Today was set aside for a quick run up the A1 to check out Bonny Scotland – although the weather was anything but that as we set out. Happily, it did lighten to a drizzle for the obligatory border shot

and by the time we had by-passed Edinburgh and pulled into The Helix parking lot, the clouds had parted to show The Kelpies in their full glory.

Now, as we are being totally open and honest here, we feel honour-bound to say that we were a little underwhelmed by The Kelpies. Having thought there was a bit of history, or at least a little mysticism (no matter how dodgy) attached to them, it felt more like a tourist lure. However, there’s no getting away from the fact that they are huge, pretty, and the park as a whole is a fantastic asset…it’s not our place to grumble.

But our next stop,

The Falkirk Wheel, Wow! Nothing to moan about there.

Now, it took me a while, and the Homestead resident engineer much patience, before I finally got what I was looking at.  Luckily, a tour bus supplied plenty of passengers for the explanatory boat trip. The boats enter at the bottom and are, complete with the canal-section “swimming pool” they’re floating in, elevated over 30 metres into the air to connect up with the canal it would have taken them a day and 11 to 15 locks (depending on who you talk to) to reach in days past.

Of course, the whole thing pivots…that was the bit that took me a while to get.

Then we back-tracked to Edinburgh where, to save our very tired legs and feet, we did the ultimate tourist trick of taking the hop-on-hop-off bus trip with the accent on the hop-on and no real plans of hopping off.

Edinburgh is an amazing city which deserves way more attention than we gave it, but our tour guide was great, we learnt lots and heard some interesting stories,

and you really do get a fantastic view from those open top buses. We finally hopped off at the castle in order for The Princess to get a photo with her cousin…

(apparently she has documented proof) and then staggered back down the hill to the fortuitous but pricey carpark we had stowed The Homestead Holiday Mobile in.

As we drove out of Edinburgh the heavens once again opened but we didn’t care; We’d had a pure dead brilliant time in Bonny Scotland.