Dunnottar Castle

SUNDAY - August 26
After checking the weather forecasts from various sources, we decided that today would be better than tomorrow for an outdoor activity (as I write this on Monday, I can say that we were right).  Our destination: Dunnottar Castle - less than an hour away.  It lies on a cliff overlooking the North Sea just south of the town of Stonehaven, which  is south of Aberdeen.  Our exchangers recommended this as a "spectacular location" and when we arrived, we totally agreed.

Looking towards the castle from the path

Getting there was not too bad - we only missed 2 or 3 turns.  Oh well - we're getting used to that.  In our defense, there is usually no warning that you are coming up on an intersection so it is very easy to go past if you are a foreigner.  The first one we missed even as we went by it and ended up going into Aberdeen and catching a different highway down to Stonvehaven.  Oh how I wish we had brought our Garmin with us!  

At the castle, we found a parking space on the side of the road and entered the property.  The castle looked pretty far away - actually - it was 2600 ft of trails and stairs (182 of them) to the top.  It didn't seem too bad though because it was a gradual slope most of the way.  As we started up the trail, I could hear the faint sounds of bagpipes.  Eventually, we arrived at the source of the sound - very fitting!

We finally arrived at the "Keep" - the entrance tower - slightly weak kneed from the climb but it was well worth it to see this stunning site.  The castle ruins are mostly from the 1600's but the site, it is believed, has been used as a fortress since the Dark Ages.  And, what a view!  We walked around the several acres of ruins along with other tourists - but it was far from crowded.  The history of Dunottar is quite interesting so you can read about it HERE if you are interested.  We wandered for an hour or more and after exploring every corner, we headed back down - which really was quite a lot of up along with the down.  

After all that climbing and walking it was time for Sunday afternoon dinner so we headed down along the coast toward the town of Cutterline and the Creel Inn, recommended by our exchangers (however, they did say it was tricky to find).  We managed to find it with only a bit of uncertainty turn even though quite a bit of the way was on single lane roads (I will have to call these "C" roads).  The village was right on the sea but the restaurant did not have a view - it was a block or two off the coastline.  We each ordered one of the daily specials - I had the Sunday Roast - leg of lamb in a red wine sauce, roasted potatoes and veggies.  We also divided an order of crab soup.  John, who needs to remain kind to his implants, ordered the whole plaice, a mild white fish similar to sole.  Both of our dinners were excellent.  

After a very pleasant dinner with friendly staff (and of course, they wanted to know where we were from), we took a quick look at the harbor which was beautiful and rugged.  Then we headed home - missed a couple of turns again, but arrived safely and without encountering any rain.  Actually the sun came out for a while. 

As an aside, John is doing quite well driving on the left side of the road as they do in all of Great Britain.  The last time we had to do this was in 2008 when we home exchanged in Ireland.  And then when we were in Australia and New Zealand.  The first two days were a little "nervous" but now he's more relaxed and in the groove.  Fortunately, we have not had a lot of traffic to deal with.  

Well, that's all for today and if you would like to see more of my pictures from yesterday, you can CLICK HERE.

The weather is kind of ugly today so we are hanging out in the house, doing laundry and just being lazy.

Getting There

The downside of doing home exchanges across the pond is getting there.  Here are the many steps it took before arriving in our first home exchange in Cluny, Aberdeenshire, Scotland:

Sunday 11:15 a.m. - taxi to San Miguel bus station
Sunday 12:00 p.m. - Bus to Mexico City Norte bus station
Sunday 3:30 p.m. - Taxi from bus station to Mexico City airport
Sunday 9:45 p.m. - Flight on KLM non-stop to Amsterdam - 10 hr flight
Monday - Arrive Amsterdam around 3:00 p.m. their time - Hang out in airport
Monday - 9:40 p.m. - 1 1/2 hr flight on Easy Jet to Edinburgh
Monday -  10:10 p.m. - Hilton Hotel shuttle from airport to hotel - 5 min. - Collapse into bed.
Tuesday - late morning shuttle back to airport.
Tuesday - Airlink bus to Edinburgh Waverly Train Station
Tuesday - 12: 45 p.m. First ScotRail train to Aberdeen - 2 hrs
Tuesday - 3:15 p.m. Taxi to home exchange - 30 min.

Not surprisingly, we were very happy to arrive at our "home away from home" and really, we had no problems along the way.  We had a little sleep on the plane but it is very difficult to sleep in those tiny airline seats.  We had the opportunity to upgrade at a hefty price but decided it was not worth it - plenty of time to recover upon arriving at our final destination.

Our home "Broomhead"  is a very old granite "cottage" with 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, open kitchen, dining and living room plus a lovely bright solarium overlooking lush gardens with no neighbors within view.  The sound of a babbling brook across the road is soothing.  The house has been completely modernized and we felt quite at home from the first day.  Our hosts had left us enough food to get started and a nice bottle of wine.

WEDNESDAY,  August 22

Unfortunately, John experienced some problems with his dental implants just before we left Mexico and while his Mexican dentist made some temporary adjustments, we knew there could be problems on the trip. Well, the first evening, the dentist's adjustment loosened so we knew he'd have to find a local dentist.  We received a recommendation just a few miles from the house, called and got right in to see him.  144 lbs (that's British Pounds Sterling) later, he went home thinking all would be well for the duration of the trip.  Wrong.  The cement fell out during dinner.  Bummer.  No sightseeing yet, but we did buy a couple  few things at Costco (lamb chops and wine) after visiting the dentist.

THURSDAY, August 23

Another call to the dentist to see if he had a Plan B.  Again he got right in to see a dentist (different one in the same office) who admitted that he did not have the right tool to tighten the implant but he phoned a dental surgeon in Aberdeen that he knew and drove us there.  This time, it is looking good so far.  We took a taxi back to our car at the other dental clinic and then did some shopping at Marks & Spenser - a wonderful store - lots of high quality food - many items partially prepared in servings for two - just pop them in the oven. Wonderful items that don't require a lot of preparation but taste home cooked - perfect for vacation.

By the time we finished all the above, it was too late to do any sightseeing other than a little walk down the road.  However, the roads are very narrow in the country (we are definitely in the country) - so it requires much caution - especially on curves.  There are no shoulders - you just have to step into the abundant greenery.

I prepared a simple dinner from Marks and Spencer ingredients and along with a nice bottle of Australian wine and no more dental disasters, we are optimistic about tomorrow.

Weather:  So far, the weather has been pretty decent for Scotland.  We were prepared for cool, cloudy and rainy so have not been disappointed.  However, we have actually had more sunshine than we expected - a bonus.  The weather seems to change in a matter of minutes.  During the day it is in the 60's - just right for a light jacket.

Taxi Drivers:  We had nice experiences with the taxis.  The driver who brought us here from Aberdeen was very talkative and well versed in many topics:  history, geography, politics, etc. and had lots of questions for us - quite entertaining.  Our other taxi driver was also talkative and had many side trip recommendations.  Both taxis had meters - not cheap but certainly good service and very pleasant.

It is now Friday morning and we have made our first sightseeing plans:  Castle Fraser - I will report in the next blog post.  Unfortunately, no pictures to post yet - my memory card reader isn't working and I'll have to find another before I can download pictures to my computer.  Stay tuned.