Rain, Rain, Rain

Ready for the rain

It did not always rain

Typical . . Blue skies followed by rain clouds

Rain on the bus

Rain on the lens.

If you have been following my Blog during this trip to the UK, you might have noticed that it has rained quite a lot. In fact, I believe it rained every day. The interesting thing is that the rain did not really affect us negatively so much. While on the boat, when it rains, someone is going to get wet. If you are driving the boat, you are standing outside on the stern, and if you are the lock crew, you are walking alongside the canal in the rain. Everyone was prepared for this with full rain gear, so no one really minded the rain.

Once we were off the boat and touring Scotland, the rain was very cooperative. It still rained every single day, but somehow it seemed to work around our schedule. It poured rain in the morning while we were eating breakfast, but stopped by the time we were heading out. Or, the day started out sunny, clouded over and suddenly the clouds opened once we got back to the apartment. Or, we stopped at a pub for a pint, and while relaxing with a good Scottish beer, a downpour happened out on the street. It was occasionally 'damp', but we never actually got rained on.
Then on the last day in Paisley, we got wet.  We arrived early, and got settled in before going out for dinner. The girl at the desk had given us a couple of interesting sounding options for dinner, but when we set out it was raining. It was actually pouring, a steady heavy rain. After weighing the choices we had decided on an interesting pub a short walk into town.

In a strange new town, in the rain, in the dark, with rain jackets zipped to the neck and hoods up it was difficult to navigate, and we were getting wetter and wetter as we looked for the pub. Were we supposed to go past the Cathedral, behind the Cathedral, or beside the Cathedral?

Then, through the rain, across from the Cathedral appeared one of the restaurants the hotel clerk had suggested. Not the pub we were looking for, but a modern, quite fancy restaurant called the "Pendulum". Wet and a bit frustrated I agreed to forgo my "pub" preference, and give this place a try.
Best dining decision of the trip! This place had an "Early Evening Menu" of three courses for £13. We had an amazing meal, probably one of the best of the trip, all because the Scottish weather finally decided not to co-ordinate it's downpour with our outings.

The meal was worth it.