The nice thing of pedalling for these countries of Europe is that the distances among the cities are very short. I arrived to Edinburgh from England, after a cycle day, but it was hard because I needed 8 hours to cross their 105 km that separate them; the wind was very strong and some rains appeared.

But the landscapes were wonderful. And these compensated the other thing.

The same as Wales, Scotland is an independent country from England, with own legislative assemblies, with its own Gaelic language and its traditions. His capital, Edinburgh, is the second financial centre of Great Britain after London and the new Scottish Parliament’s headquarters.

I arrived at night at the capital city and I was hungry so I stopped in a pizzeria and thanks to the owner’s generosity I ate a giant pizza that I paid with one of my pictures. Then I visited 6 backpackers before lodging, but all of them had the same problem, at least for my bicycle: they were several floors to up stairs.

In the youth hostel I met Flavio, a Brazilian guy who arrived to Scotland to study English. He had been graduated like lawyer in Brazil; but there to support his studies he worked in the cleaning of the hotel. As Flavio, I met people of other nationalities, mainly Spanish and all of them worked like Flavio per 5 pounds the hour. They didn’t care so hard their job was, because for some months, they had the same goal: to learn English and to have another experience of life.

I remained in Edinburgh some days; I got some money from my sells in the surroundings of the castle and I went up the great hill in the outskirts of the city. And that beautiful everything is from here.

Heading for Glasgow – Km 35,866

My route to Glasgow was also with wind in my front with some rains and many ascents and slopes, but it was only 85 km.

Glasgow is the second city of Scotland which lived its gilded age during the Industrial Revolution on the XIX century. Here I stayed two days, where in vain, I looked for up to my fatigue a shop to weld a piece of my bicycle. At the end I understood that there are not shops to do it, if you want to weld something, for simpler than the work is, you should entrust it and to wait at least one week.

One afternoon when I left the bike on the street, a man told me that somebody tried to carry my bike, but he couldn’t do it. Perhaps it was too heavy lo leave that place in some seconds, because I was buying some food in a shop. The man, who told me this, was very exalted and he recriminated me to have left my bike in this way.  I know now that I should take more care.

Finally from Glasgow I cycled other 65 km toward Tron, where I took the ship to Belfast, the capital city of Northern Ireland.