Just got back from a cruise on the Forth and Clyde and Union Canals. Hired an excellent boat from Capercaillie Cruisers; it is wonderful how much plumbing has improved in the 22 years we have been on the canals!
We first went (from the hire base at the Falkirk Wheel) to Glasgow. As you will recall, the locks and bridges on these canals are run for you by British Waterways, with a call ahead to alert them you are on your way. Good cooperation from them, though regardless of what phone number you have been given to contact them, it has changed! This canal is wide, being designed for transit between ports, and tends to be more open and straight. But still very pretty. We moored at the BW yard in Glasgow and spent two nights there. Spier's Wharf was completely empty (the second week in September is not too busy, I realize.) This was our first time in Glasgow, and we enjoyed it very much. We went through the Wheel on the way back, heading to Edinburgh. Amazing experience, particularly as we went up all by ourselves. Awesome view from the top. The Union Canal is much more like those of the Midlands, woods and fields and the feel of a narrow canal. We went only as far as Ratho, staying two nights in Linlithgow. That is is a great little village, with a great castle and loch. We had two very good meals, and cask ales, at the Four Marys. The trip back down through the wheel was different - eerie, as if you are suspended somehow. General impression - a good trip, although grey and chilly this time of year. Very good hire company and boat. The wheel and lock transits are very easy. Nicholson's is four years old and some of the info on amenities is outdated, and the BW map is up to date but schematic, so you really should have both. (I couldn't find an update of Nicholson's on the web - perhaps it is not used enough for the effort.) -- Jerry Coleman, in Belmont, California -------------------------------------------------------- "There is a fixed amount of intelligence in the world, and the population keeps growing." --------------------------------------------------------
