What I did on my summer vacation

[dfmacliam]

Great Pictures, Steve!!!! thanks for posting them... are you sure you had time for business?...LOL

[The Wizard of BC]

Oh, you want to know if I did any business on my trip. How's this?

On Thursday Bobbie and I made a trip up to Glasgow to meet Scott Chalmers at Gaelic Themes.


Here is a photo of Scott and I holding the X Marks Clan Crest Cap Badge Mold.







Now that you know that I actually did some work I'll continue with the travelogue.

Just south of Stirling there is a large triangle formed by the intersection of three motorways. Right in the middle of this triangle is farm that also is the West Plean House B&B. This is where we stayed and allowed us to take the train into Edinburgh.



Now this is an entry way.





On Monday we took the train into Edinburgh. Now I know you want to see pictures of this city but we were so busy that I'm afraid there are very few.



One that I will share with you is this. Bobbie and I were able to meet up with Howie of 21st Century Kilts. Howie was in his office when we arrived. (That is to say he was in the Pub across the street) and we sat with him for a while having a pint and talking about where Kilts were going and what we both were doing to advance or push the limits of Kilt rules.




Then we did some touring of the City. If you have never been to Edinburgh this is called a "Close". Looks like a street right? Well what you don't see is that this street is suspended between the two walls of buildings and there is another street below. About 80 feet below. Totally cut off from light and part of the underground city that the poor used.




This is on the Royal Mile about half way up to the Castle.


When we got to the castle at the top of the hill Bobbie went to get an ice-cream leaving me to stand around in my Kilt and have my picture taken.
Because I was the only guy around in a Kilt I had my picture taken about 17 times in under 5 minutes.
If I had put my hat out and charged for photos I probably could have paid for the entire trip in less than a day.

[The Wizard of BC]

On Tuesday we got in the car and went exploring.

You've seen stuff so far but this set of pictures is the REALLY IMPORTANT part of our visit.

As many of you know I'm an Engineer. So what does and Engineer do when he visits Scotland? He visits the Falkirk Wheel!

Some background.....
Scotland has some boat canals that were built around the time of Queen Victoria to move stuff around before roads and lorries.
Well sometimes hills and valleys get in the way. So what do you do? You build locks to move boats up and down.

In this place the drop from one canal to another is 110 feet. The system of 17 locks would take a boat 24 hours to pass through all of them.

A few years ago a brilliant idea was presented. A boat elevator. This is the world's first rotating boat lift. I have known about the Falkirk Wheel since it was built and watched it through their webcam so of course I had to see it for real.

Here is what a boat canal looks like



Here you can see the Wheel from the lower canal.



the upper canal is behind that hill you see in the background.

Here you can see the Wheel head on. The upper canal is reached by a tunnel through the hill. Boats come through the tunnel and onto the aquaduct to the Wheel. They then enter the upper arm of the Wheel.



here's a canal boat getting positioned to enter the wheel.



Now it's tucked neatly into the gondola.



And then the magic happens.

[The Wizard of BC]

Here I am sitting up on the hill about half way up the difference between the lower canal and the upper one. and you can see the boat in the lower gondola.





Then the entire Wheel rotates.



Further



And further around.



Until the gondola with the boat is aligned with the upper aquaduct and the boat can exit the wheel and pass through to the tunnel and upper canal.



This thing is huge. See the little dots on the sidewalk above? Those are people!

here is what the Wheel looks like close up.



Each Gondola can actually carry two boats. That's two boats going up and two boats coming down.

here are some more close-ups.





I was so excited to finally see the Falkirk Wheel in person I almost peed myself when it rotated.
OK, Engineers can get excited by the strangest things.