Nothing to See at Falkirk Wheel While Visiting Greenock Glasgow Scotland


Advertisement
United Kingdom's flag
Europe » United Kingdom » Scotland » Renfrewshire » Greenock
August 10th 2018
Published: August 12th 2018
Edit Blog Post

Our morning arrival in Greenock finds us a stone’s throw from Glasgow. Normal dining operations on the Rotterdam have returned and it appears that we won’t be returning to Boston under the “Code Red” conditions that resulted soon after our embarkation from there. We grabbed our normal “Tour Day” fare from the Lido, and it went quicker now that we were back to serving ourselves. It was nice to have salt and pepper back on the tables, and not needing to walk halfway across the Lido to track down a set of tableware. We have another All-Day tour that will likely not get us back in time for Trivia.

The Showroom was packed with others waiting for tours to be announced. We were in the third wave off the Rotterdam filling busses 6 and 7 headed to see the Falkirk Wheel. Upon leaving the Rotterdam, Sharon and I got our pictures taken dockside with on oversized burly clansman with flaming red hair and a blowup Scottish outfit. We’ve been trying to get our pictures taken at each port since we purchased HAL’s “Picture Package”. On a previous cruise we got home to find almost no pictures of the two of us, which can make it hard when Sharon puts together a Shutterfly travel book, as to what to put on the cover so this should cure that problem. We’re only buying the digital images, so they save our photos in a folder when we pick them out and will transfer the images to a USB stick at the end of the cruise. The package includes all of the port photos as well as the ones taken in the Dining Room. The formal shots taken in the hallways are extra. The drive took us through a number of smaller round-abouts through urban areas. There was one larger round-about with two lanes in each direction approaching from multiple sides that caught our attentions. At several points around the round-about there were traffic lights, and also some traffic lights to enter the round-about; which, in my way of thinking sort of defeats the purpose of a round-about in the first place. The traffic was backed up a little; but, still did seem to be flowing.

On our highway approach to the Falkirk Wheel we passed by the Kelpies, a large iron statue of two horse heads that suddenly loomed beside and above us as we passed by. The Kelpies are water horses that come out to entice young men and women to take a ride and then they take them underwater where they drown. These stories are used by parents to scare their children into staying away from the water. A number of such works can be found about Scotland. Our guide had a decidedly Scottish brogue, quite distinct from the Irish accent we’d heard in Dublin. Our guide gets us our individual tickets and we were cautioned to line up a bit early in order to get preferred seating on the barge. We both went to use the restroom and went to get in line about 15 minutes before our tickets said to board. It was like embarkation night in the Showroom on the Rotterdam. The line of people wearing Number 6 and 7 stickers strung out well past the end of the barge. I told Sharon, “Look, we’re boarding Chinese Style,” as we entered one barge and passed through to a second barge to board. Predictable all of the window seats were taken, and all of the seats next to them. There were a few aisle seats to choose from so we sat across from each other.

We were given a brief safety talk after we were seated. He began, “I just need to ask one thing, do you know where your life vest is?” People looked around and there didn’t seem to be any. “Not to worry. There are only two life vests on this barge, I’m wearing one and the skipper’s wearing the other.” He did mention how the Queen had come to Falkirk to Christen inaugural turn of the wheel, and that we shouldn’t be worried that those that determine such things decided that the Falkirk Wheel was too dangerous to take her for a spin.

