After a lovely breakfast served in her kitchen, shared with another couple we were on the road around 9 am. Over the solid bridge and onward to the town of Gencoe. Our BnB hosts had suggested we walk the Gencoe Lochan and we were very pleased to have seen this lovely place - also helped to walk off our big breakfast !!
Then we motored through the Gencoe/Ben Nevis areas, very impressive mountains, lots of waterfalls and some of the area reminded us of the Lindis Pass, sparse, remote but much greener. Obviously this is a popular tourist route as there were dozens of buses on the road with pull off parking areas in appropriate places.
We had lunch at Ardlui Hotel, which is at the top (or is it the bottom) of Loch Lomond. A scenic drive along the shores of the Loch with large and fabulous trees growing right down to the shore line. At the far end of Loch Lomond we turned off and the country side changed dramatically.
From here on to Stirling (our destination) the land became rural farming, still lots of crops to be harvested, and paddocks of cattle and sheep. We felt quite at home.
Arriving at Stirling around 3 pm, we found ourselves a BnB, had a rest then went in search of The Falkirk Wheel - our "helpful lady on the dash" (since named Ella) gave us directions; unfortunately we had just missed the last boat. Instead we researched the wheel, I took photos and we will return tomorrow for the tour with commentary This is an ingenious engineering construction.
Off to The Kelpies, which were close by. I had seen pictures of these incredible sculptures many times, but actually seeing them myself blew me away - they are ginorous. The light was very grey and flat, but just had to make do - have converted the two photos to black and white - just seemed to suit the weather conditions. Took many pictures, every angle possible - but have gone for the overall one to show just how big they are in comparison to the trees and the other one is just the head.
Some Facts: weighing 300 tonnes each, 30 metres high, 928 unique stainless plates, built on site in 90 days. The
"mythological kelpies" (the clydesdales) were the horses that pulled the barges in years gone by. This visit was a real highlight.
We went to the local for dinner - a very popular place, I had the chefs special - steak pie, Doug had lasagne.
 | 
No comments:
Post a Comment