Within a couple of hours, I arrived at Dundee, my first destination. I had not heard great things about Dundee, other than the historic ship that they have on display. I was expecting a small, characterless port town, but I actually rather liked it. It had a couple of very striking bridges across the river Dee, and some quite nice buildings. The shopping centre reminded me of every other shopping centre I've been in, especially Southampton, but the city itself made me think a bit of Liverpool. My only grudge against the city of Dundee was that I couldn't get my hands on any Dundee cake, because it was "out of season", and that was my main purpose for visiting! (that and it being en-route to Aberdeen, and somewhere new to explore). Even the large supermarket just outside the city centre didn't stock it, although in fairness all the local bakeries in town were closed for the day by the time I arrived. I had, as I promised myself the week before, taken a lazy weekend, at least for Saturday!
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| The big Dundee Bridge through a sort of heat haze |
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| Dundee looking more like Leamington Spa (it excites me that I'm now well travelled enough to make these comparisons!) |
From Dundee I drove directly to Aberdeen. I was very excited every time I saw a sign for a new county - Angus, Aberdeenshire, and then the city sign itself. After getting only very slightly lost at first (City driving is definitely where I miss GPS the most) I found the hostel, a big beautiful grey victorian house, on a street full of big beautiful victorian houses. At the end of the street was a statue of Queen Victoria herself. The street was called Queen Street.
I was pleasantly surprised when I checked in too, this was a really nice hostel, probably my favourite in the UK so far. There was one girl in my dorm. I decided we would be friends, and after a chat, I persuaded her to come out with me. She was from Germany, and said this was a return visit to the UK because she loved it so much. She wanted to move to St Davids in Wales. Germany thought that the geographic diversity of the UK made it the most beautiful country she had been to, and she had been to most of Europe!
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| I had a bit of an infatuation with this amazing staircase at the hostel! |
We set off for Old Town Aberdeen, north of the city centre. We were west of the city centre, and we walked for a long time, at least two miles, along King Street (they're apparently big monarchists in Aberdeen), the road which would purportedly lead us to the old town. There are a lot of men in Aberdeen. Men of all ages, teenage lads too. I never felt unsafe, but I was glad I had Germany with me. She taught me German words like Kopfkino (literally Head Cinema, for when you can envisage something in your mind's eye) and Ohrwurm (literally Ear Worm, for when you have a tune stuck in your head!) I didn't teach her any english, because she was already fluent - she had studied it as part of her degree.
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| Sunset on Aberdeen College |
Eventually we gave up on Aberdeen's elusive Old Town, and returned back to the city centre, picking up pizza, chocolate, and some breakfast ingredients on the way. We considered stopping for a drink, but decided it was late, so Germany and I chatted in the hostel kitchen, exchanging travel photos and plans whilst I gorged on pizza. (Germany had already eaten). We turned in at about midnight, and I slept restlessly, waking up just after 3am and convincing myself my phone had reset to the wrong time, because it was so light outside
Eventually I got up at 7.15. I snuck out of the dorm (no chance to say goodbye to Germany as she was planning a Sunday morning lie-in) and after a quick breakfast, drove to Braemar.
The drive to Braemar was straightforward enough. It was very well signposted despite being a tiny village, because it is a relatively popular tourist spot for the area. It is also close to Balmoral, which, in hindsight, I regret not checking out.
In Braemar I changed into my hiking boots and met a couple of ladies from the hiking group I had joined on Meetup.com. Together we followed a trail up into the serene pine forest, on an undulating two mile track east of the village, including some fantastic views down over the city, all the way to the still snow-capped mountains of the Cairngorms. There were also some good viewing spots of Braemar Castle, which we agreed was austere, but satifyingly castle-like, with crenalations and turrets, unlike the more rambling Edinburgh or Stirling castles.
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| About a third of my photos were a variation on this theme, i.e. trees. |
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| Braemar Castle |
The morning quickly became stiflingly hot, in a way that makes you drowsy and sticky. Luckily my companions felt similarly lethargic, so at a spectacular vista with a wooden bench, we took a moment to enjoy the view, and (I admit) recover a little. They were a friendly pair, both sore from a big day of hiking yesterday, where most of the group had done a 30 mile trek from Aviemore to Braemar, through the Cairngorms, around Scotland's second, third, fourth and fifth highest mountains! I shall have to drive that route someday!! They told me about the hike and how rewarding and enjoyable it had been for all the pain. Although it sounded magnificent, I knew that I needed yesterday's recovery time, so I didn't fully regret my decision.
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| The view where we sat for a while. The house had originally been quite modest apparently, but had expanded over its colourful history. It was a base involved in the Jacobite uprisings. |
A short way down the trail, we reached a signpost offering us two options. One was short and forested - about one mile. The other was long, and less sheltered and potentially less scenic - two miles. I thought hard about it and decided that despite the fact I was running out of water, two miles wasn't long, and I hadn't come all this way for a mere two hour walk!
It was a good choice. The trail was quite pretty, reminding me in places of one of my favourite forests back home - Tangham forest in Rendlesham. Many of the trees here were 'farmed' for the forestry commission, so they were all straight with sparse trunks and nothing but pine needles beneath. Now that there were only two of us, conversation was much easier. My companion told me that she was originally from Hungary and had moved to Glasgow, and now Edinburgh. We discussed places to see in Scotland, and agreed that Plockton was beautiful (see the post below for more information about Plockton) and that Skye needed more than a weekend to enjoy (hopefully there will be a future post about my travel in Skye, I haven't been yet!) Hungary was a great chat and we even had a few easy laughs along the way about travelling solo and hiking in a group. We returned to Braemar much sooner than I had expected, and enjoyed a cake and drink together at The Bothy (an attractive large cafe with a good selection of cake but rather begrudging service) before heading our separate ways.
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| The sign seemed so inappropriate I had to take a photo! |
I drove the A93 south, a road which would take me directly to Perth. The A93 quickly became my new favourite drive, overtaking the A82 when it runs alongside Loch Lomond. That had been my favourite road in the country for two years, but we had a new winner! The A93 is a spectacular mountain pass, weaving along the valley floor with lots of little hillocks to keep you on the edge of your seat, whilst ensconsing you in fantastic views of the immense mountain rage. There were some good downhill blasts as well, where I could take my foot off the acceleration peddle entirely and just cruise down without losing any speed (99.9MPG woohoo!) I can't wait to drive it again!
I stopped off at Blairgowrie for lunch. My principal motivation was that I thought it was in Angus, which I hadn't really visited yet - only driven through- but to my disappointment it fell under the area of Perth and Kinross. Nevertheless, Blairgowrie was a beautiful picnic spot for a summers afternoon. I watched some local boys splaching around in the river under the bridge, bathed in the sunshine and listened to the birdsong and the babbling water as the ocasional car passed over the bridge.
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| You can just about see the buys under the bridge |
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| Blairgowrie church above what should be a small wier, but there wasn't enough water to go over it. A few metres down stream was a dead salmon floating on its back |
When I returned to the car though it was very hot, insufferably hot. I stopped very briefly at Scone Palace but otherwise drove straight home, desperate to escape the smothering heat of my oven-like vehicle.
That evening I wondered up to Byers Road to check out a rumoured street party. There was a side street cordoned off, filled with happy people drinking in beers and sunshine, but I had a better idea, and picked up a small tub of icecream from Peckhams the grocer, enjoying a lazy walk home in the evening warmth, eating icecream as I went. I reflected that I was really doing quite well at weekending!
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