Glasgow

As Glasgow’s city skyline shrinks to a dotted line in the rearview mirror and dashboard numbers skip the first hundred-kilometer scale, the tarmac begins to ooze wilderness. The A82, known as “the most beautiful in Europe”, welds the barbarity and order of the Scottish Highlands into the same spatial and temporal coordinate system at a distance of 281.6 kilometers. The wheels rolled over not only geographical coordinates, but an open three-dimensional geological atlas. Loch Lomond, Scotland’s largest freshwater lake, is on display, the clusters of taupe stone houses in the small town of Luss resemble oat grains scattered on the shores of the lake, and the spires of 13th-century churches pierce the low-hanging clouds.