Something New

You might think from these blog posts that breathtaking vistas, old castles and even older cathedrals comprise Scotland's only major tourist attractions.  Not so.  Just north of Edinburgh, we stopped to see the Kelpies.

Chris dismissed the aluminum sculptures as more evidence of the decline of western civilization.  Thom wasn't much kinder.  "Where's your sense of childish wonder?" I snapped.

Assembled in just three months, they opened to the public in 2014.  In Scottish folklore, Kelpies are shape-shifting beasts who exist half underwater.  They symbolize the significance of horse power when canal boats, for a brief period in the early nineteenth century, were pulled by beasts of burden to ship goods throughout Scotland.  Railroad steam engines put an end to that.

Duke and Baron look different from every angle.  They also were going to get to hear the Killers, my favorite contemporary rock 'n roll band, play an arena show in nearby Helix Park later that night.

The Kelpies are situated near the remnants of the Union Canal which once connected Glasgow and Edinburgh with 17 different locks.  

The Falkirk Wheel, a short drive away,  helped us understand just how locks work.  Scottish Canals has been operating it for that purpose since 2002.

Believe it or not, it takes the energy of just five boiling teakettles for this contraption to lift a boat from the water to the upper level.  

Recreational boats primarily use the canal now, which runs east to the Firth of Forth, past the Kelpies.  Passage is free, too, requiring only a reservation.

People can surprise you, even after 30+ years.  Archimedes' principle fascinated Thom, who asked more questions of the captain than I did, a first.  

Our boat was named after the great Greek mathematician who, after discovering the principle in his bathtub, ran through the streets of Athens shouting "Eureka!"

After the very slow but highly informative boat ride, we took a walk to one of the last remaining sections of the Antonine Wall.  It required a lot more imagination.

By the time we left, Chris admitted that perhaps he'd misjudged the Kelpies now that he had more context.  I just wanted to know if the same horses pulled boats all the way from Glasgow to Edinburgh and where they slept.  Nobody could tell me.