May 11: Tunnels on the Trail

Another beautiful morning in Dundee. Left the house really early and tried not to wake up the early warning system (Bear the Barker, and Barney Trouble). Bus into town, train to Stirling, change train to Falkirk. Then made my way to the Falkirk Wheel.

What an amazing feat of engineering. It is the largest boat lift (elevator) in the world. Basically, the boat goes into a container and then is lifted up to the canal above. It then goes through a tunnel to get on the canal proper. The tunnel lights changed color as it detected me walking through.

The second tunnel is much longer and much creepier. There a sporadic lights but they don’t change color at all and basically do not provide enough light to see. Water was pouring into the tunnel so I had to put my raincoat on and get out the umbrella. Trying to hold the umbrella and use my phone light to see was a bit of a challenge. Luckily there was a bit of a barrier so I didn’t go arse-over-tits into the canal. It was so cold, there was ice on the walls and I could see my breath.

Stopped at Tesco for tea and a pee, then headed off to Linlithgow, the birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots in 1542. First stop was St. Michael’s Parish Church which sits next to the palace. I took a pic of a headstone for someone who died in 1790 – that’s a long time ago. There was a group of untended graves at the back of the main cemetery and goodness knows how long they have been there.

The palace itself was closed for repairs. Understandable since it was built in 1424. I definitely got my swan fix today. There were at least 50 on Linlithgow Loch and I heard mention there is a black swan out there somewhere (one of six in the whole of the UK). Not sure if its true or not, but he must have been shy because he didn’t grace me with his presence.

The town’s coat of arms features a black bitch dog against an oak tree, after a legend of a black greyhound whose master was sentenced to starve to death on an island in Linlithgow loch. She used to swim from the town every day with food for him, and managed to save his life. The townspeople took the symbol of the dog’s loyalty and bravery as their own. The local pub named “The Black Bitch” is one of Scotland’s oldest pubs^{. Apparently in our modern times, people have taken exception to the name and forced the owners to change the name to something less offensive. Total Get Tae Fuck moment in my opinion.}