Cam ower an gie’s a bosie (come over and give me a cuddle)

Sin sibh a h-uile duine (Hi everyone), failte gu Alba (welcome to Scotland).

Lang may yer lum reek (wishing someone a long & healthy life apparently!)

Well it’s been an interesting first week or so in Scotland. It’s been very windy, bitterly cold, sunny, warm and everything in between!!!  Unfortunately Trap & I caught a cold in Edinburgh so we ended up hunkering down in Aberdeen for 3 nights – taking lots of drugs (meds) and resting – I still have a bit of a cough but we’re definitely improving.

As many of you know, Edinburgh is a gorgeous city full of history & culture. Our holiday park was about 35 mins outside the CBD but there was a bus at the end of the driveway that took us straight there, so was very easy. We managed to get a new 3-month prescription for Trap from a prescribing pharmacist, although we now know how much the the meds cost when they’re not subsidised!!!! After a visit to the castle and medication searching on day one, we hopped on the hop on/off bus for a visit round the city on day 2 – it’s a great way to see the sites and work out where you want to spend more time.

After 3 days in Edinburgh we headed north to Aberdeen via Glenrothes, Ladybank, Dundee, Arbroath, Inverbervie & Stonehaven, following some questionable roads – am not sure what Google maps was following, but…..! Actually it wasn’t too bad 😊. As mentioned by the time we got to Aberdeen the head colds had taken hold and moved into chest colds, so we literally parked up, plugged in and went to bed!! A couple of days later we surfaced and headed into Aberdeen on our way to Inverness.

I have to say the Scots are an even hardier lot than the brits. I have literally never seen sooooo many golf courses in my life, perched on the edge of a cliff with guys in shorts and t-shirts in 10 degrees, 60km winds, teeing off! I mean there has to be thousands of golf balls in the North Sea. Meanwhile I am in a merino top, long sleeved T, woollen cardi and a fur lined leather bomber jacket I bought with hat & gloves leaning into the wind trying to hold the camera still enough to take pictures of the ‘seaside’! Aberdeen has a wheel like many cities in the UK – I am assuming at some point the wind stops long enough for people to actually use it. However they are harnessing the wind with windmill farms all over the country.

On the way to Inverness we popped into Culloden, which has changed a lot since I was there 25 years ago. Not the site itself of course but there used to be a small information centre, now there’s a museum, café, gift shop, tours etc. Although the last time I was there it was raining, howling wind and about -1 degree, it was a slightly more pleasant 10 degrees with a wind chill factor of 5!  However none of that takes away from the clan stones, some with recent flowers or the poignancy of the bloody battle fought here almost 280 years ago.

What always amazes those if us from the ‘new world’ is the sheer history there is over here, it’s everywhere. Every town, village has a story – you come across ruins and restored pieces of history everywhere you go and everyone has a tale to tell about something – whether you’re interested or not!!!

Arriving in Inverness, the weather actually improved somewhat – although still chilly, the sun peaked out from behind the cloud and warmed us up. Unfortunately, Inverness Castle was closed as it’s being restored and is due to reopen later this year, but we did wander round the town, have a pub lunch, view a few churches and have a look at the River Ness (which feeds into Loch Ness -  our park is on the banks). We also saw some awesome busker who were completely irreverant - not sure they'd get away with it at home (see vid below). We’re only a 5 min drive from the centre and there’s a bus that goes from about 5 mins outside the park. While the Invernessians (not sure if that’s a word) are on the whole a rather dour lot, we did meet some lively people on the bus who invited Trap “hey big guy come sit here” to join them in the back seat. Their clear plastic water bottle looked and smelled suspiciously like wine (I have  nose for this) which may explain their unusually bright demeanor. They also had a huge dog with them who was muzzled and sitting quietly beside them.

We have literally never seen so many dogs in our lives as we have over here – often it feels like we are the only people in the UK who do not have a dog. Although that is not scientific, I did look it up and 36% of households in the UK own a dog with an average of 1.5 dogs per household which amounts to over 10M households and around 15m dogs. Slightly higher than NZ at 34% of households or 680k households. How’s that for some statistics!!! 😊

We also met a very chatty woman (at the bus again) who literally spoke non-stop for the 15 mins we waited for the bus (and that’s coming from me!) and who asked if Trap was my father or husband! Her excuse – it’s hard to tell these days and I looked so young. Needless to say I found her delightful, Trap not so much!

We've had a lovely afternoon in the sun today drinking gin – wind died down and it got up to 20, so I broke a dress out 😊

We’re heading off on the NC500 route tomorrow which goes around the remote top of Scotland, so we’ll be off the grid for the next 5 days.

Gus an athchoinneachadh (until the next meeting).

J&T xx