted to a deterioration at 2 pm, rather than noon. This not only cheered us up but encouraged a bit of dawdling over breakfast, so we wound up leaving by 10 am, not thinking we would get any rain for the ride. Not two minutes into the ride, not even having left Peebles, it started to rain, and rained heavily for an hour. We just put our heads down and rode over what would have been lovely country, if we could have seen it. Fortunately, promptly at 11 am the rain lessened and then stopped, just in time for us to consider our choice of either a 3 km gravel ride, or to get back on the busy A707 (that we rode yesterday). Dave will always opt for the gravel, and I agreed, not being too excited for a busy road. I took a minute to change out to another pair of gloves as I was cold and wet by now, and my hands get the worst of it.

Although this shot doesn't show the rain, trust me, it was coming down steadily.

The weather begins to ease up revealing some dramatic skies.

The second hour of riding was fun, the gravel interesting but not too crazy, although we rode through a fair amount of puddles. We wound up on a small country road that took us into Galashiels, the largest town in the Scottish Borders, which was our planned midday break. I had picked it because there was a Tapestry Museum there with a reputedly good cafe. I can’t say we are particularly interested in tapestry but its was logistically a good stop before our ultimate destination of Melrose.

It turned out to be great. I had assumed it was a collection of old Scottish tapestries (not having adequately done my research) but instead, it was the story of Scotland done in embroidery.

Alexander McCall Smith, a famous Scots author (of “Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency” fame) gathered 1000 stitchers (with help) from all over Scotland and organized them to make a series of tapestries to tell the story of Scotland. When the exhibit first came out in 2013 at the Scottish Parliament it was mobbed with Scots wanting to see it. The exhibit circulated around the country to great acclaim and eventually a modern facility was constructed in Galashiels to hold the collection permanently.

The first tapestry you come across depicts Scotland's geological beginnings. Zoom in to get a feel for the details in the embroidery.

There are seven areas like this one detailing the history of Scotland.

The story is told from Prehistoric times all the way through to the present, with each tapestry presented with a short written explanation. (I particularly prefer a chronological presentation in museums - the remnant of my lawyer brain). We feel like our five weeks here have given us a much better historical perspective of Scotland (as its own nation and culture) and the Tapestry presentation tied up all the loose ends.

There was a tapestry about: (1) Tea at the Willows in Glasgow; 2) the Firth and Clyde Canal construction; (3) King Malcolm and Queen Margaret in Dunferline; and many more. We got excited when we saw a tapestry about a subject or place we had been! I guess we are easily thrilled.

The last two days with their interesting sights - Rosslyn Chapel and the Great Tapestry of Scotland Museum - are just great reasons why we tour. Had we been on a car trip or even public transportation, these sights would never have made it to the top of our list, yet we greatly enjoyed them. We ate lunch in the museum cafe - after stripping out of our sopping wet rain gear - but then had to don everything again at 2 pm for the rest of the ride, as it started to rain hard as we were getting ready to depart. We left our bikes just outside the Museum. There was nary a bike rack in sight, although we have felt so safe here we don't worry about it much anymore. Maybe it will be different in busier parts of England, but it has been great here.

The short ride to Melrose was a little tough. We made too highly irregular and unintentional bicycle maneuvers in two roundabouts as we were leaving town, due to our difficulty finding the indicated bike path. We finally found it and arrived in Melrose around 3 pm to the Townhouse Hotel, a more upscale accommodation than the we've had the last few days, having a large room and we were only up one flight of stairs! The bike parking was squeezed behind a little bothy but worked fine.

Bike parking was tight but secure and protected from the rain.

That evening we walked over to Monte Cassino, an Italian restaurant, for dinner. It was a rare restaurant that was busy and hopping. We have been in many fine restaurants over the last month but none seemed very busy, and we are worried about the health of the restaurant industry here. Afterwards we walked over to Melrose Abbey, but couldn’t see much due to the high walls, so we may stop by in the morning.

We really enjoyed this wine which was one I'd never heard of. It's from the Puliga region of Italy and the "cinque" refers to the five varietals used to make it: Montepulciano, primitivo, sangiovese, negroamaro, and malvasia. And "autotoctoni" is an Italian term for native grapes.

Today's ride: 42 km (26 miles)
Total: 2,836 km (1,761 miles)

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