The Trimmier Life

When done in London (although I think we could have stayed there 3 weeks and still not have ‘been done’), we hopped on a flight with Nick and headed back to his flat in Aberdeen (he’s living there while working for Drill-Quip) and started the second leg of our England journey.  Once arriving in the eastern part of Scotland we grabbed dinner at Soul, one very interesting place.  Several churches in the area have, over the years, been converted into businesses.  When a church would no longer be able to support itself, instead of closing its doors forever and being torn down to make room for a new business, the city decided to sell the buildings so that the architecture could be seen and used for years to come.  Personally, I think this was a great idea – I mean, what a waste to tear down such wonderfully exquisite  buildings dating back centuries.  I understand that some may not agree with the use of religious buildings as regular businesses, however if the alternative is to lose the building forever, I believe the right choice was made.  That being said, Soul was one such building.  Although the outside of Soul looked like a traditional, gothic-styled church, the inside was a testament that the modern world had taken over.  Bench seating lined the walls and a square bar stood in the center of the room.  Booths and tables surrounded the bar and the pulpit is now the DJ stand (weird, but cool all at the same time).  Even weirder, the upstairs of the old church had been converted into a casino — full fledged with slot machines, black jack tables, craps & roulette – I must say that the enormous stained glass windows really added to the ambiance of both parts of this restaurant/casino.  The food was good too – skink soup (yes, skink) was a fist for us, but we enjoyed it!

Day 2

Our first full day in Scotland kicked off a whirlwind of castle touring.  Nick had half the day off and drove us out to Stonehaven where we walked through the ruins of Dunnottar Castle.  Lucky for me, the history continued (see London blog) in this unbelievably picturesque castle that was perched on the edge of beautiful cliffs and sprayed by the chilly northern seas.  Dunnottar was once the hiding place of the Scottish regalia (crown jewels) which are the oldest in Europe!  The grounds of the castle were quite expansive and provided plenty of picture taking opportunities…I was enamored at the beauty of it all.  We walked through the kitchen areas, the Warden’s Quarters, bedrooms, the brewery, and stood in the chapel.  A-MAZING!

Dinner (after a few pints of course) that night was in the cute town of Stonehaven …as we watched the tide roll out of the bay, we dined on scrumptious seafood at The Marine Hotel.

Interestingly enough we were home before sundown – Scotland sun rises around 4:30am and sets about 10:30pm!!  Talk about maximizing sunlight   I LOVED IT!

Day 3

Nick was brave enough to lend us his car throughout the week since he walks to work and Dustin was more than brave enough to drive every round-a-bout that he could find on Scotland city streets!  In fact, he drove us all the way to the Queen’s summer home, Balmoral Castle, between Braemar and Ballater (about 40 minutes outside of Aberdeen…even though it was only about 20 miles away!).   We quickly found that the roads (even the highways) were never quick.  They were very windey with lots of switchbacks and once you got off the main road, most were 1 way with very few passing opportunities.  This made most trips much longer than they would have been in the states…we never really went faster than 50 miles per hour.  If we had been comfortable enough to speed though, we could have.  There isn’t really a police presence on the roads, but there are speed cameras.  But have no fear, before you get to a speed camera, there will be a sign letting you know as well as big yellow reflective stripes on the ground alerting you…really….

Although it rained throughout most of our drive and tour, the castle’s allure couldn’t be dampened…it’s huge Baronial style tower stood at the front of the property demanding respect from all who stepped foot on the grounds.  Just walking up to the dilatant estate we felt as if we should stand taller…the aura of pomposity could be cut with a knife!  We walked the expansive gardens (the entire estate encompasses 24,000 acres) taking time to stop in the conservatory and to stroll along the River Dee (very peaceful).  It was apparent how easy deer stalking would be on the property, with all the wooded areas for wildlife to live.  Deer stalking (aka deer hunting) is a popular past-time of the royal family!

After touring the ballroom and having a biscuit with jam (very popular snack over there), we headed back to meet Nick and his friends at a cute little boutique hotel, Malmasion.  After a few drinks we headed to Prohibition (a pub) to catch the Manchester United versus Barcelona soccer match.  Barcelona won (2-1), night over…

Day 4

When I talked about the whirlwind of castle touring earlier in my post, I was mostly referring to this day of our trip.  We saw 3 castles on day 4…Fraser, Crathes, Drum…all spectacular, the first 2 still having some of their ORIGINAL contents.

Castle Fraser.  A z-plan castle begun in 1575 by the 6th Laird of Fraser, Michael Fraser – completed in 1636.

Crathes Castle. Begun in 1553 by the Burnetts of Leys after the land was given to them by Robert Bruce.  Robert the Bruce actually gifted the land in 1323 by presenting Alexander Burnard (Burnett) of Leys with a carved and bejewelled ivory horn…we saw that ivory horn with our own eyes!!  The building was completed around 1600.  The Green Lady’s Room is said to be haunted and the Chamber of the Nine Muses and the Chamber of the Nine Nobles have magnificent Jacobean painted ceilings.  The Long Gallery has an oak-paneled ceiling decorated with heraldic carvings.  There are over 500 acres of ground that surround the castle along with walled gardens and massive yew hedges.

Drum Castle – one of the oldest tower houses in Scotland dating back to the 13th century.  We didn’t go into Drum, but the outside was magnificent!

While driving from castle to castle that day, we saw some of the most vibrant and ebullient countryside we’ve ever seen.  I had a hard time capturing it on camera, but the easiest captured was the bright yellow crops that were often seen along the roadside.  The yellow stood out from the surrounding land and really made a mark on the landscape.  We later found that the crop is rapeseed and it’s used to make canola oil.

Day 5

We couldn’t take it anymore, we had to sleep in and that we did, waking after noon!  It was quite nice since we had been burning the candle at both ends for over a week…although we had wanted to tour more of Old Aberdeen, we did get to see some of the city.  Nick was gracious enough to take us for a drive around town and down to the North Sea. The streets in Aberdeen are lined with massive granite buildings and city codes require that new buildings/businesses/homes be constructed of mostly granite.  You would think that it would make everything look arid, but it doesn’t at all – it actually makes everything very uniform and clean.

After eating at Nawaabs (my first Indian cuisine experience), we hopped around town sampling what the local pubs had to offer.  We met a lot of Nick’s friends, all who were very fun and friendly.

On a rather random note, this was the funniest thing I saw in Scotland…and perhaps one of the funniest signs I have EVER seen!

Now, it would be impossible to end this post without talking about the royalties that were present throughout our Scotland journey.  Although a lot of the royal treatment occurred within the beautiful castle walls hundreds and hundreds of years ago, the most impressive and most meaningful royal treatment came from a quite unexpected source…our awesome host, Nick!  He really went out of his way to ensure that we were comfortable and that we were getting the most out of our vacation.  Nick, we can’t say THANK YOU enough…you made our vacation better than we ever imagined it could be!  Your superfluous hospitality did not go unnoticed – London & Scotland were 1000 times better because you were there!

To see all of the pictures from our Scotland adventures, click here.