FALKIRK WHEEL AND BLACKNESS CASTLE

Well we had a great night's sleep.  No misadventures today - YAY!!!

Today was a day of mostly sunshine, a couple of showers and rainbows, so in other words, for me, perfect.

THE FALKIRK WHEEL
We decided as it wasn't raining when we got up we would go to the Falkirk Wheel straight after breakfast. It's only 20 minutes from the hotel. We got there in time to book onto the 10 O'Clock slot.  I was expecting it to be busy, but there were only 6 of us on that particular trip.

It was amazing.  The whole trip takes about 50 minutes.  We were lucky with the weather today.  The guide pointed out the Kelpies in the distance on our way up, just in case the threatened rain obliterated them on the way down.

Coming down is when you really see anything - fantastic views and although the distant hills (The Ochill Hills I think) were shrouded in cloud and mist, literally as the Wheel started it's descent a rainbow came out.  The photos I took of the full arc are a bit blurry due to  taking them through a window, but we were allowed to open the front door as long as we didn't go outside so I managed the shot you see in the collage in time.  We couldn't have timed it better.

What an amazing feat of engineering and we are so glad we were able to go.  

We  then had a walk around the site, watched a class being given instructions on water safety, had a sandwich and a coffee and then decided to head to Blackness Castle.


BLACKNESS CASTLE  (see in Extras)
This wasn't a castle I had heard of before but when researching for the holiday I came across it by chance and it's not far from the hotel.  Apparently the outside of it was used in the TV series Outlander - I didn't watch that so I wouldn't have known about that, but it also has lots of history  - mostly as a jail and an armaments depot.

Ir is now a ruin and boy did I stretch my legs in going up the dark towers, and back down again, across rocks and cobbles.  From the castle you can see The Forth Rail Bridge and the Queensferry Crossing - possibly also the Forth Road Bridge but I personally couldn't make that one out.

Now back at the hotel.  On the way out this morning we noticed an Italian Restaurant called Chianti so we've booked in there this evening to give it a try and see what it is like and it's only 3 minutes from the hotel by car.