Perth, City 10 of 69 in the UK Cityscapes Project

On Monday Looby and I hopped on a train from Stirling to Perth, they run every half hour and with our railcard we got a day return for the bargain price of £6.90, the train only takes 30 minutes and it's a lovely gentle journey through rolling hillsides and very green and beautiful Scottish countryside.

Perth is one of the smalleer cities I'll visit on my journey to document all 69 cities of the UK, it has a population of around 50,000 and is known as "The Fair City" thanks to Sir Walter Scott, yes that's he of the Scott Monument in Edinburgh, luckily unlike the Scott Monument there aren't any monuments in the town that you'll need to climb to get those all important postcards from the city and after climbing the National Wallace Memorial in Stirling on Sunday I think I saw Looby visibly give a sigh of relief! "no hills today mammy"
"hurray" we both declared.

We visited the tourist information and I have to give the tourist information offices in the UK their dues, they could not have been more helpful, they've each helped me to achieve my goal, yes I realise it's their job to do that but each and every one of the staff at their offices have gone above and beyond, they've also all seemed excited about the project and when they get excited I get excited and when I get excited Looby usually gives me a high five or tells me to stop jumping around the room because I'm over excited.

Anyway, back to Perth where we didn't really do anything apart from walk and walk and walk and walk, oh and we did a little shopping, Looby needed her own mountaineering parka and she has this obsession with Rainbow Loom as do most tweens, if you don't know what they are you're either living as a hermit in some far off Hebridean island or you don't have tween girls ;)  I'm actually sitting typing this post wearing my red, white and blue UK Cityscapes rainbow loom bracelet.  When we bought Looby some from the toy shop (they cost around £1 a pack and a couple of pounds more for the starter kit with loom) the owner told us that he's selling around 1000 packets a day!

So, we didn't go to any museums or art galleries, we just had a lovely walk over the bridge and all the way back around again, that sounds like a small walk but it probably took us a good couple of hours as we stopped for photos, hid under trees while the rains once again tried to drench us and we meandered around pretty little parks and gardens along the way.  If you do the full walk around the banks of the river Tay you'll go across the railway bridge where you can literally stand and watch the trains go past you less than about five metres away, it's probably the closest i've been when a train has gone past, terribly exciting if you're into train type activities, I got a great photo of one on it's bonny way to Dundee and Aberdeen where the line goes to on that side of the track.

So, shall we get on with some photos?

That's the bridge there where the trains go along it right next to the pedestrian path separated only by a mental fence, in these days of crazy health and safety rules I'm surprised they haven't closed it to pedestrians

and there you go, you can really see just how close you can get to the trains, those lovely Scots have clearly got more sense when it comes down to health and safety, I said that to Looby when we found the best park ever complete with trampolines without nets and free standing climbing walls.

see that, a trampoline without a safety net, I would actually say that if you are going to Perth for a family holiday then you are in luck, it has the best park I have ever seen for kids, they have obviously invested a lot of money in there and I think if you took a picnic the kids would happily stay all day, there are so many things to climb in, slide down, weave through and lovely sections for all ages and there are plenty of seats and grassy verges for parents who want to keep an eye on the kids but not necessarily stick to them like glue, for that reason I give Perth a very happy family rating of 10/10, there are never enough places where you can go with kids which entertain them but don't cost anything!

To get on board with the project and say you made it happen you can pre-order your copy of the book HERE along with prints, canvases and other goodies, all of the images on this blog are available as a print or canvas

1 other thing for today, you may have noticed if you're a regular reader that my blog has had a bit of a makeover, well dear reader if you are a business and you're reading I might just have a great opportunity for you,  you can now purchase a 200px banner ad for only £20 per month or £50 per 3 months (yes, a whole £10 per month saving), these are introductory rates so take advantage.  I've been blogging for 9 years and there are days when I'm now getting up to 700 unique visitors so it's only right that I share that with people who believe in the project so get on board, enjoy the ride and grab yourself a great business opportunity to reach a global market, to purchase your 200px banner ad or for more information just email mandy@mandycharltonphotography.com