We’ve rented a car for Friday and Saturday so we can get out to the countryside to see more castles and ruins.  First about the car rental.  Like everything here, they are expensive.  But if you saw one of my pictures on yesterday’s post you noted that fuel is a little over $8 a gallon.  To make sure that you bring the car back with a full tank they charge a deposit for the fuel.  In this case it was the equivalent of about $310.  That ought to cover it I hope.

So it was off to Stirling with our gasoline payload to see the castle there.  It was the worst weather of our approximately 40 days in the United Kingdom over the past twelve and a half months with rain, cold and fog which limited photo opportunities.  This castle apparently dominated Scottish history for centuries as its origins date to 1124 with construction of the current structure beginning in the 15th century.

On the way back to Edinburgh we swung past the Forth Bridges.  These two bridges span one mile over the River Forth.  The rail bridge was the first major steel-built bridge in the world when it opened in 1890.  The auto suspension bridge was the largest suspension bridge outside of the United States (ah, those were the days) when it opened in 1964.

Heading south on Saturday.