The Falkirk Wheel was a British Millennial Project which among other efforts, sought to revitalize the decrepit and dysfunctional set of locks in this part of Scotland. A set of locks and canals had once connected one side of Scotland to the other, and this project sought to re-open these waterways for the purpose of recreational use. In another life they had been the lifeline that had sustained a bustling and industrious Scotland. Today, Scotland derives 80% of its money from the services industry and 20% from industry, no longer being the hub of shipbuilding and ironworks for the British Isles. The Falkirk Wheel came about when a designer playing with his son’s Legos built a 14-inch replica of his vision. He used that toy model to explain his concept to his boss, they built a larger working model to test the concept, and a couple of years later the Falkirk Wheel was in operation. The idea is fairly simple. There is a large wheel that is about 120 feet in diameter that forms the ends of an imaginary cylinder. The distance between the wheels is sufficient to bound either end of a barge which passes into a tray attached to the wheels. The tray holds the water and up to two barges can fit in this tray, side-by-side, at the same time. Finally, what is happening at the bottom, can also be happening at the top of the wheels, in a second tray, that also can hold water and barges. Due to Archimedes Principle, the total weight of both trays with water and barges and people is exactly the same: 250 tons! This means that it only takes a small amount of electricity to turn the wheel, to move one set of barges to the top, and the other set to the bottom, raising or lowering the barges 100 feet. There are eight engines used to turn the wheel, six to make the wheel rotate and two to slow it down. And most significantly, this is done without the loss of any water. In a system of locks, hundreds of thousands of gallons would need to flow downstream to raise or lower crafts.

The lift from bottom to top took about seven minutes. Rising higher and higher the view becomes better and better, and those fortunate enough to be seated by the window could take some nice pictures. And the windows can be slid down so there is no view obstructions. From the interior there is no such luxury. And on Sharon’s side the guy dressed all in black decided that he should stand the whole time completely blocking the window view for everybody else. We got a nice view of his butt. On my side were a mother and daughter who didn’t want to lower the window which mean all that could be seen on my side was water marks.

There were many other things to see and do at the Falkirk Wheel; but, evidently, we were the first to use the Wheel that day, so we had no extended waiting time to see the other sites or walk around. There appeared to be all sorts of water entertainment. We got on the wheel, took our ride to the top, then shot through the aqueduct and tunnel to the upper canal, where we turned around and came back down. And then we were supposed to board the bus; but, we needed to wait for all those who’d run straight to get in line without using the WC first so we left that stop a few minutes late.

We drove past the Kelpie horses again and our next stop was in Stirling where people had the choice of being dropped off near Stirling Castle and then make their way down the very steep streets; or, to be dropped off at the eventual pickup point at the bottom of town. We chose the latter as did all but a few couples. The streets that we went up and down in that bus weren’t designed for busses that size, and more than once the driver needed to straighten up his path by driving first one side and then the other up on the sidewalk areas. And he had his share of hairpin-like turns to negotiate as well. We decided to use our two hours to find a nice Scottish Inn or Pub for lunch. We found a Fish-and-Chip place, but it looked to “Fast-foodish” to suit Sharon. We could smell great food aromas wafting in from every direction as we headed up the main commercial plaza. We eventually settled on Croney’s at the Golden Lion Hotel. Inside, it appeared as everything you might imagine from an establishment whose pedigree went back generations. Sharon got her Fish and Chips and she thought that it was much better than what she’d had in Ireland. It wasn’t as big; but, there were few if any of “those black things” and the chips were wonderful. I had a mushroom linguini. We both ordered Coca-Cola and we both got 333 ml glass bottles of Coke, and what pleased me most, “Made with sugar” right there on the label. In the states the call this “Mexican Coke” but in Europe, it’s the way it should be, it’s just Coke!

Our driver took the scenic route back passing through many small communities and avoiding the highway altogether. It was 4:45 when we got on the ship, and we heard the captain urging his ground crew over the two-way to “Get those passengers on board… NOW!” We were supposed to leave at 5PM. We were in our cabin at 5PM when the captain came on the intercom and announced that we were still waiting for two busloads of people to return from their excursions. I guess they can count themselves lucky to be on a HAL tour. The captain sounded like he would have left them otherwise.

