Geoff Perkins
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Falkirk

8/9/2018

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Not too much to say about the Falkirk wheel. Perhaps the fact that I took 255 photos in 3 hours says something. Along with getting soaked just to see the attraction. I was warned to expect something special. For the record - no warning was could be enough. Special does not even come close. The Falkirk wheel is astounding.
A boat sails into a large, 150 tonne bathtub. The tub closes and seals. Another bathtub holding 150 tonnes of water or water and boat sits 35m above the first. The wheel rotates bringing the top boat down and the lower boat up. They continue on their way along the Scottish canal system. East to Edinburgh or west to Glasgow. Check out the pictures to get an idea of the scale of this thing. 
The other big attraction at Falkirk is the Kelpies. These are 2 huge statues of horse heads that sit in 100 acres of redeveloped park lands. They redeveloped the lands to accomodate the upgraded canal system. The horse heads look sensational. How does anyone gain a vision to create such a structure? I guess that is why they are artists and I just sit in wonder. Along with the thousands of visitors each month passing through this place. 
If you are ever in Scotland these are worth a look. Remember Scotland is tiny for those of us driving around it from the great southern land. 150 miles a day is easy stuff for us. 
We are staying in Stirling and it is an easy drive to Glasgow or Edinburgh or Perth. Very pleased we chose Stirling. It is so central and with all these attractions to check out… It has worked well for us.
We did ask our hotel person about what we should do in Stirling and she said to walk the main street and up to the castle. So we did - of course. When we got back she asked how we went and we laughed and said,
“You never told us just how steep that walk up to the castle was!”
She was mortified.
“Did you walk it, Hen. No Way!. No one ever walks it!”
Well we did!
1 Comment
Greg
9/9/2018 13:17:01

Super interesting mate.

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    Why This Blog

    Three years ago, my sister Julie and I travelled to the UK for 3 weeks. It was 50 years since we had arrived in Australia as £10 tourists. We wanted to see all the places we remembered from our childhood. Not only the places we went to in our childhood but also the places we had never seen but had formed part of our family culture.  We felt the trip was a wild success. But there was a down side… we needed to go back and finish a few things off. 2018 and we are back. So let me tell you all about it.

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