For anyone who reads my journals, you’ll know that while I absolutely love getting away and exploring different places, I can get equally excited by discovering my own country – Scotland.
And that’s exactly what I’ve done again, folks.
My girlfriend and I went up to Aberdeen to visit her cousin’s for a long weekend, and we managed to squeeze a fair bit in our time there.
Here’s the highlights of The Granite City.
The Activities
Now, again, anyone that knows me will know how big a football fan I am. Equally, they’ll know that the team I support has a fair rivalry with Aberdeen…
Not to matter. Meghan’s cousins are big Aberdeen fans and I get on well with them, so, they took us on the tour of Pittodre! It was a lot better than I was expecting. I hadn’t been to the stadium before, but it felt steeped in history and heritage. I can see why Aberdeen are Scotland’s third biggest football team. Jokes!
They’re fourth.
Moving on. We also went to the beach! Now, I know that Aberdeen is near the sea, but, I didn’t think it would have habitable beaches. I was wrong. We went to a lovely beach called Balmedie. It wasn’t white sands and tropical sunsets, but it made for a lovely afternoon. If you’re in Aberdeen and have caught some weather, I’d certainly recommend going to the beach.
The Sights
I do love me a cathedral. Old Scottish law dictates that you can’t be a city without a cathedral, and to this day, it’s still matter of fact in many places. But, this just means that Scotland has the best cathedrals! St. Machar’s cathedral is up there with the best.
A lovely stone building that is in remarkable condition. Lovely, original wooden pews and some very impressive stone archways running throughout the main hall. The stained glass windows were also impressive and worth a swatch.
We also went to Craigievar Castle, which, I hadn’t heard of before until we were driving towards it. What the hell, I do enjoy a castle. It wasn’t the most impressive castle I’ve ever laid eyes on, but it was still worth the trip.
It was built with red sandstone which is unusual, well, unusual to me anyways. It kind of looks like a castle out of a fairy tale, as, it’s just this red, almost pink, tall castle, out in the middle of a field, itself. It just looks so out of place, but, as I said before, still worth the trip.
You should take a look at it for yourself.
The Places
Aberdeen is an old city, gaining the mantle in 1891, and, parts of it still look quite old – in a good way. I’m always fascinated by architecture and particularly old buildings. As we were driving about, Meghan’s cousins were pointing out some buildings for me sake. It was very nice of them.
Some highlights were Marischal College, which genuinely looks like an evil lair. It’s great! Another was the chapel at King’s College. A fantastic example of an old religious building still being used today.
Another thing that impressed me was how well Aberdeen have spent their money. Now, I said before that parts of it still look quite old. Well, parts of it don’t look old at all. With good work to be found in the Aberdeen oil industry, the city has reaped the rewards, with many fine and impressive new buildings. One, in particular, was where we were staying, The Village Hotel Aberdeen. One of the newer, and nicer hotels in Aberdeen, situated in a modern and impressive setting. I do recommend.
