Around Scotland on the left

Falkirk Wheel

Been out of eworld touch for a few days, not every place we've stayed has wifi access. So to catch up, we spent 3 days in Edinburgh and saw several different things. One of the coolest places we went to is the Falkirk Wheel. This is a modern canal and lock system put in about 10 years ago. It connects 11 locks, just like regular locks, only different. A boat goes into the "bucket" which is filled with water and the entire wheel is rotated, like a ferris wheel, and at the top the boat motors down a channel to the next canal. We took a ride on a boat and saw the entire process, very cool.

Drum castle

We've toured more castles, ranging from ruins to restored. We tend to like the ruins better and one of the more interesting castles was what we call the Monty Python castle. Several of the movies were filmed there and the audio tape tour had extra commentary. We also stopped at a ruins on Loch Ness. This sight competes with the Nessie center but we didn't stop at the center. Alas, we didn't see Nessie on the loch either.

Loch Ness

One of Bill's favorite spots was St. Andrews and the "Old Course".   As the book puts it "sacred ground for golfers" This is the place that makes and codifies golf rules and is the #1 course. The day wasn't the best for weather, but we walked around the old town, watched some golfers on the Old Course and got some souvenirs.

To this date, we travelled the east coast, all the way up to the top, the northern Highlands and are now down in the Loch area. The east coast is mostly rolling hills, farms and very green. A lot of barley is grown here for the several whisky distilleries. The northern highlands is pretty remote, stunning coast line and what looks like barren rock and brown vegetation. The hills are covered with heather and trees don't grow naturally. Over on the west coast it is still wet, small villages and sheep. We spent a day on The Isle ofSkye  and that was very different. The mountains and hills are covered with heathers, giving a brown, no vegetation look, lots of coastline with many lochs and has a stark, barren look. It's even bleaker with the rain and dark clouds.  The rains gave us a lot of waterfalls to see that probably wouldn't have been there otherwise.

Yumm?

Huh?

So a few more days in Scotland, then on to Wales. We'll try to keep adding to the blog . These last pix are just some humorous things we've come across.