Duff House

I know, I know. It's been too long.  I've been struggling to get back into the writing with the end of this adventure looming ahead of me on Sunday. Don't get me wrong, I am excited to head back to the states where I can have Mexican food, ranch dressing, refills on drinks, and countless other magical things.  This gray, calm city has become my home, though, and you always get a little twinge in your stomach when you are about to close another chapter in your book of life.

Tolquhon Castle

Anyway, let's get back to business.  After Edinburgh we set out for what was supposed to be a quick drive up to Macduff town to visit the Duff House.  Dad was not as excited, but he made up for it by making us take every detour imaginable.  Our first stop was a real feed store operating out of Insch, Scotland.  The Norvite Animal Nutrition Company reminded us of Jake's Feed Store in Longview, only this one had a lot more sheep based products.  In order to drag Dad out of there, (he was basically like a little kid, always wanting to stop and look at tractors, boats, water) I promised him a castle that we had seen a sign for just past the feed store.  Tolquhon Castle was built by William Forbes in 1584.  It is most known for it's impressive Gate house, which is good because that's all we got to see of it.  November is not the big month for tourism here as the thermometers all say 4-5 degrees so the castle was closed.  We had a good five minutes looking around before our fingers and toes started complaining about the freezing weather in their southern accents.

We stopped for lunch in a promising little town that had more than five houses, which is all it takes to have a town here.  Mom and Dad had their hearts set on finding some of the good Scottish Angus beef.  We found a cute cafe and were excited to see burgers and milkshakes on their menu.  The waitress came up to take our order and informed us that they were out of burgers.  The look on my parents' faces were like little kids had just been told that recess was cancelled...for the year. It was priceless.  Dad still ordered his chocolate milkshake and was disappointed to find out that Scotland's milkshakes are just chocolate milk that you have to stir yourself.

Duff House with Mom and Dad

Moving on. Finally arriving in the town of Macduff, we pulled in to the expansive Duff House estate.  The fall colors on the trees were absolutely astounding.  There was a public playground and field that all the locals came out to use.  Architect William Adam, who fathered the Adam brothers most known for creating "Adam style" decorating, built the Duff House for William Duff the Earl of Fife in 1735.  The story goes that William and William got in a huge debate about costs for stone cutting masons.  The main house was already built, but the wings that were supposed to go on either side of the giant house were put on  hold as the two men took the issue to court.  It took five years to resolve the issue, after which William Adam won the case but passed away due to the stress of the whole ordeal, and William Duff abandoned the house and would draw the shades on his horse carriage whenever passing it.  The house passed through time as an early twentieth century hotel, a private hospital, and a home for countless troops during World War II, not all at the same time, of course. It turns out that the Northeast of Scotland was a great place to plan attacks on Germany.  The House has a painted Norwegian flag over the fireplace left over from a Norwegian troop as a painful reminder of the war.  The nice little tour guide was explaining all of this when he asked where we were from, which we all answered Texas.  He studied me and said, "You don't have the complexion of being from Texas."  
"Oh, well, I've been living in Aberdeen for the past three months, we don't get much sun there," I said.
"Yes, I see you are kind of a gray color like the city."

I didn't know what to say.  My parents openly laughed. We thanked him for the information and then were unceremoniously kicked out of the House because it was closing.  A quick play on the playground and we headed back to Aberdeen to tell Allen all about our adventure we had.  

Edinburgh

*Ding* went the door as I stepped in.  "Hiya Kara, how was the car for you?"
"Hi Scott, it was great. Sorry about all the dirt on the carpets..."
"That's alright, gives our cleaners a challenge."
This is the conversation I have every time I set foot into my local Enterprise Car Hire.  We are all on a first name basis by now, which might be a sign that I travel too much.  They always want to know where I am going or where I have been and I realized that all of you might want to know as well (or at least I am going to pretend that all of my devoted readers do).  Mom and Dad left yesterday morning giving me a chance to rest from the adventures and share some with you.  Shall we start with Edinburgh?

After St. Andrews we headed down to our hotel in Edinburgh.  A quaint little hotel that had seen better days back in the 1800s.  But it worked as a home base, and the restaurant was lovely.  We utilized the bus system since Edinburgh (pronounced Eh-den-bur-ah) was currently experiencing construction on every single street they had ever created.  First stop was the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art overlooking the Queen's Garden.  The paintings were beautiful, some unusual, but our personal favorite was by Peter Graham in 1878 entitled "Wandering Shadows."

