We had been planning our Scottish tour for several months. Our plan was to stay overnight in Stirling so we could visit the Kelpies, Falkirk Wheel and Stirling Castle. These are all sites I’ve wanted to visit on my previous trips over the border however I’ve never found the time to stop.
The Kelpies are awesome. Their size, design and structure is incredible and we wandered around and between them for almost an hour.
As you can see from our attire it wasn’t particularly warm and we were prepared for the Scottish weather.
A fifteen minute drive from the Kelpies is the Falkirk Wheel. We were very fortunate that, despite it being late in the day, we saw the wheel in action. On the left hand side of the wheel there are two narrow boats coming down from the canal above and an empty chamber on the right going up.
We were fascinated to see it in action.
An overnight stay outside Stirling and then a visit to the castle. It’s a magnificent building with views over the surrounding countryside. We learned and promptly forgot all about the Jacobite rebellions. There were simply too many King James’s of Scotland and England.
After several hours in the castle and a brief lunch in Stirling itself we headed north to stay with Tony & Jude. I introduced Helene to my favourite places around Forres and Elgin. We had a very pleasant few days before we headed south to Dundee.
We arrived at our Dundee hotel in a downpour. There was also an odour of sewage with a sludge gulper outside the entrance. Not the welcome we were hoping for.
The main attraction of Dundee was the V&A building. It is a wonderful piece of architecture with a massive space inside however the content was somewhat disappointing.
Next to the V&A was the Royal Research Ship Discovery as used by Captain Scott in his expedition to Antarctica. The inside the V&A was equally exciting and very different.
I chose the hotel because it was quite central and looked grand as can be seen above with Helene on the staircase, however it was a little tired and tatty at the edges. Our room had a sloping floor which was a little disconcerting. It was very reasonably priced and generally speaking, you get what you pay for.
After a single night in Dundee, next stop Edinburgh. We parked outside the city and caught the tram into centre with a 15 minute walk to our hotel.
I know my way around the city quite well after several visits to the Fringe and it was fun showing Helene the highlights, or at least the parts I think are interesting. We walked our feet off.
The weather was good enough to sit outside for coffee (Cockburn Street) on some occasions but most of the time we were wearing light raincoats. We visited the Parliament building, closed on Saturday and walked around the castle.
Finding places to eat around out hotel was not as straightforward as we had hoped. The hotel itself couldn’t recommend anywhere nearby so we ate at The Bombay Bicycle Club on Friday night, we were the only diners; and chose a little Syrian restaurant on the Saturday evening. The latter was a real experience… the menus were tatty A4 pieces of paper stained with food, the waitress was less than helpful with the menu and the food arrived on paper plates with plastic knives and forks. Despite this the food was good.
After two nights in Edinburgh we headed south on the final day of our tour. We stopped off in Berwick-upon-Tweed where we ate brunch before walking the walls and defences. Berwick has been on the front line of disputes between England and Scotland for centuries.
We travelled over 1,000 miles on our tour and enjoyed every moment.
