Third stop on our Baltic cruise last year was Warnemünde, North Germany. It lies at the mouth of the River Warnow and is effectively the port for Rostock, of which it is administratively part.

We could have taken trips to Rostock – or Berlin – but decided not to. The Berlin one involved a long bus trip would only have allowed a few hours in the city and Rostock wasn’t particularly attractive.

From the dockside on the River Warnow you have to cross an inlet to get to the main part of Warnemünde. Looking north:-

Looking south:-

Warnemünde is a nice wee place with quite a lot of modern architecture but in the town centre mostly older type buildings:-

One of its tourist attractions is this lighthouse, which is not beside the sea:-

I also spotted this windmill up a side street:-

The Verdant Works Dundee is a museum of the city’s heritage of jute production, housed in a former jute mill. It’s somewhere we had meant to visit for a while but when we’re in Dundee we’re usually busy doing something else or going on somewhere else. The cruise ship docking there gave us the opportunity to pop in for a look.

The guide was a former jute worker who operated all the machinery for us. The noise of each one was very loud. Considering that the machines are only third-size it made you realise what a cacophony the real environment with twenty or more carding, rolling, spinning etc machines on the go must have been. Many people went deaf.

Jute bales:-

Interior from upper floor:-

Verdant Works ceiling:-

Upper floor and ceiling. The wood is lovely:-

Beam engine which used to power the machines:-

Photo in the Verdant Works of the Art Deco Taybank Jute Works, Dundee, Spinning Department, opened 1949. I have photographed this building myself in 2009.

The first stop on the cruise we took last year was … Dundee! It’s only about twenty-five miles or so away from Son of the Rock Acres but it cost £200 less, each, for us to board at Newcastle rather than embark a day later at Dundee. No brainer.

The ship’s docking point in Scotland’s fourth city did give me a view of the Tay Bridge I hadn’t had before, though.

To the extreme right of the above photo is the new V&A Dundee, better seen in the photo below with RSS Discovery and Discovery Point beyond V&A:-

Wandering round the city centre I came across these stone penguins having a wee daunder:-

Nearby was this plaque commemorating the 70th anniversary of the end of the Great War. “Dedicated to the glory of god and to those men and women who in all corners of the world gave their lives in service of our beloved country. We Will Remember Them, 11th November 1989.”

I posted a single photograph of this war memorial in 2013. A year or so ago I took some more.

Traquair War Memorial from across B 709:-

Dedication, “Lest We Forget” on bar of cross, Great War names on column:-

Dedications and WW2 Name. “To the memory of those who from this part of Traquair gave their lives in the cause of freedom 1914 – 1918.” The lower block is inscribed, “1939 – 1945. Lieut R D Ballantyne, Cardrona, DLI.” Cardrona is a vilage a mile or so from Traquair on the B 7602 to Peebles:-

Great War Names. I see from The Scottish Military Research Group – Commemorations Project that the first name here, Honourable E W Tennant, was one of the war poets.

Whenever we’re in Bridge of Allan we always take a stroll up to and across the road bridge over the Allan Water. There’s nearly always a heron on the weir or on this wooden construction above the sluice gate. It must be a good spot for hunting.

Hollingsworth Lake is near Rochdale. I mentioned it two posts ago. In 2017 I took these three photographs from its shores.

While at Rochdale we were taken on a day trip to Halifax.

On the M62 we passed Hollingsworth Lake:-

And under this elegant bridge:-

And in Halifax parked near these two contrasting bridges. Old and new:-

Home of Rochdale AFC. The stadium is known as the Crown Oil Arena due to sponsorship.

View from Willbutts Lane:-

Pearl Street stand:-

From bend in Pearl Street, Pearl Street stand to right, main stand to left:-

Turnstiles at Sandy Lane stand and turnstiles for Main stand west:-

From Sandy Lane:-

Willbutts Lane stand from main stand:-

Pearl Street stand from main stand:-

Sandy Lane stand/enclosure from main stand. This end is terraced rather than containing seating:-

Main stand from Sandy Lane End:-

Rochdale AFC’s mascot, Desmond the Dragon, with young fans:-

Edzell’s memorial to the two World Wars lies at the opposite end of the main road from its Boer War Memorial, in a memorial garden.

It is a tapering obelisk on a square plinth with carved wreath above, inscribed above the stone wreath, “To the unconquered dead.” Inside the wreath, “To the honoured memory of our men who gave their lives in the Great War 1914 – 1919. We owe more tears to these dead men than time shall see us pay.” On the lower plinth, “Also of those who gave their lives in the war of 1939 – 1945,” followed by World War 2 names.

Reverse of Memorial. Great War names:-

Great War names:-

Edzell is a village in Angus, Scotland, about six miles from Brechin. We stopped there on our way down from Aberdeenshire hoping to go to Edzell Castle but it was shut for the winter.

I did however find a Boer War Memorial standing in a railed enclosure just off the road through the town. It takes the form of a Celtic cross inscribed, “To the memory of gallant soldiers belonging to Edzell & District who fell in the Great Boer War 1899-1900-1901-1902. ‘Decorum est pro patria mori.'”:-

From south, remembering Lt Colonel D T Laing, killed near Lindley, 3/1/1901, aged 41:-

Reverse, dedicated to Private James Paterson, killed Magersfontein, 11/12/1899, aged 21; Private James Candy, killed at Paarderberg, 18/2/1900, aged 30, and Private William Walker, died of wounds, Wyndberg, 22/3/1900, aged 21:-

From north, dedicated to Colour Sergeant David Christison, killed Magersfontein, 11/1/2 1899, aged 30, and Trooper W A Mcnab, died at Kroonstad, 23/2/1902, aged 21:-