Click on the link to see what it looks like:
"Wandering Shadows"

Edinburgh Castle 

The Edinburgh Castle has a huge long history that I will attempt to summarize into a couple of sentences.  In 638 AD the Angles people (originally from Germany and also the people who settled in Britain, hence the term Anglo-Saxon) captured Din Eidyn and renamed it Edinburgh.  In 1130 David I built Edinburgh castle on the giant rock that stands overlooking all of Edinburgh town.  Throughout history is was alternately captured and recaptured by the English and the Scotts trading off in horrible sieges that usually resulted in having to rebuild most of the castle.  St. Maragaret's Cathedral is the only original part of the castle still standing from 1130, the rest is rebuilt throughout time with the last edition being in 1578.  The castle was amazing and giant!  Unfortunately, when you are with Allen, no stone may be unturned and you must experience every nook and crannie before leaving.   It was only made worse by the fact that he had an audio guide.

Scotch Whisky Tour

The next day was filled with a Scotch Whiskey (spelled Whisky in Scotland)Tour.  Originally called "usquebaugh" (meaning water of life in Gaelic) it was shortened to "usky"/whiskey in English.  The only people who are allowed to call it Scotch are, of course, the Scottish.  Whiskeys made elsewhere in the world are typically referred to as bourbon or just plain whiskey, but never Scotch.  There are only three ingredients in Scotch, but Scotland argues that the fourth is Scotland itself.  The four different types of whiskey areas create all different tasting whiskeys: bad, worse, tastes like a campfire, and Nyquil in a glass.  As you can tell I was not very partial to the flavours.  When they offer you water to add to the drink in order to soften it, you know it must be strong.  I love it when people say the phrase, "it's an acquired taste." As if after putting yourself through torture a hundred times you'll wake up and realize that your taste buds have been killed off and you can now stand the taste.  Whatever your taste, if you like Scotch this really is the best place to try it.  There are countless numbers of distilleries in a small amount of space with infinite numbers of flavors.

Anyway, it was a lovely trip and we got to experience Edinburgh in all its beauty.
More later!

St. Andrews in Fife

Mom and Dad arrived last weekend bringing some much needed sunshine to Aberdeen. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't quite as excited by their arrival and the sunshine quickly went away and the threat of Aberdeen's first snow storm loomed ahead for the end of the week.  On Thursday we escaped the bad weather and piled into our little rental car with an Alan, an Allen, a Karen, and a Kara (so confusing) to head south to discover Scotland's game: Golf.  Before some of you readers immediately say, "Golf is so boring, I hope she doesn't go into detail about the game," stay with me!....

(Fine, you can skip to paragraph three.)

The famous Swilcan Bridge on the 18th hole of Old Course

The game of Golf is proudly claimed by the Scots as their legend, even though the Dutch were playing "Kolf" on ice in the 14th century (I'm sure it was something entirely different).  The "Old Course" at St. Andrews is the first golf course built around 1400.  Turns out golf wasn't as quiet of a game back then since it was banned in 1457 by King James II because it was interfering with mens' archery practice.  He was a kill joy.  The Scottish, being the wonderfully resilient people that they are, politely ignored the ban and kept on playing on their courses.  The golf ban was repeated several times by different monarchs until finally King James IV tried the game himself and declared the ban be magically lifted.  Now, there are two stories over how golf courses derived to have 18 holes.  The original golf course actually had 22 holes (and you thought the game couldn't get any longer!).  There were 11 holes going out and then you turned right around, did the hokey-pokey, and played the same 11 holes right back in towards the club house (hence the two different colored flags, white going out and red going in, so you didn't get confused).  The first story says that the golfers at Old Course in St. Andrews decided that the first four holes (which are also the last four holes) on the course were too short and they therefore combined them to make two holes.  Thus, we have the template by which all other courses were made, 18 holes.  Of course, I like the second story better.  In 1858 a member of the St. Andrews board suggested that the reason there should be 18 holes is because it takes exactly 18 shots to finish off a fifth of Scotch.  So, when the Scotch ran out, the game was over.  18 holes.  I like that story much better.  

Dad at the first tee

Anyway, we decided that it would be a true shame if we didn't actually play golf at the original birth place of the game.  The sun was peaking through the clouds and the wind was whipping at our backs as we rented clubs and balls to conquer the historic greens laid out in front of us.  Dad took his place at the first tee, and after studying the unique hills, taking into consideration the speed of the wind, and the thickness of the grass on the green, he hit a soft putt out onto the putt putt course.  That's right.  We played putt putt.  Not just any putt putt, though.  This is the warm up putting greens that famous golfers have practiced their finishing shots on.  Unfortunately, none of their talented charms were gracing me as my score would have rivaled any good golfer on a full golf course.  

