G & J away from home

Monday, 1 June

Officially the first day of summer, but let's not dwell on that!

The internet connection is iffy at the hotel so I'll just try to get the photos up for now and come back and do more with the text later.

From Ayr to Falkirk seemed easy enough but a change in setting on the GPS had us following the shortest route - right through every town - rather than the fastest.  No matter, we changed the setting on the fly and were immediately directed to the nearest motorway.  Only within moments of getting on it we managed to accidentally take an off-ramp that lead into the centre of Glasgow.  It was a very interesting driving tour of the city (in the pouring rain) but we eventually escaped back onto the motorway.

In general we're pretty idle tourists - lots of driving but not very many things we plan to actually get out and look around.  Today there were two things that were on our list of things to see on this trip: The Falkirk Wheel and Barter Books (at Alnwick).

The rain was down to scattered showers by the time we pulled into the Falkirk Wheel centre but the temperature was 9 degrees and the windchill was probably stealing most of that.  Nevertheless the wheel itself (and the aqueduct leading to it) were amazing.  It was something I had wanted to see for years and somehow we didn't get here during our 2004 house-swap and, of course, haven't been back to the UK since then.

Falkirk Wheel and aqueduct

Gary's photo (above) doesn't in any way indicate how awful the weather was - I wasn't even outside when he took it but had scurried inside that segment-shaped building to get out of the wind.

The photo below was one I took of the wheel in action just before my dash for shelter.  I knew you could go on the wheel in a visitor boat (rather than only being able to use it in a canal boat as a 'lock' to get from one canal to another) but hadn't expected to see it happening before my eyes.

Falkirk Wheel in operation

Having seen it, though, we had to grab a ticket and try out this Best Ferris Wheel Ever.

Me about to board for our ride

I thought the trip would be like a ferris wheel; up, over, and down, but there was a lot more to it than that.  We did go up (which was a matter of a mere 4 minutes and very smooth and silent) but then the boat sailed out of the gondola and along the canal, through a tunnel, turned around in the pond, and sailed back into the wheel to go down.

Here is a photo I took out of the boat's front hatch, looking along the aqueduct (the nearer rings) to the wheel at the end (the geared ring).  It's quite a sight as the water just stops at the end of the gondola so it feels as if you're about to sail off a sheer drop.  Luckily we did stop, as did the 'real' canal boat that came into the gondola with us for the downward trip.

Looking along the aqueduct to the Wheel

By the the time we got back around to the lower level and off the boat it was lunch time so we stopped at the centre's cafe for something to eat (best hot chocolate!) and were able to look out through the wall of windows at the wheel.  What a view!

View of the Wheel from the cafe

And then it was time for the rest of the drive across Scotland - or for an after-lunch nap for me ... luckily Gary stays awake. ;o)  I woke up just before we crossed into England and soon we were in Alnwick and the GPS had directed us to Barter Books, another of my 'places to go' on this trip.  The photo is not the best but does show the rain is still on the windscreen.  It seemed every time we planned to get out of the car that it rained!

Made it!

I knew a lot about the book shop from my Dad's visit there and various articles I have read about the shop over the years, including the more recent discovery of the Keep Calm and Carry On poster that spawned a million variations.  There's a great video about it on YouTube.

I took a photo of the famous mural as soon as we entered and then scurried away to look at the children's books (which were spread out over a number of areas).

The Barter Books mural

The only things of interest I found in the 'classic' children's section were three uniform editions of Sheila Stuart's Alison titles, a couple of which were unfamiliar to me.

Then we wandered through the rest of the shop which is in a former railway station so there's plenty of space and the decoration is lovely with lots of places to sit and read.  The fiction section radiates out from a circular area with chairs.

Gary in Barter Books

Although there was a huge number of books in the shop - even a large selection of children's fiction - there wasn't a large range of things I was interested in.  There were a couple of Elinor Lyon, three Monica Edwards firsts, and a couple of rare(r) Elsie Oxenhams, but nothing I wanted - or wanted enough to make room in my bags.  The prices seemed reasonable, though.

After we finished exploring the bookshop we headed off to Warkworth (but not the one in New Zealand) where we had a night in the Sun Hotel.  Had a very nice ploughmans salad for tea in the pub attached to the hotel.

Happy birthday, Jessie!
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