We went off to dinner and I was having trouble deciding what to get. While we were waiting the captain came back on the speaker to announce that all the buses were back but that there was a medical emergency evacuation. The ambulance was on its way and we would be leaving shortly after that. It was probably 30 minutes later before we started pulling out the port in a long backwards sailout then back towards the port to turnaround. I chose the crabmeat fritter and the 5-onion cream of onion soup. Both were tasty, and I had regretted missing this soup on the first leg of the cruise due to one of our “special dinners”. We have our final Pinnacle Dinner coming up next week. In the end I made the sensible dietary choice and got the curry vegetarian cutlet again with bok choy. The man next to me asked “Is that the vegetarian cutlet?” I affirmed his suspicion. He said that he’d thought about getting that and that it looked good. Suspicious me, I was wondering what he really thought. Sharon chose the Yankee Beef Pot Roast with mashed potatoes. For dessert I chose the cheese plate, and this time the Brie really was Brie, and not Broo Cheese! I was second guessing my choice when I saw her Chocolate Delight made with no added sugar.

Luke Burrage was the juggler tonight, and Sharon remembered him from a previous cruise as being really good and really hilarious. Dinner finished early and I had no problem finding a seat, in fact, it’s getting so those two seats on the aisle are becoming “Our Seats” for the 8PM show! Sharon asked if I minded saving our seats while she went to watch the Buffaloes stampede. I said no, and off she went. I didn’t mind having some alone time to catch up with my friends playing “Word with Friends” and “Word Crack”. I had just gotten logged on and started one timed game when Sharon comes and sits down… “Too much smoke… that… that… woman… was still there chain-smoking.” I think she may have had another word in mind for “that woman”. Then she said she’d gone down and picked out our photos to be added to our folder. And then she started chatting to the woman on the other side of me. “Have you seen this juggler before.” “Oh yes, he’s very good.” Chat-Chat-Chat. Chat-Chat-Chat. It’s kind of hard to play your game when two women are chatting in each of your ears and ignoring you completely (though I was playing a game and not listening or talking anyway). Some might think that it’s nice to be invisible; but, it felt like a special kind of Purgatory. I must remember to sit on the aisle next time. Of course I also made the mistake of asking Sharon how she made out with the buffalos which caused her to give me a you obviously weren’t listening earlier look so guess I got caught.

The pre-show started with a movie of Luke juggling all over the world, mostly in places HAL visits and which he has visited while performing on HAL cruises. Sharon remembers the shots of him from the Top of the World Cruise in 2009 at the Ice Cap and other venues when she first saw him. He started out with some 3-Ball juggling, demonstrated the various patterns, and names of patterns and gave a history of how he got hooked on juggling. His act got really funny when he invited a woman from the audience to “Help” him with his act. He wanted to demonstrate juggling three large balls at the same time, but he needed her to toss him the balls. She wasn’t very good at it. He was able to handle the fourth ball, and he’d left the red ball for last, because it is the easiest to see. He needs to keep his eyes on the balls, so he can’t look at her or her toss. He tried to emphasize to toss it high and to his right hand on the count of three. 1-2-3 she tosses the ball and it hits him square on the nose. All five balls are now rolling around the stage. He decides to have her toss only the four balls and hell hold the other ball, the red ball, between his legs. He’s juggling the four balls and squirming around trying to get ahold of the red ball, and before you know it the red ball is now appearing between his legs on his back side… and it drops. He pleads with her to retrieve the ball and put it back between his legs. Now remember, he’s still juggling the four balls. She approaches from his rear and is reaching towards him with the ball. “No, not that side,” he commands. So, she approaches from the front. He tells her to put the ball between his legs. She gingerly reaches to put it where it had been. He feels the ball and screams, “No, not there… between my knees.” Soon he has all five balls being juggled. He latter demonstrated juggling nine rings at once having them change state in 4-dimensions, the fourth dimension being color. He was quite entertaining. Clearly though, there are some people who don’t like jugglers. A couple in front of us walked out five minutes into his act. I guess they just figured that they’d seen it all before. I’m pretty sure they hadn’t seen him before or they probably would’ve stayed.


Additional photos below
Photos: 17, Displayed: 17


Advertisement



Tot: 0.566s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 17; qc: 75; dbt: 0.1775s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.3mb