Shot of the Day - # 45 - Stirling Bridge, Scotland

Stirling Bridge, Scotland (8 October 1989)

While I’m still questing and touring and shooting in the digital present, I want to occasionally bring forward favored images from back in the film days. I was going to name this post ‘Scotland…Just Passing Through’ as an indication of a certain lack of planning and foresight when it came to picture-taking.

Thirty-four years ago, we did our first trip to Europe. We were driving a big loop out and back from London. The route took us north to Scotland and on this day, we were driving west from Edinburgh toward Glasgow. Just two couples in a car, feeling our way across the countryside. No GPS. No internet to suggest attractions worth seeing. Unfortunate to realize where we were so many years later.

We did know enough to visit Stirling Castle but were there hours before it opened to the public. The castle is an impressive fortress and vital landmark of Scottish history. During the Wars of Independence, when Scots fought the English and each other, control of the castle changed hands eight times in fifty years.

We noodled around the grounds for a while and I paused by the River Forth. There was an old bridge with some hills and a tower in the distance. I like the shot for its composition and the uniform light on this overcast day.

Six years later, when the hit movie ‘Braveheart’ was released, I still didn’t connect it to where we were.

At the time I took the picture, I thought the view that included the monument on the upper right lent a nice element to the composition. Not wanting to wait until the castle was open to the public, we drove off. What did we know? Under the heading, ‘Better Late Than Never,’ I was able to use “The Google” decades later and learn about this critical time in Scotland’s history, a national hero and the monument I happened to include in the image.

The Battle of Stirling Bridge was one of many accomplishments of Scotland’s national hero William Wallace (Mel Gibson to most of you). On 11 September 1297, Wallace defeated the English just upstream from this point. The current bridge dates to the fifteenth century. The National Wallace Monument on the distant hill was opened to the public in 1869, 572 years after the battle.

River Cruise Diary – Senlis, France

Notre Dame Cathedral, Senlis (7 April 2023)

After noting the end of the State House Odyssey, we return to the last river cruise, which was introduced as a ‘Shot of the Day’ in April. We’ll be bouncing around our varied themes and quests to keep you on your toes. For now, it’s back to the recent Seine River trip in April.

Tympanum on West Portal, Notre Dame Cathedral, Senlis (7 April 2023)

A common sight at old churches in France, the saints in the

archivolt were decapitated by French Revolution zealots

Regarding the stories of cruising European rivers, we’ve completed the Rhine stories from 2019 (posted June to November 2020) and are halfway through the stories from the first venture up the Rhone River in France in 2006 (posted March to June 2020). Beginning here is the latest river adventure...one that will take us up the Seine in France from the Normandy coast to Paris.

Interior, Notre Dame Cathedral, Senlis (7 April 2023)

After the overnight flight to Paris, we were met by cruise reps and bussed to a hotel not far from the Charles de Gaulle Airport. With other passengers arriving throughout the day, the early folks were treated to a side trip to the town of Senlis. The commune dates to Roman times but because the region had ample forests and venison, it became the home of early French kings.

Good Friday Worshipers, Senlis (7 April 2023)

It was Good Friday and we were in Catholic France. During our free time walk-about, we encountered the devout walking through town...following a man who carried that wooden cross. All stopped to pray and sing before concluding their devotional inside the cathedral.

The Goddess Diana Before the Roman Wall, Senlis (7 April 2023)

Formerly the Roman settlement of Augustomagus, the 3rd

century Roman wall circling the old quarter remains standing.

Street Vendors, Senlis (7 April 2023)

Small town France, where ‘farm-to-table’ means just that.

Portal of the Saint-Frambourg Chapel (7 April 2023)

This Romanesque chapel was completed in 993 by Adelaide, the

wife of Hugh Capet, the first king in a dynasty that would

hold the French throne for centuries. In the 1970’s, the late pianist

Georges Cziffra restored the interior and it is now a concert hall.

(Sadly, it was closed when we were there)

All in all, it was a nice introduction to France and a good way to occupy oneself after the crowded overnight flight that resulted in little actual sleep. Early bed time was welcomed and there were no jet lag effects after that.

The next post in this series will be one of the main reasons we chose this trip...to see the Normandy coast, reimagine the D-Day invasion and visit the American Cemetery.