The Buckingham Blog

We decided at the weekend that we'd go on a day trip today to the Falkirk Wheel which is a boat lift in Falkirk surprisingly enough (2 hours from here)  We'd told Laura that we were going and as they were going to be travelling by train from Glasgow to Edinburgh today and Falkirk is on that trainline, they decided to join us there!  We didn't tell the kids they were coming, so Kory was rather amused to see them. 

The wheel itself is massive (35m to be precise!) and an amazing bit of engineering.  When it turns with a boat in the top and bottom, without spilling any water, it's really pretty impressive!  It was built to replace a series of 11 lock's which connected 2 canals on different levels. 

Anyway, we went to get our tickets for the next boat then outside to wait to board.  the trip was almost an hour long which was much more than we expected.  I thought we were going on an upwards and downwards trip (like the London Eye I guess) but no, we went off down the canal and through a tunnel too!

On the boat, Kory was pretty excited and had his eyes popping out their sockets at first.  There was a video thing to watch that gave you details like - it only take the same electricity as to boil 8 kettles to turn this mammoth machine!  So we watched that as we went along. 

Some photos during the trip...

This is the view from the top canal...

And my favourite photo of the day is of the wheel itself as we were heading back into it before our decsent. 

Once we were down, we headed round to the playpark to let the monkey's burn off some steam.  The tunnel slide was really high and I thought Kory was brave (for him) going on it.  But not to be outdone, Krystal had to go too.  Jamie took her up as it was pretty much a ladder rather than stairs.  She cried at the end that she wanted to do it by herself.  So up they went again and let her go!  She loved it and just confirms she's so fearless! 

Once they slowed down and started to chill in the park we decided it was time to head for ice-cream.  Not just normal ice-cream.  Oh no!  Irn Bru Sorbet.  I thought it sounded strange, but it was delicious! 

We had a quick look around the gift shop and by then it was about 4pm and time for us to head home and Laura/Jamie to head to Edinburgh for the military tattoo.  So we said our goodbyes (again, they only went home on Thursday!)

We had 2 very sleepy people in the car on the way home which I think is a good sign of a fun day out! 

Julie.xx