my Austrian in-laws
In contrast, I had an Australian colleague 4 years ago who marveled at our trains here. He was properly amazed that not only were the seats not wooden, but had cushions on them!
I spent a good deal of spring/summer 2005 on the isle of Canna doing my thesis fieldwork. Niether myself or my study partner drove or had cars, so apart from the odd lift with other researchers, we spent a lot of time going back and forth by public transport.
This involved carrying all our camping and field kit and food supplies for 1 or 2 week stays on first train out of Edinburgh to Glasgow, changing for train to Mallaig (and sometimes again at Fort William), then having a 20 minute stopover in Mallaig to catch the only one of 3 ferries a week that went out to Canna (precluding much shopping time in Mallaig Co-op). Calmac were as unhelpful as making us carry all our stuff onto the vessel up the gangway, rather than letting us walk it onto the deck (where it was stowed anyway) because we hadn't paid a freight subsidy.
Getting home without paying for an overnight stopover involved getting a local minibus service from Mallaig back to Fort William, timetabled to arrive 10 minutes after the departure of the last Citylink bus back to Glasgow! Of course the drivers knew this and if you told them they were happy to put their foot down and arrive 12 minutes early to give you a chance to get the bus. There was then another change at Buchanan Street to get back into Edinburgh at about 1AM. A sleeper train (with seated accommodation) ran from Fort William to Edinburgh with a more relaxed timetable and no changes, but is organised and ticketed to try and prevent it being used as a "local" service.
The trains, 2 different bus companies and Calmac tickets all had to be booked seperately. It used to take about 15 hours to do a straight line distance of 150 miles!
But yes my point is if you arrive in Edinburgh or Glasgow and want to go exploring up the west coast to some of Scotlands more beautiful and wilder places, without a car, it's not easy! Even the natives are thoroughly confused about timetables and ticketing.
I don't think I would have got to any of the places that I did (well not easily or cheaply) on my summer tour without my bike.
Scotland has no lack of places and things to see and do. It just has a dire lack of affordable ways to get to them that aren't a car.
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