Water, wildlife and wonders... a road trip around Scotland COMPLETED 11/6 - Page 68 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Between this TR and your other one, I’m really liking Edinburgh. But without traffic.
Yes traffic is a pain there, but then again, it is in most cities these days. And frankly, most times you don't need to drive in the city. Technically we didn't need to here, but of course we had the car.
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I see hotel location is key - good to know.
Very much so!
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Your dinner looked wonderful and now I feel the need to find British cheesecake! I shall find it. Or make it myself with an authentic recipe!!
Thursday 22 June – part one: how did you manage to spill that everywhere?
We were up early, and got ready for our breakfast at 8:00am. It was quite the spread, and we both came away feeling pretty stuffed.
I had a cooked vegetarian breakfast, which as you’ll quickly realise, is unusual for me this trip. I guess there wasn’t much else that appealed (they didn’t have any smoked salmon), but I also fancied it, and it’s so nice to find something like that without Quorn sausages (which I’m very violently allergic to )
Mark had a traditional English breakfast… even though he was in Scotland!
Poor old Mark had a disaster with the sugar, and managed to spill it everywhere, over himself, the table, and the floor. Don’t ask! He immediately confessed, and was told that he’d get the hoover to clean it up!
The woman who runs this place is just so charming and friendly, and you really get the impression that she’d do anything for you. I mentioned we were heading back south and would be staying the night at Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, and immediately she was recommending places to stop off, a couple of which I think we might do, as it’s just beautiful coastline, so it won’t take too long out of our journey.
We headed over to pick Mari and Raleigh up just before 9:30am from their hotel, and they were waiting for us. We made our way over to the Maid of the Forth ticket shop, and we were very thankful we were going out of Edinburgh, as going back into it was a complete nightmare, with standstill traffic.
When we got out to the pier, the first thing that strikes you is the various Forth Bridges. The most dramatic is probably the rail bridge, which was opened in 1890. It was the first major steel built bridge in the world, and it’s held together by eight million rivets. You may or may not have heard the phrase “it’s like painting the Forth Bridge”, and basically that means a job that’s constantly ongoing, as it used to be the case that as soon as it was re-painted, work needed to start again on it. I seem to recall something on the news, and now they’ve found a way of stopping the continual process of painting, but I don’t remember the details. Anyway, it was fascinating to see trains going over it…
I don’t know what this was supposed to be about either… Some of those people “painting the Forth bridge”… I guess they were doing something else, but you get the idea… it needs constant work on it
The other two bridge is firstly the existing Forth Road Bridge, which was opened in 1964 by the Queen, and was the largest suspension bridge outside America at the time it was opened. There’s also the new bridge they were building at the time we visited, but it’s now been completed, and is open for business. They did a lottery where people could apply for tickets, and over a weekend, thousands got to walk across it.
We quickly spotted the boat we’d be taking!
We went inside the ticket office, and picked up our tickets, and then headed on board…
I wasn’t sure how busy it would be, but it ended up with maybe 20 of us on board in total, and trust me, this boat can take a lot more than that. We headed inside, and we were joined by one other couple, who then headed upstairs into the fresh air…
Next: learning about oil pipelines and cruise ships
Breakfast looked filling indeed! Very nice that the owner was so helpful too.
Bridges over water fascinate me. I think it's that fear of water thing - the fact that they can actually build something so strong IN the water!! Very cool.
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Tanya
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Bridges over water fascinate me. I think it's that fear of water thing - the fact that they can actually build something so strong IN the water!! Very cool.
Bridges like that fascinate me as well, more because I can't wrap my head around the engineering that goes into creating something like that.
Love those bridges and especially Forth Bridge as somewhat unique in design. The other looks like your standard suspension one. That was quite odd that there was no smoked salmon for breakfast! That's a staple of a Scottish breakfast!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Love those bridges and especially Forth Bridge as somewhat unique in design. The other looks like your standard suspension one. That was quite odd that there was no smoked salmon for breakfast! That's a staple of a Scottish breakfast!
Thursday 22 June – part two: learning about oil pipelines and cruise ships
As we set off on our Forth cruise, our first views were of the bridges…
We passed under the rail bridge…
… and got some great views of Inchgarvie Island, which is actually where one of the supports for the bridge are. Neat – I never knew that!
We next saw the oil pipeline that is used to bring oil ashore from some of the North Sea oilfields, and then tankers transport it to where it’s needed. The tugs you see here are here all the time to check everything’s Ok, and they seemed to have some pretty impressive safety regulations in place from what I remember of the narration on board. It’s certainly ensured there have been no spillages etc. to date anyway. Long may it continue that way!
I really had no clue this was all out here, and I was fascinated that it was so close to such a major city. Something else that we’d heard at the B&B and which was repeated on the boat was that visiting cruise ships have to moor up around here, and then passengers tender ashore, as they can’t get under the rail bridge. I bet that would be fascinating to do, but also slightly surreal, and perhaps a bit worrying, this next to oil being brought ashore?
As we continued to sail away from the Forth Rail Bridge, I couldn’t resist getting more shots of it. It’s just such an amazing structure, and quite rightly, classed as one of the best in Scotland.
I was fascinated by the type of shoreline they have here – it even looked as if they have beaches!
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That bridge is amazing. I'm not sure I've ever seen one quite like it either, very unique!
Indeed - a beach! Not the warm tropical kind though... brrrr!!!!!
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Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
That railroad bridge is so cool looking, at every angle.
I hope they didn’t sustain any damage to the rigs or pipeline when Hurricane Ophelia went through. The damage it did in Ireland was awful. You certainly don’t think of the UK when you think of hurricanes - at least I never have.
That bridge is amazing. I'm not sure I've ever seen one quite like it either, very unique!
Indeed - a beach! Not the warm tropical kind though... brrrr!!!!!
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And frankly, most times you don't need to drive in the city. Technically we didn't need to here, but of course we had the car. 
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I don’t know what this was supposed to be about either… 
That's a staple of a Scottish breakfast! 
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