Tag: waterloggedblog

Livingston – Tuesday 2nd July 2019

For as long as I can remember I have wanted to visit the iconic Forth Rail Bridge (officially this one is just called the Forth Bridge, but nearly everyone I’ve spoken to about it adds the word ‘rail’!), so we headed across the Firth of Forth on one of the two road bridges to go to South Queensferry where you get the best views.   Whilst we were that side of the river we carried on to the shopping centre at Livingston to visit the Waterstones, since it’s in the middle of a vast retail park and not somewhere we are ever likely to have visited otherwise.  Set over two floors, the shop has a large glass frontage and is modern and airy.

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Livingston map

The shopping centre has an amazing feature – HiRide – which is an assault course 13 metres above the ground!  I’d love to be brave enough to give it a try.

Queensferry (sometimes referred to as South Queensferry to distinguish it from North Queensferry on the other side of the river) is a pretty town to the north west of Edinburgh, and is the perfect spot to view the bridge from.  After all the years of wanting to visit it didn’t disappoint, and  I took a lot of photos of the bridge – here are just a small selection…!

Queensferry High Street

(Queensferry sign above used under creative commons licence from Wikipedia.  Photo credit Kim Traynor)

Kirkcaldy – Tuesday 2nd July 2019

After leaving St Andrews we headed south, following the coast road. We stopped at a picturesque little fishing village called Pittenweem, which is still an active port with a daily fish market.  After taking some photos we headed to Kirkcaldy for lunch.  Kirkcaldy is known locally as ‘Lang Toun’ – literally Long Town – and is the 12th largest town (in terms of population) in Scotland.  The Waterstones is located in a modern shop in the High Street in the centre of town.  We didn’t have long to explore here as we wanted to visit some more places in the afternoon.

Kirkcaldy map

Kirkcaldy

Pittenweem

St Andrews – Tuesday 2nd July 2019

Today we decided to spend the day exploring the Kingdom of Fife, which stretches from the Firth of Tay down to the Firth of Forth in the South.  Our first stop was the University town of St Andrews, whose most famous students must surely be Prince William and Kate Middleton – one of the coffee shops in the town claims they met there!   St Andrews, known as the home of golf, sits on the coast and the university there is the third oldest in the UK.  The town is very pretty with medieval streets and a lovely feel to it – we really enjoyed our time there.   The Waterstones here is in an attractive stone building and opened as an Ottakar’s in 2004 before they were bought out.

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St Andrews Map

St Andrews University

West Port and Pends Gate

St Andrews used to have several Gates, or Ports as the old Scots word would have it.  Two remain today, West Port (originally called So’gait Port) which is, as the name suggests, to the West of the town, and Pends Gate to the east.

St Andrews Cathedral

The Roman Catholic cathedral was the largest in Scotland.  It was destroyed during the Reformation in 1559.

Below – clockwise from top left:  College Street, Blackfriars Chapel, North Castle Street, St Andrews Castle

Perth – Monday 1st July 2019

Our next stop, for three nights, was the gorgeous city of Perth.  It sits on the River Tay and, with its gorgeous architecture, it is easy to see why it is called the Fair City.  We spent the first day exploring the city which was once Scotland’s capital and thought it was really lovely.   The city is bordered by two parks, North Inch and South Inch and is quite compact so it’s fairly easy to explore in a day.  The Waterstones is on the edge of a modern shopping centre in the middle of the city and is on one level in an L-shape!

Perth Map

Perth City

Clockwise from top left:  West Street Bridge, The Black Watch Museum, St John’s Kirk (outside),  St John’s Kirk (inside)

Clockwise from top left: River Tay, The Capital Asset – now a Wetherspoons but formerly a branch of the Perth Savings Bank, Perth Museum & Art Gallery, Rodney Gardens

St Ninian’s Cathedral

We were told by one of the very helpful guides, was the first cathedral to be built in Britain after the Reformation ended in 1648!  It was finished in 1850 and is very attractive inside.  Unfortunately I accidentally deleted the photos I took of it so I have used one of the outside taken from Wikipedia, under their creative commons licence, which was uploaded by user ‘Kilnburn‘.   

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Perth has a great sculpture trail.  Here are a small selection of those we spotted:

Nae Dae Sae Dark by David Annand (based on the poem by William Soutar)

Eagle of Perth by Shona Kinloch

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The Fair Maid of Perth Graham Ibbeson (based on the titular character of a Sir Walter Scott novel)

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Perth is a must-see for anyone visiting South East Scotland! 

Stirling – Sunday 30th June 2019

After our trip to the Falkirk Wheel we stopped briefly at a parkland area called The Helix in order to take a photograph of the Kelpies, the largest horse statues in the world!  They were designed by sculptor Andy Scott and stand an impressive 30 metres high. They are an homage to the horse powered heritage of Scotland and dominate the nearby skyline!

After this we headed to Stirling to visit the Waterstones – we didn’t have long there as it was now late afternoon so we just had time to visit the shop, which is based in a modern shopping centre, and then to have a quick drive around the town.  We visited Stirling way back in 1992 and spent the day at the castle, which we very much enjoyed.  Had we had enough time we would have gone back today.

