Wednesday - Day 27 - South Queensferry, Scotland - part 1

On Wednesday early morning, we passed by Edinburgh, on our way to anchoring near South Queensferry, which was our access point for visiting Edinburgh.

A manor house and fields that we could see off our balcony from our anchor point

The Forth Bridge - a railroad bridge over the Firth of Forth (where we were anchored)

When we took the tender ashore, this gentleman was welcoming us by ringing his bell (he may have actually not been there for us, but for a tour boat, the "Maid of the Forth", which left as our tender arrived).

Two musicians (drummer and bagpipe player) played for us as we arrived (and the Forth Bridge can be seen just behind them). Video of their greeting us upon arrival: https://youtube.com/shorts/S--vExpgTMk?feature=share

Railroad bridge (Forth Bridge) continuing onto land over buildings near the side of the Firth.

There were two newer bridges connecting South Queensferry with North Queensferry, further into the Firth.

South Queensferry

There was a kilt shop near where the tenders let us off, so we went to look around (no kilts were purchased by us).

Another view of the Forth Bridge

I found the sign on this shop, "Polite Notice, No Parking, Please Leave Clear" -- so polite, these British people!

A map showing the three bridges and access points for each of them (note the traffic circles!)

We saw Nessie here!

A nice picture with the Nieuw Statendam seen between the support columns of the Forth Bridge.

We walked down the High Street in South Queensferry -- cobblestone along most of the street.

Interesting architecture on this building

Information about the Forth Bridge

Jubilee clock tower

Another picture of Nieuw Statendam through the Forth Bridge -- not as good a picture as it had clouded up and started spitting rain on us.

Zoomed in picture of Nieuw Statendam

The two newer bridges -- while the red cantilever railroad bridge was built in 1890, the closer of the two newer bridge, a suspension bridge, Forth Road Bridge was built in 1964. It originally carried all vehicle traffic, but now is restricted to public transport, pedestrians, and cyclists. The further bridge, triple-tower, cable-stayed motorway bridge (Queensferry Crossing) was built in 2017 to replace the aging road bridge; it is open to normal motorway traffic. So, the three bridges connecting these two towns (North Queensferry and South Queensferry) were built in 3 different centuries.

We walked up to The Priory Church, a 15th century Gothic building, the only medieval Carmelite church still in use in the British Isles. It was founded as a Carmelite friary around 1330, the main structure was built in the mid-1440s, restored in 1890.

There was a coffee and baked goods / snacks shop in the church -- it had this sign that we liked!

Stained glass in one of the side chapels

Information about The Priory Church

Outside of The Priory Church

We headed back to catch a tender to the ship (two newer bridges to the left, the Forth railroad bridge to the right).

Getting off the tender at the ship -- you can see what the inside of our lifeboats look like (the lifeboats are used as tenders).

Next to our ship was what we think was an oil loading / unloading platform - you can see one of our tenders passing by...

... and here two of the tenders passing outside our balcony.

I mentioned that we attended a Time Travel presentation by the onboard astronomer a few days ago -- Carl has decided that naps count as time traveling as you lay down at one time, and wake up in the future -- so we've been time traveling most afternoons. So... after time traveling in the afternoon,

... when we woke up, the ship had turned around on the anchor and our balcony was now facing the three bridges!

There was a ship sailing under -- it is hard to distinguish the two newer bridges, but the closer one is a suspension bridge and the furthest is a cable-stayed bridge.

Many of our fellow passengers went to Edinburgh, many attending the Edinburgh Royal Tattoo. Besides the Tattoo, there Edinburgh Fringe Festival was also going on, and we felt it was probably going to be very busy, rain was predicted, and, since we had not scheduled any excursions, might be not to our liking. We enjoyed our time in South Queensferry, and were able to stay mostly dry too!

Tuesday - Day 26 - Invergordon, Scotland - part 2

Part 1 of our day in Invergordon can be found here: https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2026/08/tuesday-day-26-invergordon-scotland.html

Continuing with our time in Invergordon...

A pretty flower in a raised bed along High Street

High Street

I stopped in a thrift store, saw a tee shirt that I thought was pretty -- I thought, "Great idea, get a Scotland teeshirt in a thrift store." Unfortunately, it was from Page, Arizona!

In a gift shop / book store, there was an area marked "Blind Date with a Book" -- books wrapped in gift paper, with a general description of the type of book -- "Contemporary Romance", "Dark Contemporary", "Romance" -- a way to get rid of books that no one will purchase otherwise?

We headed up to the church that we had seen way up the street soon after leaving the ship.

Invergordon Church of Scotland

They had the doors open and were welcoming visitors...

... multiple handmade fabric banners in the sanctuary...

Front of the church

another banner

Mission statement

Message on the screen at the front of the church

They had a particular ministry to crew... the area to the left of the front of the church was reserved just for crew, and many of the crew from our ship were visiting there.

A banner for the church's 150th anniversary

There were scriptures and books in many languages available for visitors to take.

On our way back to the ship - we could see this structure, we think either for support of oil platforms or wind turbine platforms.

Carl saw this cafe on High Street -- he thinks he is going to use "Clootie McToot" as his pseudonym from now on!

We saw a number of ethnic takeaway restaurants in town, including this one with Indian food.

As we sailed out of Cromarty Firth, from our balcony we could see the sun was shining on cliffs and fields near its mouth.

When we got back to our room later in the evening, our clean laundry had been delivered, all nicely folded, ready to be packed in a few days! 

We enjoyed a quite sunny day in Invergordon!