We had intended to go to St Andrews on the way to Edinburgh (I’d booked accommodation in Edinburgh for the next 2 nights, so wasn’t too worried about getting there before 8pm), but that didn’t work out because we decided on a last-minute stop at Glamis Castle instead. I’m glad we did though, because Glamis Castle was great. It’s the birth-place of the Queen Mother, as well as Princess Margaret (and no doubt lots of other famous aristocracy). The castle is still inhabited by its Earl and family. They were filming a documentary at the castle and I managed to photograph the Earl and the interviewer.
But the first stop today, was Aberdeen, since we didn’t get a chance for a proper look the day before, and I’d glimpsed some nice things that I did want to photograph:
Next stop was Stonehaven. We parked on the harbour and had some lunch. It’s a pretty town and harbour and the restaurant we had lunch at was right on the water, so we had nice views. Some of these are from the second trip here…:
Next stop was Dunnotar Castle. We didn’t bother going all the way to the castle, since it’s a ruin and admission was being charged for it. We had lots of other things we still wanted to see, too. But I took a couple of photos from the parking area:
Next stop was Glamis Castle. We nearly didn’t stop here because we were pressed for time, but I’m so glad we did stop. This castle was the one where the Queen Mother was born and raised, and had Princess Margaret. The castle is still inhabited by the current Earl, so parts of it were private. The castle was nice from the outside and the tour guides were nice. Of course, like all interesting places, no photos of the inside were allowed:
The Earl was being interviewed for some documentary about the castle that was being filmed while we were there, so I got a photo of him. He’s the one with the hat:
We now were running out of time to get to Edinburgh, which was still a bit off, but we had to stop to photograph the Forth Bridges on the other side of the Firth from Edinburgh:
By the time we finally got into Edinburgh and found our accommodation at The Thistle House, it was around 8pm, so we dumped our stuff and headed into town for something to eat. Our host, who’s Indian, recommended an Indian Restaurant (Suruchi), which was more than the 15minute walk away that he told us, but was very nice. Almost as good as the one in Glasgow. I took a couple of photos along the way, since I couldn’t resist the beautiful University and some sort of church. It’s just as well I did, because the next day we took the bus in and I didn’t get another chance to take photos of those two:
We stopped off for a last drink at Reverie Cocktail Bar. It was very nice, and the only reason we stopped was because I saw a whole bunch of people in the window playing music, like at a traditional Irish Bar. It was fun to watch and listen for a while, before braving the cold again to get back to our B&B.
