One reason to stay in Scotland

declan1

The views aren't too bad. If they were as bad as the roads I wouldn't even bother going out.

daviesee

That is indeed a very good reason.
Another reason - Cheaper cost of living compared to most areas.

Unfortunately this is counterbalanced by the state of the roads as you mention, and the perma-winter.
Come retirement, I am seriously considering Mallorca.

team47b

but there must be more than one reason, surely

pliptrot

I lived in Scotland 2001-2003, then in the US until 2010 and Germany since then. Currently in East Kilbride on business. I'd forgotten a lot about Scotland. I would move here TOMORROW, if I could.

daviesee

team47b wrote:

but there must be more than one reason, surely

Relatively quiet roads would be another.

peat

I did some riding in SW Scotland last week and was appalled by the state of some of the roads. Can't have been touched since the 90's!!

Cleat Eastwood

Google holly greig

There are numerous reasons why you wouldnt want to visit sotland

Alain Quay

- From Edinburgh you can be out in the countryside in 10 minutes
- beautiful countryside and easy to get away for a weekend's biking e.g. Borders, Perthshire, etc.
- lots of cycle clubs and sportives
- pretty good for cycle commuting and cycling around town
- lots of quiet roads across Scotland
- I can't quantify this but Scots seem a bit more mellow - road rage is very rare
- the windy weather and potholey roads build stamina and character in advance of trips to the continent!

Blacktemplar

Cleat Eastwood wrote:

Google holly greig

There are numerous reasons why you wouldnt want to visit sotland

Lucky there aren't any paedo's in Eng-er-land then.....

Majestic scenery, quiet (if a little threadbare) rural roads within easy reach of major cities like Glasgow & Edinburgh, friendly people, whisky.

thegreatdivide

Spoilt for choice here in Dundee:

South to the beautiful rolling hills of Fife.
West for a flat, fast 33 miles loop or some knee breakers over the Sidlaws then further on to Perth & Kinross.
East for more excellent rolling hills via Forfar or just a quality bacon roll and ice cream in Broughty Ferry
North for the big boys aka the Cairngorms.
There are also three of the hardest climbs in Scotland that can be included in any 100 mile ride from my front door:

http://www.strava.com/segments/kenmore-615848 still do do - got the fear!
http://app.strava.com/segments/1040221
http://app.strava.com/segments/620890
South face climb is sapping too - http://app.strava.com/segments/2076497

Must be a nightmare living in London when all you have to look forward to is 107 Strava segments per half mile, traffic, fixies and a small incline in Surrey ;-)

declan1

thegreatdivide wrote:

Spoilt for choice here in Dundee:

South to the beautiful rolling hills of Fife.
West for a flat, fast 33 miles loop or some knee breakers over the Sidlaws then further on to Perth & Kinross.
East for more excellent rolling hills via Forfar or just a quality bacon roll and ice cream in Broughty Ferry
North for the big boys aka the Cairngorms.
There are also three of the hardest climbs in Scotland that can be included in any 100 mile ride from my front door:

http://www.strava.com/segments/kenmore-615848 still do do - got the fear!
http://app.strava.com/segments/1040221
http://app.strava.com/segments/620890
South face climb is sapping too - http://app.strava.com/segments/2076497

Must be a nightmare living in London when all you have to look forward to is 107 Strava segments per half mile, traffic, fixies and a small incline in Surrey ;-)

I must admit we do have plenty of lovely hills. Not much good up here if I want to go for a flat ride though!

the playing mantis

but it s the weather isnt it? if your a soft southerner you cant deal with it. (even though our summers are sh*t recently) i mean we think manchester and leeds are cold and wet, edinburgh is however many miles further north than that.

daviesee

thegreatdivide wrote:

Spoilt for choice here in Dundee:

South to the beautiful rolling hills of Fife.
West for a flat, fast 33 miles loop or some knee breakers over the Sidlaws then further on to Perth & Kinross.
East for more excellent rolling hills via Forfar or just a quality bacon roll and ice cream in Broughty Ferry
North for the big boys aka the Cairngorms.
There are also three of the hardest climbs in Scotland that can be included in any 100 mile ride from my front door:

http://www.strava.com/segments/kenmore-615848 still do do - got the fear!
http://app.strava.com/segments/1040221
http://app.strava.com/segments/620890
South face climb is sapping too - http://app.strava.com/segments/2076497

