ABERDEEN

 We drove thru beautiful landscapes of Cairngorms National Park today. Scotland only has 2 National Parks and we’ve seen them both. I love the country around Aberdeen, as it rolling farm hills and big vistas. Aberdeen is a very ancient Seafaring town with lots of medieval dwelling and sites. I loved it.  We were staying near the harbor and it was easy to walk everywhere. We went to a seaside pub for dinner and they were giving Scottish dancing lessons. Very common in Scotland. They want everyone to have fun! So have a few lessons we joined in the dance.  The next day, steve and I went to the maritime museum and we stayed so long, they closed and we had to leave. It was so well done and tons of info on the oil drilling rigs in the North Sea. Old old pictures of the sardine industries and ships and people who worked this job. Some of the old sea shanties are still lived in by artists and people who like the eclectic lifestyle by the sea wall.

The next day we went to a huge castle and had a tour of the grounds. This was a castle from  1200’s that had been used, remodeled, destroyed, rebuilt, abandoned and finally fixed up by a rich Scotsman. It was elegant and every art piece was original.  There was a small shop that sold fresh scones. The area around Aberdeen has the most castles of all of Scotland. 250 castles in various degrees of ruin and design. I would love to see more.

Finally, we had lunch at a special place called Fly UP. It trains mentally challenged people to have useful jobs and earn their own money and try to be more independent. It was delicious, and actually kind of emotional, as some of the people came and talked to us and explained what it meant to have these jobs. Then they let us take all the leftovers back with us.