Cumbrae

Well, I do not know why the Nicol family did not explore Dallas and Texas like we are exploring Scotland. It could be that we were over-committed, complacent, were blessed with more friends and family than we could ever spend enough time with, or just plain lazy! Whatever it was, we did not do the Texas Tourism Business justice!

Today we took a trip to the tiny island of Cumbrae, just and hour or so away off the western shore of Scotland. Friends had been telling us that it was a great day out and we were waiting for the right weather and day to try it. We drove to the town of Largs where we caught the ferry on bicycle to Cumbrae. It's only a 10 minute ferry ride so our ferry trip was quite quick!

There is one town and a fairly flat road that circles the island. We headed in the direction of the town with hungry bellies and enjoyed the scenic cycle on the winding road along the way. There happened to be a charity walk on Cumbrae today so it was busier that normal (we assume); but even so, there was little traffic and the walkers were happy to greet us as we pushed along. The town of Millport is a small, quaint seaside village with many beaches and cottages lining the shore. The main road has a few restaurants, ice cream shops and souvenir shops. We stopped for lunch at the Dancing Midgie (midgie is an insect like the mosquito that summer tourists despise!). They packed a picnic for us and brought it to us on the beach across the road.

The boys played on Crocodile rock, buried rocks in the sand and did their best to stay dry. Then we headed off for the rest of our journey. Cumbrae has many hiking trails traversing the island over the hills and rocks and we saw lots of trekkers. We enjoyed the sunshine and cool breeze and pedaled our way to the next stop; the tea room with ice cream! Once again, we ordered ours to go and headed for the beach across the road. From this side of the island you can see the Isles of Aaron and Bute. The scenery is picture postcard beautiful from each spot.

The boys did great on their bikes and we just tried to keep up. The circumference of the island is 10.25 miles with a nice stop at about every 3 miles!

It was such a great day and we look forward to our next trip! Come visit and go with us!