Must be a nightmare living in London when all you have to look forward to is 107 Strava segments per half mile, traffic, fixies and a small incline in Surrey ;-)

I have done No.1 from the other end which was hard enough. I think that way will be harder as my arms were sore from being on the brakes all the time. :shock:
Doing 3 & 4 as an out and return is a good day in the saddle. Heading South is easier than North, or maybe that was just because I knew what to expect by then. Heading North fools you as you think you have done it, then it grinds further, then it kicks again.

bompington

the playing mantis wrote:

but it s the weather isnt it? if your a soft southerner you cant deal with it. (even though our summers are sh*t recently) i mean we think manchester and leeds are cold and wet, edinburgh is however many miles further north than that.

Edinburgh? North? Edinburgh is a soft southern city, full of English people. As an american once said to me when I stayed* there, "is that Edinburgh, England?" I mocked him for his ignorance at the time, but it didn't take me long to realise he was pretty much right.

As for the roads local to Dundee - I simply won't comment on them, we couldn't cope with the influx if you all found out ;-)

* "stayed there" => "lived there" in English English

verylonglegs

bompington wrote:

the playing mantis wrote:

but it s the weather isnt it? if your a soft southerner you cant deal with it. (even though our summers are sh*t recently) i mean we think manchester and leeds are cold and wet, edinburgh is however many miles further north than that.

Edinburgh? North? Edinburgh is a soft southern city, full of English people. As an american once said to me when I stayed* there, "is that Edinburgh, England?" I mocked him for his ignorance at the time, but it didn't take me long to realise he was pretty much right.

As for the roads local to Dundee - I simply won't comment on them, we couldn't cope with the influx if you all found out ;-)

* "stayed there" => "lived there" in English English

I did meet an English guy once who would spend all his holidays hiking in the north of Scotland, he would often say Scotland doesn't actually start until you get north of Glasgow and Edinburgh.

declan1

verylonglegs wrote:

bompington wrote:

the playing mantis wrote:

but it s the weather isnt it? if your a soft southerner you cant deal with it. (even though our summers are sh*t recently) i mean we think manchester and leeds are cold and wet, edinburgh is however many miles further north than that.

Edinburgh? North? Edinburgh is a soft southern city, full of English people. As an american once said to me when I stayed* there, "is that Edinburgh, England?" I mocked him for his ignorance at the time, but it didn't take me long to realise he was pretty much right.

As for the roads local to Dundee - I simply won't comment on them, we couldn't cope with the influx if you all found out ;-)

* "stayed there" => "lived there" in English English

I did meet an English guy once who would spend all his holidays hiking in the north of Scotland, he would often say Scotland doesn't actually start until you get north of Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Definitely. It's so flat and boring down there. Take a look at some of the landscape photos here - you can literally go anywhere and the scenery is amazing (my photos aren't really a good example of the scenery you get though haha!).

http://declanphoto.weebly.com/gallery.html

ballysmate

There don't appear to be many compelling reasons, as you find ex-pat Jocks all over the world.

daviesee

verylonglegs wrote:

I did meet an English guy once who would spend all his holidays hiking in the north of Scotland, he would often say Scotland doesn't actually start until you get north of Glasgow and Edinburgh.

To get to the best of Scotland, you have to go north of the Caledonian canal. 8)

daviesee

Ballysmate wrote:

There don't appear to be many compelling reasons, as you find ex-pat Jocks all over the world.

But if they all came back, it would get crowded. Voluntary population control.

MaxwellBygraves

Well the Scots don't seem to put up with Nigel Farage's cr*p so there's another

thegreatdivide

MaxwellBygraves wrote:

Well the Scots don't seem to put up with Nigel Farage's cr*p so there's another

Hehe - that was excellent viewing!

verylonglegs

MaxwellBygraves wrote:

Well the Scots don't seem to put up with Nigel Farage's cr*p so there's another

Taking an anti-immigration policy to a nation that has traditionally seen a significant number of it's sons and daughters leave for other countries is rather baffling from any politician. The Scots would have been extremely hypocritical to embrace him!

ballysmate

thegreatdivide wrote:

MaxwellBygraves wrote:

Well the Scots don't seem to put up with Nigel Farage's cr*p so there's another

Hehe - that was excellent viewing!

