Hope you are all sitting down….. two weeks and two blogs issued!
16 May – We left sunny Widnes, heading for Glasgow, stopping at Tebay motorway services on route, which is obligatory when driving north on the M6. A really good farm shop at Tebay.
Being cheap again, we booked a Premier Inn at Newton Mearns on the outskirts of Glasgow. Tickets for Kylie Minogue at the OVO Arena, a good show with a very diverse audience.
Before the concert we went for a walk across Glasgow seeing some of the old haunts, (Rog went to University at Glasgow Caledonian University 30 years ago). We have an early dinner at “Butterfly and Pig”. The menu promised much but failed to deliver.
Saturday, we visited the Falkirk Kelpies. Then Rosslyn Chapel (featured in the film ‘DaVinci Code’) an amazing 14 century chapel.
Then on to our accommodation in St Cyrus, 40 mins south of Aberdeen. An AirBnB flat connected to a family home, fairly isolated, and with stunning views.
Sunday 18th, we visited Glamis Castle, we were intending to only visit the garden and grounds, however the guy on the gate offered us access to the house as well at student prices, so we took it (at least he didn’t offer us senior prices!). The guided tour of the Castle was well done and really interesting. In the gardens it felt a little between seasons, spring flowers had gone over but the summer plants had not yet hit their best!
In the grounds they were holding an “Attelage”, no we had never heard of it either, but it was an event involving vintage carriage driving. Including a noise challenge, where they had to drive past a teenager playing to bagpipes! Another task was to drive the carriage to a stand holding a glass of champagne, the driver had to pick up the champagne and then drive a couple of metres further on before putting the glass down on another stand! Not as easy as it sounds!! All horses and carriage drivers were beautifully turned out.
We spent a good few hours wandering around. As we left the car park, there was an Oyster catcher nesting right in the middle of the car park.
Monday, we had a few admin jobs to do, it’s not all swanning about you know. In the afternoon we went for a short walk on St Cyrus cliff top and beach, it was a little windy, so we were a little sandblasted.
Tuesday, the wind had dropped, so we went back to St Cyrus beach for a much longer walk, along the beach to the nature reserve, then back on a path between the sand dunes.
Wednesday, we visited Montrose, had a walk around town, visited the Museum, (Museums or Art Galleries are always useful for decent toilet stops ! Especially as we often have our own coffee and sandwiches with us to eat in the park.)
We then went to see ‘Mission Impossible- the final reckoning’ at the cinema.
Thursday another day of jobs, re organising the car packing, and catering boxes, having looked at a long range weather forecast for our adventures next week to the west coast, we will need access to our wet weather gear, and the camping gear without getting everything else wet!!
Friday, we visited Stonehaven, about 20mins north from our accommodation. A nice harbour, we walked along the coastal path to Dunnottar Castle. We saw deer in the fields, and a weasel, near the war memorial, just hanging around, we have never seen one so close for so long.
Nic enjoyed another sauna experience, at a harbour side sauna in a converted horse box. Close to the sea for a quick dip. Rog had a beer at the Ship Inn.
Saturday, we drove north again to Aberdeen, had lunch in a Georgian cafe, found just through a Google search, delicious Khinkali. Then visited the Art Gallery and Maritime Museum, we didn’t linger in either but did a quick lap.
Had dinner in Zizzi’s before going to see Gary Barlow in concert. We may have inadvertently driven via the low emissions zone, we turned left out of a car park, when we should have turned right, obviously the Volvo is not low emissions, so may end up with a fine, we’ll have to wait and see.
Sunday, we checked out of our AirBnB and drove to the west coast via Huntingtower Castle near Perth, then Glen Coe, to Connel (just North of Oban). Had a nice meal and a few drinks in the Oyster Inn (luckily we got there early and managed to get a table, later they were turning people away).
Travurple 