Day 14, June 27, 2024 Aberdeen Scotland to exploring North East Scotland

 

We were thrilled when we woke up that it was a partly sunny day rather than raining as it rained hard throughout the night.

We were excited because this is a day for us to go on a nine hour sprinter tour to northeastern Scotland. We would be heading down the coast through fishing villages, and beautiful stops. Our tour was booked through a very fine company called Rabbies, and we had a lovely group of people primarily from the US, but also from Australia and Estonia, who would be in and out of the bus all day long as we soaked in the beauty of the coast.

Our first stop was to see an ancient stone that was known to have Celtic carvings on it. it was difficult to make out exactly what the carvings were, but it was cool to think that for thousands of years people were in this beautiful land.

Both are driver, Chris, and additional tour guide, Alan were natives of the northeastern Scottish area and had so many wonderful things to tell us. We learned about the shift in Scotland from being so focused on oil to renewable resources, including lots of wind and water producing power. We also learned about the shifting of the fishing industry from focusing on small fishing boats to larger more corporate-owned vessels.

Each time we were stopped in an area, there were so many beautiful things to see. We again were so grateful we were seeing it in the sunshine rather than in, the drizzly wind rains.

We stopped for lunch in a beautiful town where a traditional fish dish called Cullen skink (basically a potato haddock soup) was born. We had to try a bowl and it was a very hearty soup. We ate lunch with a lovely couple from Chicago who were in Scotland for a family wedding. Nice to chat and hear about their travels.

One of the stops we made was very, very windy, but it was a beautiful traditional fishing area that the puffins had settled into. So the area was filled with birds flying: puffins, gillemots, and seagulls. Puffins are always wonderful to see, even from far away.

The last stop that we made of the day was a castle, Slains Castle, that had been the inspiration of the Dracula story. The author was in this area and could imagine a vampire count living there. It’s history was a little more tame. There had been a castle there which had been destroyed as part of the Scottish wars of independence. A family built a nice manner in this beautiful spot, but it has a deteriorated over the years. We enjoyed the views and scrambled around looking at this amazing castle.

In all we drove around 150 miles, but covered a couple thousand years of history and saw some really beautiful things. In the afternoon our guide put on a soundtrack of various music of Scotland concluding, of course Scotland the Brave on the bagpipes. It was a wonderful small group tour and we really enjoyed ourselves.

Back to our Airbnb to do a little grocery store cooking dinner, and then off for a good night’s sleep. Although we had mostly driven, we still ended up walking quite a few miles today and we were very tired but satisfying.

Day 13, June 26, 2024 Stirling, Scotland to Aberdeen, Scotland

We had the opportunity last evening to put in our made to order breakfast orders. Colin is quite a chef with many years experience and created a lovely adaptation of a full Scottish breakfast for us, including edible flowers. There was eggs and lots of types of sausages and ham,bacon, and porridge or oatmeal, juice, grapefruit, toast , potato scones, coffee, and tea. More food than any two people can eat, but we tried our best. We felt fortified for the day, heading off to go to the farthest points north that we will be on this trip, to Aberdeen Scotland.

Our host offered us a lift to the train station which we appreciated. It was a rather a cool gloomy day and it was nice to be dropped off rather than walk through the city streets. We had a lovely time in Stirling and feel like we got to have many good experiences here.

We had worked out our train schedule earlier and were able to negotiate the ticket machine to print them. Each place and railway company has its own different ways with the tickets and how we figure out which train to go on. So far we’ve gone on about 10 trains, And only one of them was running late which caused us to miss a second train and have an extra hours wait. Not bad for using a lot of public transportation.

The train trip was an easy 2 1/2 hours without needing to change trains which we appreciated.

Once we arrived, we were able to walk about a half mile to our Airbnb place where we could drop off our suitcases early because we were going on a walking tour of the city, Aberdeen. We very much enjoy these walking tour led by local guides to give you a quick understanding of the history and the industry of the area. Sometimes they’re full of all kinds of juicy facts sometimes they’re kind of corny. But always worth doing. The tour of about an hour and a half was just right for us, it was a combination of street art, stories of the 900 year city history, and local people. We learned things we would never have guessed having just arrived in Aberdeen.

Then we walked back to our Airbnb and settled in for the evening. We did a little bit of laundry and mostly had a chance to rest. All of this travel is rather tiring. We cooked frozen pizza and went to bed early. 

Day 12th June 25, 2024 Paisley, Scotland to Stirling, Scotland

 

We lingered over breakfast with last conversations. The Servas stays are by nature only two nights, which is good, but nearly always leaves you wishing to have a little more time together. We headed off in our different directions. 

