Landed in Aberdeen on the ferry- great crossing, we upgraded to a cabin crashed, wine, beer cheese platter....what more could you ask!
I took the opportunity to color my hair, after 5 weeks travelling in a car with Greg, the greys were showing big time. We both had taken some seasickness pills and we both slept really well, the crossing was uneventful - thank god!
We awoke to a drizzly foggy morning in Aberdeen. Drove around the city, it is a working town, some nice buildings, but with the port it's a bit disjointed and we probably didn't do it justice, but we were off to Balmoral for a look at yet another castle.
We drove from Aberdeen through the Grampian mountain range to Ballater, what a gorgeous town, he drive was absolutely lovely, from here we drove on to visit balmoral castle. The current queens holiday home. This one was discovered and purchased by queen Victoria and she and Prince Albert spent much time here. The current queen spends 6 uninterrupted weeks here every summer and has a big ball at the end. We missed her by a week or so.
The castle is lovely, the gardens are great, set on the river Dee, with gaming forests surrounding, yes they still hunt. I have learnt that a 12 point stag is a royal and a 14 point is an imperial, know idea when I will use that bit of information. But they have a stag building in the grounds, looks like an enclosed bandstand and it is adorned with 10 point antlers, but inside they clean, gut and skin the stags and store them for eating!
From balmoral we went into the closest little town called Braemar. Another pretty town in the highlands. And then on through the bridge of cally to Blairgowrie. This drive is a must for anyone in this part of Scotland it really is beautiful.
Out of the mountains to Perth and along the peninsula (of sorts) to St. Andrews. Stop off here for some photo opportunities a chance for Greg to lament his golfing skills, other than the golf course the town is lovely, it has a nice university and some ruins. Very pleasant to wander around, and as we did find a pub for a pint. Now we tend to do this a lot, find a pub for a pint, but our quest is usually 3 fold.
1. We're usually thirsty
2. We usually need to pee
And 3. We usually need wifi
St. Andrews provided all of these, we booked some accommodation for the next 2 nights in Edinburgh, we had a pint and a pee then set off to photograph the golf course.
Of course after all this and wandering back into the village, the beer had worked its magic and we had to find some more facilities. Now I don't know if we have mentioned this before but in many places in the uk you are required to pay 20p is the average to utilise the public facilities, Greg is disgusted, it's a basic human right after all. However each of these facilities employs an attendant to relieve you ( see what I did there) of your 20p and issue you with a ticket before you enter. It might be a good career for those who need to "work for the dole"
From here we drove to Edinburgh, found our accommodation and a great Italian feed and settled in for the evening, we had arranged to meet Neil/Danny Goss the next day for a guided tour of this gorgeous city.
We starred off meeting Gossy and jumping on the big red bus, Gossy had never done the tourist thing even though he has been here many times with his lovely wife Kate and her family. So it was a joint discovery trip, and I think we managed to all learn something. We disembarked the bus after one circuit and went off in pursuit of a coffee in the park, the day had started off cool and the castle was shrouded in fog. However while we satin the park the fog lifted the sun came out and so too did the people to enjoy the sunshine. We took off and Gossy led us to a place called The Dome. A place of significance, it's a bar with a beer garden in the sun right in the middle if the city. Here we sat and contemplated the problems of the world, we ate lunch and drank many coronas. After such time it was decided, Gregory needed a kilt. We set of in pursuit of this quest, then left Gossy with a promise to meet after for dinner.
We caught up again a couple of hours later, at a place called Raeburn House in Stockton, where we also caught up with Kate.
The next day Greg and I took off and and did some more tours of this great city ( city sightseeing have 5 different tours) and also trekked up the hill to the castle. It was a great morning touring the castle we were there for the 1pm canon and ball drop then we made our way back picked up or luggage and packed the car and bolted off to Newcastle.
Getting ready for the tattoo.
Caught this guy trying to follow us!
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