The first thing we do when we awake is check our emails as we were still $574 out of pocket with the additional charge to our Travel card viz "EC Car Rental" for the sum of $A574.28. This expenditure appeared to be have been made after the card had been cancelled. It turned out, apparently, that the charge had been made but not posted before the card was cancelled.
There was an email from the ANZ bank as follows:
Dear Michael
We’re writing to tell you that we have finalised our investigation in relation to your disputed transaction, for the amount of AUD 574.28, on your ANZ Travel Card, card number 4363 XXXX XXXX 8208.
Your disputed transaction has been resolved..
We are pleased to confirm that the dispute has been resolved in your favour. The disputed amount has been credited to your ANZ Travel Card. The funds will be available for use the following business day.
So we are all square for now so back to business.
There was some rain overnight around our hotel in Inverbeg but it had stopped by the time we left at 9.50am, heading south towards Glasgow. We had booked a hotel about 20klms east of Glasgow so that we could visit the Falkirk Wheel and have easy and quick access to Glasgow via the motorways.
We set both the GPS's to take us through the maze of motorways and A roads that surround Glasgow and as always, they differed on which way to go. Not surprising really if one checks the map which is a mass of different rout possibilities.
We stopped for a coffee off the M80 and patched in the postcode to take us to the Falkirk Wheel. It wasn't hard to find as it was well signposted.
The Falkirk Wheel is a rotating boat lift. It was designed to connect the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal.. It is named after the nearby town of Falkirk and it opened in 2002. The two canals it serves were previously connected by a series of 11 locks, but by the 1930s these had fallen into disuse and the locks were filled in and the land built upon.
The plan to regenerate central Scotland's canals and reconnect Glasgow with Edinburgh was led by British Waterways with support and funding from seven local authorities, and the Millenium Commission. Planners decided early on to create a dramatic 21st-century landmark structure to reconnect the canals, instead of simply recreating the historic lock flight.
Designs were submitted for a boat lift to link the canals and the Falkirk Wheel design won. As with many Millennium Commission projects, the site includes a visitors' centre containing a shop, cafe, and exhibition centre.
The difference in height at the wheel is 24 metres (79 ft), roughly equivalent to the height of an eight story building. The Union Canal is still 11 m higher than the aqueduct which meets the wheel, and boats must pass through a pair of locks to descend from this canal onto the aqueduct at the top of the wheel.
The Queen opened the wheel on 24 May 2002, as part of her olden Jubilee celebrations. The opening was delayed a month due to flooding caused by vandals who forced open the wheel's gates.
We were sitting on the boat waiting to go up on this fantastic piece of machinery by 11.30am filling the last two spots on the hourly boat trip.
The boat then left the side of the dock and entered the gondola where a steel door then closed to keep the water in. The huge wheel then rotated taking the boat or boats, it can hold two, including the water, through 180 degrees to the top of the wheel where it met the other canal. Since there are two gondolas, it is possible to have the other one containing boats coming down.
An interesting point is that it doesn't matter what the weight or size of the boats are, the weight of the gondolas is always the same as the displacement of the boat reduces the quantity and weight of the water by and equal amount. Get it? This is one for my mate Peter to contemplate.
Anyway, when it reached the top it equalised the water levels before the steel gate opened and the boat sailed out down the canal. Boats travelling into the wheel from the upper level travel down the canal through a pinch point which prevents boats attempting to enter the gondola which are too wide.
On our trip the boat turned around and came back and went through the reverse process ending up at the bottom again. It was a fascinating and a brilliant idea.
We then spent some time looking at the displays which included a working scale model, and bought a picture of ourselves on the boat. Mick asked the photographer for the .jpg but he couldn't get it.
After a walk around the area surrounding the wheel and watching several boats going up and down we headed off to Cumbernauld to our hotel. This turned out to be a revelation as we found it was a two level unit with heaps of room.
We have four days here to visit Glasgow and surrounds. What a great way to finish our Scottish adventure.
There was an email from the ANZ bank as follows:
Dear Michael
We’re writing to tell you that we have finalised our investigation in relation to your disputed transaction, for the amount of AUD 574.28, on your ANZ Travel Card, card number 4363 XXXX XXXX 8208.
Your disputed transaction has been resolved..
We are pleased to confirm that the dispute has been resolved in your favour. The disputed amount has been credited to your ANZ Travel Card. The funds will be available for use the following business day.
So we are all square for now so back to business.
There was some rain overnight around our hotel in Inverbeg but it had stopped by the time we left at 9.50am, heading south towards Glasgow. We had booked a hotel about 20klms east of Glasgow so that we could visit the Falkirk Wheel and have easy and quick access to Glasgow via the motorways.
We set both the GPS's to take us through the maze of motorways and A roads that surround Glasgow and as always, they differed on which way to go. Not surprising really if one checks the map which is a mass of different rout possibilities.
We stopped for a coffee off the M80 and patched in the postcode to take us to the Falkirk Wheel. It wasn't hard to find as it was well signposted.
The Falkirk Wheel is a rotating boat lift. It was designed to connect the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal.. It is named after the nearby town of Falkirk and it opened in 2002. The two canals it serves were previously connected by a series of 11 locks, but by the 1930s these had fallen into disuse and the locks were filled in and the land built upon.
The plan to regenerate central Scotland's canals and reconnect Glasgow with Edinburgh was led by British Waterways with support and funding from seven local authorities, and the Millenium Commission. Planners decided early on to create a dramatic 21st-century landmark structure to reconnect the canals, instead of simply recreating the historic lock flight.
Designs were submitted for a boat lift to link the canals and the Falkirk Wheel design won. As with many Millennium Commission projects, the site includes a visitors' centre containing a shop, cafe, and exhibition centre.
The difference in height at the wheel is 24 metres (79 ft), roughly equivalent to the height of an eight story building. The Union Canal is still 11 m higher than the aqueduct which meets the wheel, and boats must pass through a pair of locks to descend from this canal onto the aqueduct at the top of the wheel.
The Queen opened the wheel on 24 May 2002, as part of her olden Jubilee celebrations. The opening was delayed a month due to flooding caused by vandals who forced open the wheel's gates.
We were sitting on the boat waiting to go up on this fantastic piece of machinery by 11.30am filling the last two spots on the hourly boat trip.
The boat then left the side of the dock and entered the gondola where a steel door then closed to keep the water in. The huge wheel then rotated taking the boat or boats, it can hold two, including the water, through 180 degrees to the top of the wheel where it met the other canal. Since there are two gondolas, it is possible to have the other one containing boats coming down.
An interesting point is that it doesn't matter what the weight or size of the boats are, the weight of the gondolas is always the same as the displacement of the boat reduces the quantity and weight of the water by and equal amount. Get it? This is one for my mate Peter to contemplate.
Anyway, when it reached the top it equalised the water levels before the steel gate opened and the boat sailed out down the canal. Boats travelling into the wheel from the upper level travel down the canal through a pinch point which prevents boats attempting to enter the gondola which are too wide.
On our trip the boat turned around and came back and went through the reverse process ending up at the bottom again. It was a fascinating and a brilliant idea.
We then spent some time looking at the displays which included a working scale model, and bought a picture of ourselves on the boat. Mick asked the photographer for the .jpg but he couldn't get it.
After a walk around the area surrounding the wheel and watching several boats going up and down we headed off to Cumbernauld to our hotel. This turned out to be a revelation as we found it was a two level unit with heaps of room.
We have four days here to visit Glasgow and surrounds. What a great way to finish our Scottish adventure.
The Falkirk Wheel and aqueduct
View from the top
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