Last weekend when we woke up on Sunday (late, but not that late really, because of daylight savings) it was gloriously sunny outside. So, we took the opportunity to try out two things.
1. Bike and Go and 2. The Milk Barn
When we lived in Glasgow I made occasional use of the bike rental scheme there, NextBike. I recommend it. It’s cheap, the app is easy to install and use and the bikes are mostly in good condition if a little heavy.
Unfortunately, Falkirk doesn’t have a similar scheme and is probably too small to realistically run one. However, recently I noticed a Bike and Go stand outside Falkirk High Station. This is a new scheme that’s trying to put bike rental stands outside train stations. There’s an annual fee of £10 per year and then it costs £3.80 to hire a bike for the day, so there are no hourly charges. Plus, you can hire two bikes at a time with each account*.
So, that’s pretty ideal for me. I’d love for them to have more stopping points but I think that’s the eventual plan. Still, if I’m happy to start and end my cycle at Falkirk High Station it works pretty well. I don’t need to hire two bikes because P already has one, so after getting signed up and picking up a key for the bike locks in the station, we set off.
Our destination? The Milk Barn.
When I was first looking for flats in Falkirk I viewed one jut south of Falkirk High which had a view over the hills. The letting agent pointed across the view and said “there’s a dairy farm up there that makes and sells its own ice cream, it’s only about 20 minutes away. I recommend it in summer.” We ended up not taking the flat, but I remembered the advice and planned to go looking for this place as soon as sunshine arrived.
As it happens, The Milk Barn is a fair bit closer than that letting agent had estimated. It felt like we were there and queuing for ice cream in no time at all. I chose a pot of berry sorbet and peanut butter ice cream and P chose a cone with raspberry ripple. Sitting in the sun, looking out over the hills and enjoying freshly churned ice cream was a pretty perfect way of spending a Sunday afternoon, it has to be said. Oh, and I’m definitely coming back with more money next time so I can buy a proper-sized carton to put in our freezer at home.
We cycled back down to the station pretty quickly but still missed the ticket office closing. Fortunately, you can put your bike lock keys into a lock box and they just get scanned in the morning. I think next time we’ll go out a bit further, maybe
*This is not sponsored content. I’ve never done sponsored content and I promised I’d tell you if I did. However, they do run a referral scheme, so if you think you might like to try Bike and Go and you’d like us both to get a free rental, let me know.
In Becky's Head 
That sounds like a rather fabulous day! Also, I love the idea of ice-cream where you can see where the milk came from (and possibly call it by name!). It certainly looks good.
I’ve never used the Next Bike scheme in Glasgow (even though it’s cheaper through the University’s travel scheme), mostly because I’m scared of the traffic. I keep meaning to sign up and use the bikes to get part the way home, but it’s not happened yet. Maybe this summer 🙂
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It was lovely, I can’t wait to go back. Have been trying to persuade P that we need a few of their flavours for the freezer at home.
As for NextBike, I was never brave enough to cycle across town, but when I lived by the river I had access to a few nice routes that were mostly away from roads.
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