Green, Gray and Getting Lost

GREEN AND GRAY
Thinking about the landscapes of Scotland (well, at least the parts we have seen so far) I visualize green and gray.  Our first look at Scotland was when we arrived in Edinburgh - taking the bus from our airport hotel into the city to catch the train.  The city is entirely constructed of granite.  It should last just about forever.  Then when we arrived in Aberdeen we saw that it too is constructed of gray granite.  Our taxi driver informed us that Aberdeen is also know as the Granite City.  A large quarry at the western edge of Aberdeen produced millions of tons of high quality granite for the city, was closed down in the early 70's and is now filled with water.  Recently it went up for sale at auction and it is rumored that it sold for something like 30k pounds sterling.  (about $45,000 US) and could be turned into water rec use or drained and used for rock climbing. Sounds like cheap property but expensive development.  Here's what it looks like on Google maps: Quarry

The rest of what we have seen so far seems to be painted in shades of green - dotted with white (sheep). It reminds us of Ireland (we did a home exchange in Galway a few years back).  Between the green and the gray, it is quite a contrast with our home in Mexico.  Oh, and did I mention the gray skies here?  Yes, they are primarily gray with occasional and sudden swipes of blue suffused with a few puffs of white.  Today, though, it was pure shades of gray.

So, what have we done so far in our explorations?  Yesterday, we ventured 2.1 miles from our house to Castle Fraser.  There seems to be a huge number of castles in Scotland - many are private, but this one is fully open to the public and owned by the National Trust for Scotland (they own 26 castles plus many other properties).  Here is a picture from the web (I have my own pictures on the camera but can't download them yet due to a malfunctioning card reader).

Castle Fraser

The castle had many rooms to explore and all were a mixture of original furnishings and copies of originals.  There were very few tourists there and we had a leisurely stroll through the castle and a couple of chats with docents.  The Frasers finished the castle around 1636.  It remained in the family until 1921 when it was sold at auction to the First Viscount Cowdray who gave it to his son Clive Pearson.  This family was very wealthy and enjoyed restorations and castles so they restored the castle and in 1970's, a daughter and her husband gave the fully restored Castle Fraser to the National Trust.  After touring the castle, we enjoyed a stroll through the walled garden on the grounds.   As an aside, the docent told us that Clive Pearson, a civil engineer, was responsible for draining the swamps around Mexico City and also discovered Mexico's largest oil field while building a railroad across Mexico in the 1890's.  

GETTING LOST

Today, Saturday, we ventured a bit farther out to the town of Ballater.  We wished we had brought our GPS with us and downloaded Scotland, but we didn't.  So, we have to resort to Google Maps and conventional paper maps.  I started out by printing instructions to Ballater from Google Maps - seemed quite simple and straightforward.  However, the roads here are not signed very often and turns are easy to miss.  There are A highways and B highways - and totally unmarked roads.  The major highways are "A" and the secondaries "B".  The main difference seems to be that the "A" highways have a marked center line - the "B" highways have no markings. Both are two lane roads with no shoulders.  

"A" Highway

"B" Highway

Somewhere along the way we turned right when we should have turned left and blundered on for a while until we realized that all was not well.  As we came into a village and pulled over to look a little closer at the map, I simply asked a gentleman on the sidewalk if we could possibly be headed in the wrong direction.  Yes, we were and so we turned around and headed in the right direction.  It wasn't too long before we drove into Ballater.  This is a small cute village and is known because it happens to be only a few miles from Balmoral Castle - the Royal Family's home in Scotland.  We did not visit the castle because it is closed during August and September.  That is the time that they are most likely to be in residence and since they only have about 50,000 acres I guess they want their privacy.  Several of the shops in town are used by the family to obtain their supplies. There was quite a nice looking butcher shop that had the royal seal of approval.  I was trying to picture the queen stepping up to the counter to buy some lamb chops. 

The skies were threatening rain but never really did more than a few drops (we noticed there were 4 umbrellas in the car just in case).  We walked to the old train station where there was a restaurant with fish and chips and that is what we had for lunch - very nice fresh and perfectly cooked haddock.  Afterward we strolled past the 2 blocks of shops and I found a memory card for my camera that is accepted by my laptop for downloading pictures so I am back in business photo wise.  We did not get lost coming home but did miss one turn and had to turn around.  Oh well.  We're not in a hurry.  

I wonder what tomorrow will bring?