Invasion and Port Bannatyne

After such a nice quiet time, things had to change. Indeed they did with the arrival of Anne (better known as Izzy's mum) at Glasgow airport courtesy of Flymaybe. Anne did ask the airline how much it would cost to fly Izzy up too - the answer of around £1,000 seemed a bit steep so she stayed in Fair Oak much to our dismay....

As a bit of a caffeine addict, she needed an injection upon arrival. The airport Starbucks had a trainee barista at work who managed to prepare Anne a quite phallic flat white:

Anne managed to consume it though.

Then she had to contend with the bus ride from the airport to Paisley. Paisley itself is nothing to get excited about. The bus however - well, it goes through a really up market housing area on the way to the train station. We often wonder what the Scottish tourist board think about welcoming folks to the area that way. We reckon that a few visitors might want to turn right around and head back. Like several UK airports, the link to the train network is poor.

Back on board we forced ourselves to walk to Greenock and Mr Morrison's supermarket as it is the last sizeable one we will see all week. Fresh stuff and chocolate were needed.

The next morning dawned a little less bright and we enjoyed some hefty showers on the way to the Isle of Bute and our stopping spot in Port Bannatyne. A gentle little run:

The folks in Port Bannatyne are always so friendly - you just want the place to succeed. We were on a hammerhead but it is a tiny one and moving the boat so it doesn't obstruct the fairway to the other (yes, there are only two) pontoon is tricky. A wander into Rothesay and around the town was most civilised, as was doing the tourist thing and having and ice cream on the way back. We reckon we doubled the profits of the kiosk man that day after all the early rain. The evening / sunset view from the berth was stunningly beautiful:

Quite a special time.

As Anne had never visited Bute before, we just had to take her to Mount Stuart, our all time favourite country house. The West Coast Motors bus ride is in pence per mile probably as stupidly expensive as the trip from our house in Hythe Marina to Southampton. Much much prettier though. As the sun was a wall to wall thing (whilst the south of the country was getting a deluge!) the interior was shown off in full glory:

The outside isn't bad either;

and there is even an ideal place for Izzy:

Only she wasn't there and so couldn't.

Upon the return we had to get off the bus in Rothesay and explore a little clothes shop where the ladies tried on innumerable items and the captain heard the life story of the assistant. Some of us enjoyed that bit. An excellent coffee and cake stop in Musiker (try it, vegan cafe / bistro with good coffee) then a wander back to Port Bannatyne rounded off a great day.