Dick and Patti walked the third of the mile to catch the train into downtown Glasgow Central. We then had only about a four block walk to the next station. Then it was a little over half an hour to catch a train to the next town, Stirling.

Stirling at one point was one of the most important castles in all of Scotland and we would have a night in the area, enjoying learning about its history. We were able to arrive in the late morning and so had a little bit of time to look about the town before we did a early drop off of our luggage at our interesting historic inn where we are spending the night.

This place was several hundred years old and at one point was a blacksmith shop, and it was not so long ago a restaurant and now a bed and breakfast. Our host owned the restaurant and part of the amazing thing they have to offer is what is called a “full Scottish breakfast”, which we will look forward to eating the next day.

Having dropped off our luggage, we went off and found a small park where we ate our lunch from our Servas home and then spread out a blanket for a rest. Dick was having memories of the musical Brigadoon, set in Scotland. Patti was able to find the musical sound track on her phone and we spent a lovely hour dozing and listening to this romantic music. Very lovely!

Then, we walked a short way to meet our guide for a tour around the town of Stirling where we could hear more about the illustrious history. It was an informal small tour, but we learned many interesting facts about this area that was considered at one time the most important castle in all of Scotland. It was here that Mary Queen of Scots was coronated, where Robert the Bruce and William Wallace (made famous by the movie Braveheart) fought epic battles. And Bonnie Prince Charlie invaded England from here.

This town has 900 years of history and it is fascinating to think we walked the streets where kings and queens had walked.

Following the city walking tour, our guide brought us up to the castle and we went on one hour tour with a very enthusiastic young tour guide who told us many tales. It was the final tour of the day and we were tired and the skies were brooding with some sprinkles starting in the middle of our tour. We could’ve lingered longer, but we were ready to stop. It was a good tour, with many wonderful stories.

Google maps showed us the shortest way from the castle was taking what was called the Kings Stable Lane that took us down this quiet path where we could imagine horses being ridden and lead from the castle straight down the hill to the street where we were staying.

We got back to our Airbnb, a house that was built prior to the 1500s and had been many things, including  the shop for the blacksmith for King James up in the castle. Our innkeeper was Colin and his wife Betty. They had bought and rehabbed this place that had been in very bad shape and made it into a charming bed-and-breakfast. There was time for Dick to join in with his family zoom call give a little report from Scotland.

Then we walked about 10 minutes to a dining room in an old hotel, The Golden Lion Hotel. There we had a nice fish dinner and then walked back to our B&B. We spent a little time watching some of the soccer, Dick worked on pictures and then off to sleep. By now, Patti‘s feeling quite a bit better with a cold, and Dick is sneezing and has a very stuffy nose. Time for bed.

Day 11 June 24, 2024 exploring the Glasgow Paisley area

Time for a nice leisurely breakfast. We enjoyed the fresh home baked bread that Duncan made, as well as the homemade jams and marmalades. So nice to continue to get to know one another and share common experiences.

We were invited to have coffee and scones at fellow Servas members, Dany and Frances.  They had been hosts to our good friend from San Diego, Mary Beth last year.  They were delightful, with an amazing garden filled with wonderful plants.  And Sandy also sang a terrific song about the grocery chain Aldi’s which we all enjoyed. He also had a little book of poems about Scottish football (soccer).

Later in the morning, we headed off to a wonderful art museum called The Burrell. This is a place that Duncan and Roisin have been many times and they both had a wonderful permanent collection of many amazing pieces that were gathered by this local wealthy art collector over the years. The collection was eventually donated and is filled with not only amazing pieces done by famous artists, such as a Rembrandt self portrait, but also a lot of really wonderful interpretation. The architecture was really done to take advantage of the wooded setting and natural lighting. And there were many wonderful, interactive videos and ways to help people, especially children to enjoy the collection.

The highlight was special collection of works by Degas. Mr. Burrell had collective many of the Degas pieces, but also there were many that were on loan from a whole variety of other collectors and museums. We all were amazed by the drawings, paintings and sculptures that were gathered together.The tapestries were amazing. What a treat.

We had a delightful lunch in the café in the museum, enjoying the beautiful natural light. We spent a full day enjoying much of the collection but eventually needed to stop.

We drove back and had a beautiful homemade potato leek soup and homemade ice cream for dinner.  We then sat up late into the night catching up and sharing experiences of traveling and working on peace and justice issues. We are very pleased to have these new friends that we have so many shared interest in values with. At last,  it was time to head off to bed.