Aberdeen - People and Places

Having blogged last week about the sleeper train travel from London to Aberdeen and return, this week a word about the city, its people and environs is apt.

We stayed at a family run hotel near to Aberdeen railway station, which had the advantages of being near to the station and more importantly not being part of a chain of hotels. 

 

Having  arrived in the morning at about breakfast time and being too early to check into our

hotel, we opted to have some breakfast and then took an open top bus tour of the city where we were the only passengers. Later after checking in we began to explore the city. 

 

The nearby museum was small but free and interesting. There was for example, a  scale model of one of the Scottish North Sea oil rigs.

 

 

People in Aberdeen seemed remarkably friendly, possibly as a result of the years of many oil workers and other visitors from the rest of the UK and beyond. 

 

The Aberdeen Douglas Hotel had attached, a popular cafe/restaurant so we ate most of our meals  there. The food was enjoyable and fairly inexpensive.

 

mrs maytrees tends to enjoy her lie ins most mornings whereas being an early riser, I tended to go off for long pre-breakfast walks including to the docks which were nearby and the sea shore which was quite a trek away.

 

Interestingly one can just make out from the picture below an oil rig in the distance as well as wind farm propellers. 

 

The walk to and from the deserted beaches was long and I passed several rather run down streets. There was an old London Eye type wheel and what presumably had been a holiday fairground but they were now largely derelict.

Both the harbour and the sea shore had in my view seen better days and possibly as a result of the government actions, oil drilling in the North Sea, for both Scotland and the UK is winding down too fast in my opinion.

 

After early morning walks I tended to have a coffee and read The Times newspaper before returning to the hotel to meet with mrs maytrees.

 

 

 

An interesting trip we took on a local bus was to Balmoral which the Royal Family use as their Scottish hideaway. We both enjoyed that trip and the food and drink at the Balmoral cafe were largely local, We had a great lunch there. 

 

Other sights of Balmoral included the castle which we did not visit as it was undergoing major repairs of some kind, and a store for pheasant or perhaps deer that was killed for eating later though the interesting looking store house see right, is not currently in use.

A final picture before we left the extensive grounds and garden of Balmoral is that of mrs maytrees at the entrance gate.

 

 

Overall our brief stay in Aberdeen was excellent especially as everyone we met was most welcoming.

 

We both enjoyed a single malt whiskies  on the train back to London - a fitting end to the Scottish break.