Day 0 Glasgow to Milngavie

May 26:  We are on our way even though we don't get on "The Way" until tomorrow.  After a nice buffet breakfast in the hotel, the gang gathered just after 9 am and started walking - in full hiking regalia today, with boots and loaded packs.

Way marker through Glasgow

Waypoint 001 - Park Circus in Glasgow

We walked northwest through town to the Kelvin Way and followed the Kelvin river through attractive parkland.  There were a few people out walking dogs or jogging but we had the trail mostly to ourselves.  We crossed under a number of impressive stone bridges and passed a few low weirs.

One of the many bridges over the River Kelvin

After an hour or so, we seemed to pass suddenly into the countryside, with horses, deer, and even a fox on the other side of a meadow.  The track got more primitive, so we were glad of the boots.  At one point we saw a swan cruising in the river - not a big deal in this country - but a pair of guys doing trail maintenance told us it was a rare and special whooper swan, who should have been on his way north by now.

After climbing through and over a number of stiles, we spotted the Tickled Trout Pub in the near distance and decided we had earned a lunch break.  Some of the group went inside for a hot meal and the rest of us sat outside to have a picnic with hot drinks.  The weather threatened but never quite turned to rain.

Lunch Stop

In another hour we reached our hotel in Milngavie (pronounced, and historically spelled, as Millguy - the English apparently fancied up the spelling).  We checked in but learned that our luggage had not arrived - nor even been picked up in Glasgow.  When Phil called, he was told that Absolute Escapes had not arranged for baggage transport for today, even though they booked us in to the Glasgow hotel and gave us detailed walking instructions for today.  The transport company agreed to go retrieve our bags, since it is less than a dozen miles between the two hotels.

(3:45 pm.) The bags just arrived! Yippee.

Pastoral View

As a side note, our support company booked us in to Premier Inns in Glasgow, Milngavie, and again in Fort Williams.  It is a relatively recent hotelier that we first encountered 3 years ago at Gatwick airport.  The inns are modern, clean, efficient, and very well designed.  They follow a cookie-cutter approach so every room looks just about like the next one but after a few days fighting with unpredictable plumbing at other places, you get to appreciate showers with decent pressure and hot water that comes promptly and lasts as long as  you need it.