Although not a big player in Scottish politics, Willie Rennie summed it up:-

‘It was deeply ironic when these self-proclaimed anti-racist campaigners told an Englishman to get back to his own country. Anti-racists turned racist but were too ignorant to notice.'

plowmar

+1 maxwell

mallorcajeff

Mallorca is a lovely place to retire too but its not cheap. Scotland would be lovely but i dont think i could handle the weather after 8 years abroad

declan1

mallorcajeff wrote:

Mallorca is a lovely place to retire too but its not cheap. Scotland would be lovely but i dont think i could handle the weather after 8 years abroad

I would love to live in Mallorca. Do you want to swap?

Big Hairy Wallapers

Nigel Farrage is no fool.
He would have been well aware of how the trip was likely to go and how it would be reported.
There's no such thing as bad publicity and there are more people in England that will have seen that and reasoned that love him or loathe him it's refreshing to see a politician who's not afraid to say what others are thinking, than the Scottish population.
In other words, alienate a few people that would never vote for you anyway to gain the support of many people that would possibly vote for you!!
Simple really.

He also makes himself look normal (a bit of a tit) as opposed to a smarmy P.R. machined puppet.

Win win :-)

-spider-

daviesee wrote:

verylonglegs wrote:

I did meet an English guy once who would spend all his holidays hiking in the north of Scotland, he would often say Scotland doesn't actually start until you get north of Glasgow and Edinburgh.

To get to the best of Scotland, you have to go north of the Caledonian canal. 8)

But there's no roads up here. Just sheep tracks. And the weather is awful - I mean in the last year the it snowed every day. And you put the dirty washing out to get cleaned and bring it in to dry. And everyone speaks that Gaelic stuff. And you get taxed more just for being here. And the Council still sit round a big stone and bang sticks together (although that might actually be an improvement on Council's further south). Nah, it's rotten up here.

-spider-

Ballysmate wrote:

thegreatdivide wrote:

MaxwellBygraves wrote:

Well the Scots don't seem to put up with Nigel Farage's cr*p so there's another

Hehe - that was excellent viewing!

Although not a big player in Scottish politics, Willie Rennie summed it up:-

‘It was deeply ironic when these self-proclaimed anti-racist campaigners told an Englishman to get back to his own country. Anti-racists turned racist but were too ignorant to notice.'

Of the two people arrested during the Farrago - one was a (Unionist) Labour supporter and the other was English. The Anti- English rubbish was a fiction. Anti Farange - yes. Anti UKIP policies - yes. Anti English - No. It suited Fandango (and others) to blame the Nationalists and this was picked up by many aspects of the press. :shock:

ballysmate

-spider- wrote:

Ballysmate wrote:

thegreatdivide wrote:

MaxwellBygraves wrote:

Well the Scots don't seem to put up with Nigel Farage's cr*p so there's another

Hehe - that was excellent viewing!

Although not a big player in Scottish politics, Willie Rennie summed it up:-

‘It was deeply ironic when these self-proclaimed anti-racist campaigners told an Englishman to get back to his own country. Anti-racists turned racist but were too ignorant to notice.'

Of the two people arrested during the Farrango - one was a (Unionist) Labour supporter and the other was English. The Anti- English rubbish was a fiction. Anti Farange - yes. Anti UKIP policies - yes. Anti English - No. It suited Fandango (and others) to blame the Nationalists and this was picked up by many aspects of the press. :shock:

In his quote, I believe he refers to anti racists not anti unionists.

-spider-

Ballysmate wrote:

-spider- wrote:

Ballysmate wrote:

thegreatdivide wrote:

MaxwellBygraves wrote:

Well the Scots don't seem to put up with Nigel Farage's cr*p so there's another

Hehe - that was excellent viewing!

Although not a big player in Scottish politics, Willie Rennie summed it up:-

‘It was deeply ironic when these self-proclaimed anti-racist campaigners told an Englishman to get back to his own country. Anti-racists turned racist but were too ignorant to notice.'

Of the two people arrested during the Farrango - one was a (Unionist) Labour supporter and the other was English. The Anti- English rubbish was a fiction. Anti Farange - yes. Anti UKIP policies - yes. Anti English - No. It suited Fandango (and others) to blame the Nationalists and this was picked up by many aspects of the press. :shock:

In his quote, I believe he refers to anti racists not anti unionists.

Agreed - but he also said something along the lines of "if this is the face of Scottish Nationalism then it is pretty ugly".