In Scotland I found myself completely bewildered by the strange (to my ear) sound of Scottish Gaelic words. Two of them, Linne Foirthe, meaning The Firth of Forth, were brought to my attention on the morning of our visit to Edinburgh.
I actually heard it as The Firth of Force, confused by the British accent of our overly perky cruise director and internalized it as Colin Firth’s last name.
Firth actually refers to a Scottish relation of a Norse fjord, a narrow inlet, which was the body of water we had to traverse of off t
he ship on its tender to the village of South Queensferry. Several Scottish rivers, including River Forth, meet in that estuary (firth) to get to the North Sea in the historic area of Fife.
What’s in a Fife
To a layperson entirely unfamiliar with the wealth of Scottish history, several historic facts stood out. Kingdom of Fife is still the common reference to the present day county of Fife or seldomly used Fifeshire. For you history buffs, it has inland boundaries with Perth (Perthshire county), Kinross (Kinross-shire county) and Ckackmannanshire. Shire indicates anglicisation. A person from Fife is a Fifer. A fascinating detail is that Fife was once one of the major Pictish kingdoms, known as Fib. No fibbing!
St. Andrews, a famous town on the northeast coast of Fife, is the birthplace of the game of golf.
You must admit, it all sounds quite enchanting, doesn’t it?
The Bridges
The magnificent Forth Bridge is a UNESCO World Heritage bridge. It was competed in 1890, during the glory days of railroads. The Forth Road Bridge opened in 1964 and at the time was the largest suspension bridge outside of USA. The very elegant Queensferry Crossing is the latest; opened in September 4, 2017. Its construction cost 1.35 billion British pounds. Local lore dates the very first bridge to the Romans, who placedof around 900 boats, probably at South Queensferry in order to cross the Firth of Forth. Did you notice the ruins of an old castle on a tiny island in the Firth?
We crossed The Firth of Forth
On the morning of June 22, we crossed the Firth off the ship not by tender, but by local ferry 
boat to S Queensferry’s Hawes Pier, where we were greeted by men in kilts playing bagpipes and numerous hospitality volunteers, ready to answer any ridiculous question visitors may think of, directed to bus ticket seller, who sold us a combo S. Queensferry to Edinburgh and City Hop-On-Off bus ticket. We boarded the first bus right there, steps away, under the magnificent Fourth Bridge. We could have climbed the 650 or so steps to take the train, but we decided 
against it. And am I glad we did. On the way we saw some significant Scottish countryside and, sheep and cows and horses, too.
When we returned, we again boarded the local ferry, which we were told by its mates, can hold 225 including crew. It gave us glorious opportunity to photograph the bridges 
and the ship. 
Inside the tender, we would have been unable to do so.
On the plane to US, I chose a film from the catalog “The Lost King” and was pleased to see it was taking place in S Queensferry and Edinburgh, showing off the n ow familiar Forth Bridge…