A (somewhat) brief summary of our 29 day holiday in Scotland:
Wednesday, June 26th.: Arrived in Aberdeen from Bergen, Norway, after having spent a week in Bergen. The flight from Bergen was one hour, 20 minutes, but as we were travelling west, into a different time zone, we arrived 20 minutes after we left Bergen. We picked up our car at the Avis office at the airport. We were ofered a Crossland, but when I got in to the driver's seat and realised how big it was, I knew that it would be unsuitable for single track roads. So we downsized to a Corsa, which turned out to be a great little runner.
One of the good things about having spent a week in Norway prior to arriving in Scotland was that we had no jet lag. On previous holidays, we've arrived in Scotland somewhat shattered after a transAtlantic flight in which we got no sleep. Needless to say, that always made driving a bit of a challenge.
After we left the airport, we headed in to town. The first stop was Morrison's, on West North Street, where we picked up our first chocolate of the tour. Deciding that we needed more time then the two hour car park limit at Morrison's I headed for the big car park at the Bon Accord Centre. As I turned right on to King Street, a disjointed voice came over the car's sound system, warning me that I was entering a low emission zone. I made a quick U-turn and headed off on a convoluted route to the Bon Accord Centre. After we reached the car park, we headed for the Vodafone store so that I could get a new SIM card for my mobile. Afterwards, we decided to visit some of the charity shops along Union Street and Back Wynd. Later we drove to the beach to get ice cream at the Inversnecky Cafe. Mrs A had a twist cone, while I bought a single nougat slider (vanilla and Scottish tablet flavours). I ended up wearing a good bit of mine, as true to its description, the ice cream kept sliding out from between the wafers!
We left the beach and headed to our favourite Aberdeen hotel, the Premier Inn North. We've been staying there on at least our last nine trips to Aberdeen. We settled in to our room, then headed off to have dinner with friends at the Brig o' Don restaurant. Our friends later took us to their gym near the harbour, which they have been running for a few years.
Thursday, June 27th.: Breakfast at the Scottish restaurant (McDonald's), as breakfasts at the Premier Inn are quite expensive. As we were desparately in need of a laundrette after our week in Bergen, I enquired at the hotel desk where the nearest one was. We were directed to an outside laundrette behind the filling station at the Bridge of Don. We had never heard of such a thing, but when we arrived at the filling station, there it was, out in the open - three washing machines and two dryers. As there was obviously nowhere to wait, we sat in the car and read as our clothes washed and dried. We were able to buy food (chocolate!) and drinks at the filling station while this was going on. Later, we went in search of a chemist's shop, as Mrs A needed some cough syrup.
Afterwards, we visited the huge Cancer Research charity shop near the beach, and bought more chocolate at ASDA. In the afternoon, we visited with friends, then took them out for dinner at the Ashvale Restaurant, which is an Aberdeen institution.
Friday, June 28th.: Breakfast sandwiches, juice, and fresh fruit from the Tesco in Danestone. Less than six pounds for the two of us. Better than the Premier Inn! After breakfast, we decided to visit the seal colony in Newburgh. Prior to that, though, we visited the charity shops in Ellon, and hiked up to the garden at Ellon Castle, which unfortunately was closed. There were hundreds of seals at Newburgh. They come in from the North Sea to moult. We could hear their calls half a mile away. Most of them stayed on the north side of the estuary, although a few swam across to check us out. (To be continued)