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Stirling map

The Kelpies

Stirling

 

Falkirk – Sunday 30th June 2019

We had wanted to go to Falkirk for many years to visit the famous rotating boat wheel that connects the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal.  It opened in 2002 and re-joined the canals which had once been linked by a flight of locks until they fell into disrepair in the 1930s.  The wheel works on the Archimedes’ principle – the boats enter the gondola and the water is displaced to the weight of the boat, making the gondolas move in opposite directions (this is a simplified version of how they work!).  We booked to go on the wheel, and despite the dark sky, the afternoon stayed warm and dry and we had a great trip.

Before our visit there we just had time to pop into Falkirk town centre to visit the Waterstones.  It’s located in an attractive Victorian red-stoned listed building in the High Street.   Like other former Ottakars stores, it has one of Chris Burke’s murals behind the till.

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Falkirk map

The Falkirk Wheel

The image below was taken in 2004 by Sean Mack and appears on Wikipedia.  I have resized it slightly and it is used under the creative commons license.   It’s stunning – I think it shows the true beauty of the wheel.

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Falkirk Town

Lancaster King Street – Saturday 29th June 2019

I decided to ‘Click and Collect’ a book whilst I was Lancaster as they are often a pound or two cheaper this way.  In doing so I discovered that there were not one, but two branches of Waterstones here, which was lucky, as otherwise we would possibly have missed it!  Not that returning would be a problem as we really liked Lancaster, but there are so many others places to visit.  The Waterstones here is in a beautiful building underneath the Royal Hotel, which was originally built in the 1620s, and rebuilt in 1879 following a devastating fire.  Dickens stayed here a couple of times in the late 19th century.  I’m afraid there will be rather a lot of photos, and the side view is looking from a pub window…

Ground floor

Mezzanine

Lancaster Waterstones King Street

Photos below

1st Row – The Judges’ Lodgings Museum – built around 1625 it is Lancaster’s oldest town house. 2nd Row – Lancaster Central Library.  This beautiful building was built in 1932, although I think it looks older. 3rd Row – Pic 1 – Lancaster Central Library – Pics 2 and 3 – Lancaster Town Hall opened in 1909 and replaced the original town hall which is now the Market Place Museum. 

Lancaster Views!

Lancaster Corn Market – Saturday 29th June 2019

Lancaster is a university city and the county town of Lancashire.  We arrived here early in the morning and spent the day exploring the city, which we liked a lot.  It is very pretty with attractive streets and plenty of history.    Lancaster Castle is easily visible from the town as it stands atop a hill.  The first castle on this site was erected in Roman times, and the earliest part of the current castle was built in the 12th century.  The building has been added to over the years, including a prison wing in the 18th Century which only closed in 2011!  It was also the site of the famous Pendle Witch Trials of 1612. Nearby is Lancaster Priory which was built in the 15th Century (although there was a church on the site long before this).  It is free to visit (donations towards the upkeep are welcome, of course) and is definitely worth spending time in.   The Corn Market Waterstones is set over two floors in a modern shopping centre and was formerly a branch of Ottakar’s books. 

Lancaster Corn Market

Lancaster Castle

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Lancaster Priory

Preston – Friday 28th June 2019

After leaving Blackpool we headed to Preston to stop for a drink before going on to our hotel.  Preston is famous for being the location of the invention of Richard Arkwright’s famous Water Frame (a fact surely remembered by every late 70s/early 80s secondary school child?!).  In 1854, Charles Dickens visited Preston in order to research his book Hard Times, in which Preston makes an appearance as Coketown.  We hadn’t visited for many, many years and couldn’t picture the city – we thought some of the buildings were beautiful, especially the Miller Arcade (built 1899), the Harris Museum, Art Gallery and Library building (built 1877) and the stunning Waterstones building, which used to be owned by the northern supermarket chain Booths.   You can read a history of the building at the bottom of the webpage in this link.

Ground floor

First floor

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Preston map

Miller Arcade

The Harris Museum, Art Gallery and Library

Preston Market

The market pictured above opened in 2018 and sits under the original Victorian glass canopy which dates back to 1875.  It’s a beautiful building and the things on offer inside include a mixture of goods and plenty of food stalls.

Blackpool – Friday 28th June 2019

After leaving Walsall we headed to our first stop of Blackpool.  There can’t be many people in the UK who haven’t heard of this seaside town in the North West of England!  We had been there before many, many years ago but only had a brief stop overnight.  It’s a typical English resort with a long sandy beach, numerous gift shops and arcades and a skyline dominated by the famous Tower building.  The Tower was inspired by the Eiffel Tower in Paris and opened five years after the French one.  The Waterstones here is located in a modern shop opposite the tower.

Front entrance
Side entrance

Blackpool Map

The Tower

The Seafront

The Winter Gardens 

The Winter Gardens is an entertainment venue which opened in 1878.  Morecambe and Wise appeared at this venue over 1000 times!  This statue, which stands in the entrance and is by sculptor Graham Ibbeson was unveiled in 2018

The Comedy Carpet

This art installation in front of the Tower was designed by Gordon Young and features phrases, quotes and songs from over 1000 comedians!