We picked up our car from Europcar this morning. Fancy Mercedes “estate” wagon – this means a small station wagon in US terms. It was really tight for getting our luggage in, but Ralph managed – though the first day we did not take our luggage with us. We’d planned on staying at the Holiday Inn the second night while Ralph got used to driving. Plus, I’d been unable to book our next destination until the night of the 7th. As you will see, it all worked out.
Within the first hour Ralph had side swiped a road sign and destroyed the passenger side rear view mirror. It really was not Ralph’s fault – the traffic diversion sign was in our lane and with another car approaching, he could not pull out enough to clear the sign.
We went on with our plans for the day – driving up to Greenock, then through the Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park, a very empty area of land just west of Glasgow. The road we took goes right through the middle and was the perfect introduction to Scotland’s landscapes.
Although it is close to the end of summer, there are lots of wildflowers in bloom:
Then we went on to visit the RSPB Lochwinnoch Wildlife Reserve. While there were few bird, there were more flower and we appreciated their innovative bird blind:
A female mallard duck stretching her leg:
When we returned to Glasgow Airport we took the damaged car back to Europcar. They told us to return the next morning with the car, since they had nothing equivalent for us to lease that day. So it worked out perfectly that we were staying at the Holiday Inn right there.