A short break in Scotland

You may have noticed a lack of posts this week. We were away for the weekend and then busy making lots of things for a craft fair last Sunday.

Our first stop on our weekend away was to the Falkirk Wheel - the world's only rotating boat lift

 It lifts you (and the canal boat) approximately 35 metres high. The lift replaces 9 locks on the canal and what used to take all day to travel through the locks now takes about 5 minutes.

 However because of the Antonine Wall (Roman wall) they couldn't replace all 11 locks so there are still two locks to navigate.

We also took a walk through the woods to visit part of the Antonine wall and roman fort.

 

Next we visited Dunfermline Abbey - burial place of eight Scottish Kings and St Margaret.

 We finished our Scottish theme by going to see the new Pixar movie Brave - if you haven't seen it yet you must go and see it. It was so funny!

We stayed for a couple of days at Broughty Ferry, just outside Dundee. This was Broughty Ferry Castle when we went in.

 And the view from just outside the castle of the Tay Bridge.

 And this was the "view" just ten minutes later when the sea mist rolled in!

We visited the Science Centre in Dundee and Kirsten experienced hurricane strength winds - not very good for the fringe! LOL

 The next morning we drove down to Edinburgh for a couple of days where we went to a few shows at the Edinburgh Fringe. I think our favourite was Hamlet the Musical.

Edinburgh shared our Olympic Fever and we managed to catch Andy Murray winning his gold medal (yaaay!) on the big screen set up at the BBC.

 

We also visited Sir Chris Hoy's golden hand prints.

And his newly painted golden post box

 Kirsten and I also went on the Harry Potter tour on on first night here. Even though it rained for part of the time it was awesome. Our guide Ruth (or Luna Lovegood as she preferred to be called ) was great and took us to Voldemort's grave, Kirsten was chosen to be sorted by the sorting hat (she got Gryffindor :-D ) and other Potter sites.

Kirsten went back the next day to visit J K Rowling's golden hand prints (next to Chris Hoy's).

 And also those of Professor Higgs (the Higgs in the recently confirmed Higgs-Bosun particle)

And then we got to have lunch at the cafe where J K Rowling first put pen to paper for the first ever Harry Potter book - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. She did write the books (up to book 4) in cafes all over Edinburgh but she has confirmed that Nicholson's cafe (now the Spoon Cafe) was the one where she first started writing the books.

 

Back tomorrow with some more craft related posts!