Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
'No. I can't help, I'm afraid.'
'Do you know anyone that might be able to help us?' asked Ben.
'No, I don't think so. Good night,' he said, and walked away.
A little bit further down the road we saw him walk into his house - a huge mansion.
'I never thought I would say this,' said Ben, 'but that vicar was a complete cock.'
'I know. Look at the size of his house. It must have at least five bedrooms.'
'They're probably all full of bound and gagged choir-boys.'
I would like to point out that this vicar may no longer work in Neilston. The current
vicar is probably a very nice person, and I'm sure they would have welcomed us into their
church with open arms.
Towards the bottom end of the village we spotted a pub called The Traveller's Rest. We
hid our bikes around the back by the bins and went inside. It was a warm, cosy bar that
would not have looked out of place on a snowy mountainside in Germany; lots of wood
panelling, moodily lit, a lively atmosphere, and lots of people wearing lederhosen. I lied
about the lederhosen.
There were about a dozen people in the bar, and most of them surrounded the pool table
where a man wearing decorator's overalls was taking on some young challenger. The dec-
orator swaggered around the table like Paul Newman, and proceeded to pot four reds in a
row before following in the white off the black. The rest of the group howled with laughter
and the young challenger raised his cue above his head in victory.
Therewasonelonemansittingatthebar,andwestoodthereforafewminutesuntilthe
barman appeared.
'Sorrylads.Idon'tthinkIcanhelpyou,I'mafraid,'saidthelandlordafterwehadasked
himaboutthepossibilityofsomewheretosleep.'Wedohaveafewbedroomsavailablefor
rent, but I can't really give you one of those.'
'We wouldn't need one of your proper rooms. Would we be allowed to sleep here in the
bar?' asked Ben. 'We would be no trouble.'
'Sorry, no, I can't let you stay in the bar, I'm afraid. It would contravene our insurance
policy.'
'Are you really going all that way without spending any money?' asked the man at the
bar, who had been listening to our request.
'Yes. We've been on the road for two weeks.'
'Fair play to you,' he laughed. 'Let me buy you both a beer.'
Alec lived south of the border and was just up in Neilston overnight for business. He
was quite vague about the type of business that he did, so we didn't pry. He asked us all
sorts of questions about our trip, and then insisted on buying us another beer. It was 10pm
by the time we remembered that we had nowhere to sleep.
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