A Walk Down the Isle

        Thought I should share a recent trip of mine to one of them beautiful isles along the western shores of Scotland. It is called the 'Isle of Arran'. A little wiki knowledge would tell you that its the seventh largest Scottish island and has once been called the 'geologist s paradise' !

       It wasn't exactly the brightest of autumn mornings, nevertheless, a short train ride from  Glasgow brought me to the Ardrossan harbour where I took the ferry across the Firth of Clyde to Brodick bay. Stepping ashore, I was still hoping to catch a glimpse of the sun, but- hey! no signs of it yet. The clouds seemed to be very happily settled over the bay. The idea was to hire a bike and take a ride along the shore line. But giving hunger the priority over finding a bike hire shop, the local shop helped fill my bag with lots of yummy food for the day. Only a few yards away was what I think is the biggest shop on the isle named Bislands. 

       A quick hover around the shop and I got myself a winter warmer..a cap, which I later came to find out from a friend of mine that it makes me look like reindeer ! How much more festive can a person get at this time of the year? As they say, 'Tea to the English is really a picnic indoors', I decided to have my own considering the day is going to be prospectively dull without the sun. It turned out that the cafe in the big shop served the most revolting tea ever [beware, looks can be deceiving].

       

Anyway, after washing it down the throat, the onward journey was to the nearest bike hire. Enroute I came across this eye-catching wooden house. Apparently, the house is owned by a jazz vocalist called Joni Keen and is used an island retreat. The staircase and the wooden carvings were made from oak reclaimed from the very famous Waterloo bridge on river Thames in London dating back to the 1920s! The house truly was a sight in the setting and here's picture for you to see :). The walk got wound around a big golfing area along the shore. Old men, with almost snow-white hair, clad in smart clothes were having a go with their shiny golf clubs. I always wondered how anyone can possibly play golf as it seems so mundane and boring. I would much rather run on the same spot and get some adrenaline rush ! Googling about golf (as I am blissfully unaware of the rules of the game) gave me this funny joke:

One golfer asked his friend, "Why are you so late in arriving for your tee time?"
His friend replied, "It's Sunday. I had to toss a coin between going to church or playing golf."
"Yes," continued the friend, "but that stills doesn't tell me why you are so late."
"Well," said the fellow, "It took over 25 tosses to get it right!"

Moving on, lead me to discover a bunch of hungry ducks eyeing all passers-by curiously to see if they can spare some pennies from their pockets to feed them. There was a little table in the backyard of a house which had a cute card that read, ''50p'' for a pack of duck food. Tempted to get all those feathered friends closer, I got hold of a pack and surprisingly enough, some of them were so used to being fed by humans, they came close enough to eat from my hands. That's me on what I should call 'The Hungry Bridge' having fun. 

Finally after much dilly-dally, I was at the bike shop only to find out that they are closed on Sundays. In this country, Sundays are taken very seriously. To work on a Sunday is sheer stupidity! I dont remember Sundays being taken so seriously back home in India. It is almost the only day of the week when you get to stay late in bed, since Saturdays were mostly school days where I used to study. It is the day of the week where you get to watch your favourite program on tv in the morning (such a luxury) and then have a scrumptious mom-made meal. And the kind of post-meal-sleep-syndrome you would get after all that is definitely like a drug! Heaven ! But what comes after this is not my favourite part, which is, to rush and finish all the extra weekend homework you get handed over without ever having to ask, in great haste, all the while thinking that you can get to bed early and sleep long before the Monday morning blues begin. But, nope, nothing ever went according to plan. You always ended up rushing with homework, scavenging for all the lost notebooks, pens and papers, retiring very late and getting up real early for yet another week ! 

     By this time thankfully, the clouds were clearing up and there was some sun shine for everyone and so the walk continued along bendy footpath onward to the next pit stop where you have the famous Arran cheese shop and Arran aromatics. Tasted a bunch of different cheeses along with oatcakes (yummy) and bagged some  handmade chocolates and cheese for the journey back. After some timely fill-up with chilli beans and couscous that was bought earlier during the day, the trek continued to the next visitors point on the isle- The Brodick Castle. 

This castle can be dated back as far as the Vikings and the setting is staggering - fronted by the sea, bedecked with gardens, surrounded by hills and overlooked by the majestic mountain of Goatfell.

Apparently the name Brodick comes from the old norse words (Norman dialect from the Vikings) which means ''broad bay''. And Arran means ''peaked island'' in Gaelic. The castle gardens are well worth a visit and I bet they would look beautiful in the spring ! But even November seemed to have some lovely blooms for me to share....

Unfortunately, it was almost time to walk back to the bay and catch the ferry before night fell and so I had to save my exploration cap for another day. I would hope to visit more isles along the Scottish shores and share my experience with you in the future. All in all, it was a memorable walk down the isle that I would remember for many days to come.........