Today we are in Glasgow Scotland. We are doing a tour to The Falkirk Wheel and to Stirling Castle. We had a young lady from the area as a tour guide and she was very good. I just love listening to their accents. When we docked we were in Greenock. It has a 90% rate of unemployment.
The drive to the wheel is 1 ½ hours through some beautiful countryside and along the River Clyde. We saw a large rock in the middle of the river and a house on it near the water. This house was built to hide Mary Queen of Scots. They had heard that someone was going to kidnap the young queen so they hid her out here. Her father died when she was 6 days old and she became the Queen. We continued along, viewing homes, gardens and churches and finally arrived at the wheel. In the parking lot were two horse heads, they are called Kelpies here. They are a small replica of the original Kelpies that stand 30 meters high further away. The Wheel lifts the boat up 24 meters to the canal. We go through a tunnel and turn around on the other side. All the locks are
manually controlled and a man is positioned at each one of them. Being a lock operator must be a boring job.
From here we continue to Stirling Castle. The town is divided into lower Stirling and upper Stirling where the castle is located. Only one couple got off in the lower more modern part of town. The castle is very large and a lot of the rooms mostly empty. We walked around and I really liked the wood carvings of all the faces of royalty. I am amazed at all the flowering azaleas, peonies, daisies, rhododendrons and roses all in bloom. It is really pretty watching all the English Gardens as we drive by.
We got stopped on the motorway in Glasgow because of a 4 car accident and thought we were going to be late getting back to the boat. We made it just on time. One bus came in 45 minutes late as they got caught in traffic also. A pipe band marched up and down the dock with the large Scotty dancing behind them.
We popped the champagne that Terri & Mark sent us and sat out on our balcony to watch and listen. After dinner we went to the theatre and watched Uptown. Three young guys danced and sang such an upbeat performance. They were fantastic and we enjoyed the show immensely. What a great end to a wonderful day.
Saturday May 20
I am so grateful that today is an At Sea day. I am exhausted, we are averaging 10,000 steps a day and Barb’s hips are crying out for some relief. We started out with our honeymoon breakfast that Terri & Mark gave us. Wow, the purser brought so much food that I asked the waiter if we were having guests join us, LOL!! We had smoked salmon plate, fresh fruit plate, pastry plate and Quiche Lorraine. Along with that we had champagne, orange juice and coffee. It was too cold to eat out on the balcony so we were set up in front of the windows and had a very enjoyable meal.
We walked up to the 16th floor Skywalker deck and around to the front, went to the Thermal room to see what it was all about. We don’t have our bathing suits so the shower is out, the sauna is too steamy for Barb, she is already having trouble breathing in the hallway. There was an aroma therapy room and a room with hot lounge chairs. A large man was laying naked except for the towel that covered his privates. So we decided we didn’t want to lay on a lounge with him there, we will come back another day. We asked if we could change it for a foot massage but she said there are no changes. So off the front of the ship and then to lunch. We ate with a couple from Montreal Bill & Lydia, who do a lot of cruising. They were a lot of fun and very interesting that after our meal we sat and talked for a while before going back to our room. With having a balcony it makes no sense to be pushed around and put up with all the noise to sit and read. I worked on pictures and Terry read up on our next exit from the ship and played some solitaire. In the evening we went to the theatre to watch the Princess singers and dancers put on a Broadway Ballroom Show. It was just awesome and they did a great job even with the ship bobbing and weaving in the water. After this was over we went and watched ballroom dancing were a lady was teaching the waltz. It was fun to watch mainly the men trying to do this. One oriental couple picked it up quickly and they were very good. From here we went to the Explorer’s Bar and were joined by another couple from California. We played trivia as a team but only got two answers right.
Back to the room to watch some news of the States and to bed.