The trip up the coast

I have just returned from what might have been the best day in a long while--the culmination of an overnight trip up the east coast to Aberdeen and back again. The recap is as follows:

We began the jaunt by driving up to St. Andrews, home of the oldest university in Britain--founded in 1410. While the Uni was nice to see the main attraction in the town are its cathedral and castle. Both are in ruin but they hearken back to the day when St. Andrews was the ecclesiastical capital of Scotland, housing some of the human remains of Andrew, Jesus' disciple. Anyway, the coast really reminds me of Maine--the smell of the salty air, the gorgeous coast line, and of course all the tourists. I think it was the only time in the past three weeks when I've actually missed Maine--the land that is, I seem to always miss the people.

Next it was up to Dundee. As the guide book spelled out clearly, Dundee is a nice city but doesn't have much for the tourists. They tell the truth. Dundee is located right along the River Tay, making it a large port city. However, it's relatively low class and rather ugly--no offense to those that call it home. So, the most we saw was a drive along the main street and a stop at a Shell station for "petrol" which was a relative bargain at only 99p per liter. Yes, that's right, 99p a liter.

The to Abroath--a one hit wonder. It houses the ruins of Arbroath Abbey, where in 1320 the Declaration of Abroath was signed, a document which was written by Scottish nobles to the Pope declaring Scotland's independece. We were the only ones there, except for a large group of young Muslim girls, probably from Egypt. It was a nice stop, but the town obviously has seen better days.

Last was Aberdeen. We had never seen Aberdeen so the whole family agreed that we should make the nearly 4 hour drive north to see it. Aberdeen sucked. Well, most of it did. Aberdeen, like Dundee, is a port city. However, Aberdeen serves as Scotland's oil capital, receiving a great amount of imports from all over the world. So, we unknowingly checked into a hotel for the night. It seemed nice enough, rather basic but nice. Then, because we were so tired, we went to the restaurant in the lobby for dinner. 10 pounds for a bleeping burger. Little did we know at the time that the hotel served business travelers, mostly oil related, whose companies didn't care what the bill was. So, we ate our below average meals and paid an arm and a leg. The next morning we explored. Aberdeen is known as the gray city because its buildings are predominantely built from granite. We did manage to see Pittodrie Stadium, home of Aberdeen FC, a fun attraction. Other than that we just got lost in the city center for a while and left town.

Good ridance.