My Sticky Toffee Pudding Kind of Day

Somewhere in Scotland I was going to eat sticky toffee pudding.  I just didn't know when and where.  The when was noon today and the where was, of all places, a little bar named The Rob Roy Bar in a little village near Stirling. 

We left Spean Bridge quite early this morning which gave us these lovely, reflective views at Glencoe.

We drove the length of Loch Lomond which took a very long time as there was construction which led to bumper to bumper traffic.  Where was all the traffic going on a Monday?

We passed Stirling Castle one last time and got a totally different view of it.

We're in Falkirk right now and this is the town that Tommy Douglas came from.  He lived here until he was 14, but, of course, has no importance to the Scots.

 

There are two things famous in Falkirk though.  One is the Falkirk Wheel which is an engineering marvel, a rotating boat lift used to replace the lock system on the canals.  It raises or lowers the boats 35 meters.  In the third photo, you can see a boat being raised and in the photo after it, you can see the lift almost connecting to the higher canal.  The wheel has been constructed so that no water is lost at all during the process and the information says the lift operates on the same amount of power as eight tea kettles.

The other famous sight in Falkirk is the Kelpies sculpture.  Cute, huh? 

Even cuter when you see the size of them.  In the next photo you can see them in comparison to the cars in the background.  They stand thirty meters tall and each weighs over 300 tonnes.  The Kelpies are a monument celebrating the horse powered heritage of the area.

They are lit at night and visible from the inn we are staying at.  The inn has beautiful grounds with tiny rabbits hopping everywhere.  I love the part of the garden where lavender is paired with red tea roses.

Here's where we're staying; it's really beautiful.

Quilting friends, I forgot to tell you, that I've only found one store with quilting fabrics.  It was a craft store which mainly had yarns and needlepoint patterns.  Six fat quarters were 17 pounds (around $34).  They were Northcott, an American brand which was probably produced in Asia ... truly well traveled fabric.

 

Tomorrow we are back in Ireland.