In front of the Putt Putt Course

After our fun on the greens, we called it a day and headed south to Edinburgh where we would learn that construction and wrong side of the road driving, leads to trying whisky followed by Banoffee pie (a magical concoction of bananas, toffee, and cheesecake).

More later.  

Warming up after an
intense game of putt putt

Northern Highlands

This past weekend Allen and I headed off on a journey that was planned as far as my nose.  I had secured a car and two hotel rooms in the town of Craigellachie and Thurso, neither of which people had ever heard of.  I started to get a little worried about me pushing this weekend excursion to northern Scotland when Allen's coworkers, the Scottish natives and our Scottish experts, asked us,"What's up there?"  The Northern Highlands: "...a wilderness experience of the far north...its all but empty grandeur will leave the strongest impression."  Armed with throat lozenges and Dayquil for Allen, we embarked on our trip with little more than a hope that I knew where I was going.

The first hotel in Craigellachie turned out to be charming.  I was most impressed with the fact that the hotel had real candles lit everywhere, this was a small detail that Allen thought was not that exciting no matter how many candles I pointed out.  I was also a tab bit overly excited about the heated towel rack, the complimentary robes in our bathroom, and the fact that our key had an adorable bronze fish attached to it.  Apparently, these are small things that normal people would overlook, but it all adds to the experience, I say.

Dunrobin Castle

Saturday morning we headed off to Dunrobin Castle located near Golspie in the Sutherland area.  The trees have been changing their colors from green to the shimmering yellow and golds of fall.  The Castle grounds were astounding.  As we showed up to buy our tickets for the tour, the nice gentleman told us, "Hiya, here ya go. The falconry exhibit starts in a bit."  If Allen thought the little bronze fish key could throw me into a frenzy of excitement he was not prepared for this new development.  We bypassed the castle and headed straight out to the gardens.  The Falconry site was in a corner next to the sea offering the best view of the fairytale castle while the soothing sounds of the Norwegian Sea rolled and tumbled around on the coast just over the great stone walls.  The birds were fantastic.  Eagles, owls, falcons, hawks; they were beautiful.  Andy Hughes, a professional Falconer (coolest job ever), gave us an hour long showcase of four different types of hunting birds.  The art of falconry is arguably dated back to 2000 BC or 400 AD (there is actually a fair amount of debate on this subject).  Andy explained the differences between the birds and their amazing eye sight (a falcon has 80/80 vision) and lopsided ears (owls have a lower ear on the left than on the right) which make them incredible, silent hunters.  Andy fed the birds "chicken nuggets" which I was disappointed to see  were cute, fuzzy, baby chicks.  Don't worry, they were already dead.  At the end of the presentation, Andy left the owl out on the bench so we could have pictures with him.  I felt like I was in Harry Potter and I had my own owl!  The castle was enormous and beautiful and I was on such a high from the falconry exhibit that everything we saw made me squeal with excitement.

Rush Hour

Sunday brought on a lot of driving and beautiful scenery.  Allen and I headed to Smoo Cave, which is just fun to say, to see a whooshing waterfall inside the cave.  After telling Allen we could cross the river and not get wet, I got in the car with two soaking wet shoes and we started the long drive back home while listening to Christmas music.  Don't judge us, with no Thanksgiving over here we only have one holiday in between us and Christmas.  It helped pass the time and calm us on the one lane highways.  With only a couple "rush hour" incidents with some cows and a few sheep, we made it safely home armed with stories to tell Allen's Scottish co-workers what lies to the north.

Allen in Smoo Cave

Onward to more adventures!

Huntin' Nessie

First of all I apologize for my absence this week.  My friend Jordan came into town on Friday and we can blame her for the lack of blogs.  :)

Our bags were packed and ready to go.  The car was rented and filled with gas.  Allen, Jordan, and I were packed into the small Class B economy car on our way to Loch Ness on Saturday.  The air was thick with expectations of finding the Living Legend, The Loch Ness Monster, or since we are on friendlier terms, Nessie.  Having prebooked with Jacobite Cruises, the three of us headed straight to the Clansman Hotel Harbour to await for our 12 o-clock cruise.  The lady at the front desk was very kind and accepted my voucher and found our reservations.  She then told me, "Oh, you picked the right cruise there. You're the only three on the boat and the last one had 100."

This was it.  Our chance to prove to Scotland, no, the world that Nessie was here.  Maybe with less people she would be less scared to make an appearance.  Did you know that the story of Nessie goes back to the sixth century?  St. Columba came upon a group of Picts burying a man that had been attacked and drug down into the depths by a water beast in the Loch.  Hearing this story, St. Columba sent his follower to swim across the Loch (this is where I would have stopped following him).  The follower obediently began swimming and the water beast headed straight towards him when St. Columba told the beast to go no further, nor touch the man.  The monster retreated and the Picts praised God and converted to Christianity.  And so began the legend.

