Sunday May 12

Sunday May 12 A good day

Great night sleep, off to see the Falkirk Wheel. This engineering marvel is a mechanism to lift or drop canal barges from one canal to another that approach each other at different levels. It opened on 2002 as part of the Millenium Link project. It can raise or lower a canal barge in about 5 minutes using no more power than needed to bring 8 teapots to a boil.

At the top canal entry point

After the lowering, moving into the lower canal

Moving....

And into the lower canal

 After we left the Falkland Wheel, it was a short drive to the Kelpies. To quote the Wikipedia entry:

The Kelpies represent the lineage of the heavy horse of Scottish industry and economy, pulling the wagons, ploughs, barges and coalships that shaped the geographical layout of the Falkirk area.

We just think they are the largest equine scuptures ever done.

Now off to the gardens at Drummond Castle. No tour of the castle (can't anyhow as it is privately owned and no tours) but to see a fantastic garden begun in 1630. It is truly something to see and experience.

Drummond Castle from the gardens

Left from the castle

Center from the castle

Right from the castle

As we were leaving the castle, we stopped in the ticket office/postcard shop to see if there was a postcard we needed. Got to talking to a lady in the shop trying to identify a particular flower in the garden. Toni showed her a picture of the flower and the lady said she would identify it and let Toni know by email what it was.

We asked the lady who now is living in the castle now and it turns out she is living there. She is the caretaker as the "Lady of the House" was at another one of her castles (or in the London house? Not sure...) She provided tons of details about what she does as the caretaker in getting rid of mold, damp, cleaning, etc. Just a really nice lady we happened upon in the guard room/ticket office. Go figure.

Next up: The guide book calls Culross the quintessential 16th century Scottish town. It is. Narrow streets, right down on the Firth of Forth, fishing village setup. Houses right down on the road with widths between no more wide than a cart/wagon. We had lunch in a small restaurant above a gift shop, an obvious retrofit from a really old house.  

Town hall

Pretty narrow and 'cobbly'

Low tide

Lunch at the 'Biscuit'

Back to the house by 4 and chill out. We ran against traffic leaving a car show and there was a lineup of 1 mile.

Went out to La Cucina in Bridge of Allan for dinner and were disappointed. The risotto should not have red sauce.

Off to Loch Lomond tomorrow and no, we will not be singing the song.