Anyway, by the time the boat arrived, the weather decided to provide a rain filled backdrop to add to the mystery of the infamous creature that swims beneath the murky water.  Two minutes of staring into the mystery we got cold and went downstairs where they have a cash bar and the best hot chocolate we have ever had.  Although we had our eyes glued to the windows, there was no sign of Nessie until we finally landed and went to the gift shop, then there were like a thousand!  :)

The cruise was followed by a quick trip to the Loch Ness Exhibition where they dashed our beliefs of Nessie ever being found or real.  It was definitely a mood killer and we were glad we had decided to take the cruise before our hopes were dashed on the rocks.  

Hope everyone is doing well.  Love!

Day Trip to Dunnottar Castle

Dunottar Castle

Although we only had to take a bus on Saturday, a few miles out of the city and you feel like you are in the most rural, historical, magical places you have ever seen.  Allen and I decided to visit the town of Stonehaven which is home to Dunottar Castle ruins and only 15 miles south of Aberdeen.  This is probably my favorite castle I have seen so far, and yet there wasn't much of a castle left.  It might have had something to do with the glorious weather that served as the roofs to most of the rooms.  I didn't even notice the hike down to the castle grounds as my bladder was filled to capacity and I was praying that there was a bathroom somewhere in the castle.  After I found the bathroom I had to wait for Allen to find me since I kind of just ran off without him.  You don't get in the way of a woman looking for a bathroom.  There were a lot of people around and I thought to myself as I was climbing stairs after stairs that I would finally have an answer to that ice breaker question "What's your most embarrassing moment?"  It was either going to be I wet my pants or I peeled off the very busy path and had to pee right there in front of everyone.  Either way it wasn't going to be pretty.  The lady at the front desk was no help when I asked her where the bathroom was, "Up there," she said with a general wave of her hand that I missed when I was looking down for cash to enter the castle.  Needless to say, I found the bathroom and then I realized what a beautiful place we were in.  :)

View from the Earl's private quarters

Owned by the Keith Family, Dunottar Castle area has been inhabited since the Pictish times (5000 BC- 700 AD).  It sits on top of a craigly cliff overlooking the North Sea and a perfect harbour.  In June, Puffins come and inhabit the cliffs in their migration and the seals, dolphins, and whales come to fish along the edge of the waters.  In the 5th century Dunottar (Dun means hill in Pictish) became the site for St. Ninian setting up a chapel and leading the Picts to Christianity and away from their Pict religion.  Then the Vikings seized the castle in the 9th Century.  Passed through hands and wars, Dunottar finally came to rest in one of the most powerful families in Scotland, Sir William Keith who became Scotland's Earl of Marischal.  So enough history, the place was gorgeous.

Stonehaven Harbour

After spending three hours at the castle Allen and I walked down to Stonehaven, which turned out to be more of a hike than we realized complicated by the fact that the road was closed.  The locals ahead of us told us, eh, you can go around it.  What they meant was, you can hang on the side of a mountain and pray that this path is actually going to lead us to town.  Once in town we found Miss Muffet's cupcake shop and decided that was the perfect way to even out all the calories we burned off walking the three miles down from Dunottar Castle.

Botanical Gardens

When I hear the word Botanical my mind goes to a humid, tropical place where the flowers bloom with color  and droop under the oppressive steam.  Nope.  Not here in Scotland.  The University of Aberdeen has a Botanical Garden named Cruickshank Gardens that isn't humid and tropical, but it has tons of flowers that are beautiful in color.  I donned my sweater and headed to the garden while the sun was out.  I didn't realize that Aberdeen University was doing a huge welcome to their "Freshers!," which is what they call their freshmen, on that day as well.  There were bands with bagpipes and free discounts for every business around Aberdeen.  After fighting the crowds, I headed to the gardens and was pleasantly surprised by all of the different types of flowers.  I brought my kindle with me and sat on a bench for a good hour soaking in the sunshine.  Just about the time I was getting sleepy, the rain started and left me standing underneath a big tree awaiting the next spot of sun.  

A little further down the road is Seaton Park.  This is filled with fields that the University can use for all different sports.  I was happy to see a team of co-eds training for ultimate frisbee.  Even though the flowers were great there too, I was more amazed at the public loo on the park.  First of all you have to pay 20 pence to get in to the stall, but the thing I was most impressed with was the automatic sink.  Put your hands under and it dispensed soap, then twenty seconds of water, and then blow dried all in the same place.  I did it twice because it was so exciting.  :)  Aren't you glad to see how well I am using my time here in Aberdeen?