Aberdeen & Aberdeenshire

 With Pedro itching for more summer adventures, we decided to explore a part of Scotland we haven't seen before.  Since the weather's been nice and a bit warmer, we went North, this time seeing the East coast. Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire has caught our eye one several 'Must See' lists so we aimed for sites around there.  I had two places in mind to see, the ruins at Dunnottar Castle and *possibly* puffins at Fowlsheugh cliffs. 

First off, I should say, Pedro got a car.  He diligently went through the somewhat painstaking process of finding the right car and learning all of the UK motor regulations.  All of this on top of going through the entire process of earning a UK driving license, essentially from scratch (road rules test, permit, driving test and all).   Pedro did all this to make his extra mural studies easier - driving to farms and hospitals at all hours is certainly easier than finding a train or taxi, but it also has the (not overlooked) benefit of being able to do weekend trips like this.

We left early morning on Saturday, planning on making it into the center of Aberdeen around 10am.  It was just under a 3 hour ride,  but it was through beautiful landscapes.  We enjoyed the usual mountains, sheep, and cows along the way.   One thing of note was the wildflowers blooming. Popping up throughout the patchwork of farm land were tall fields of bright yellow flowers.  It looked so interesting because they weren't sprawling out wherever they could, but neatly sticking to the square fence lines of neighboring space.  And they were so dense it like a sea of solid yellow in between the summer green. 

 When we arrived in Aberdeen, we had to do a few circles around to find a car park but eventually found one connected to the mall which was perfectly central.  Walking around a bit, we realized that yet again we forgot about Scottish business hours.  Most of everything was still closed. We hadn't eaten yet, so we walked around to find a café for brunch.  We stumbled upon a Venezuelan place with an authentic looking menu, including tequeños. TEQUEÑOS!!   This was often our guilty pleasure food on the way home from work back in Florida. Unfortunately it was not open yet, but we made a note to come back to it. 

We found an interesting little Alice in Wonderland café with fun breakfast food. Pancake tacos!

After we had our fill, we started to roam the streets.  We knew we wanted to see the beach, so we headed in that direction, seeing parts of the city along the way. There must have been a pride parade that day because we saw a few stragglers and the city had rainbows everywhere. The city also seems to like see their name in different places. 

The beach was complete with a theme park and ferris wheel, but was surprised us the most was how we couldn't smell it! Sounds a bit weird, but the Florida Atlantic beaches were so salty you could smell it in the air as soon as you were in the parking lot. 

We headed back to the city, minds set on some tequeños before heading to our hotel.  They definitely lived up to our hype. 

After a little rest at the hotel, we decided to check out Dunnottar Castle on the way to see the puffins. We already had plans to see the castle the next morning for sunrise photos, but the only the grounds would be open that early, so now was our chance to go inside. 

The grounds surrounding the castle were huge and surprisingly open.  There was access to the surrounding cliffs and the beach below.  We trekked straight up to the castle, knowing that tomorrow we would be back to see the grounds.  The 'castle' was all ruins, but what was left was more than most ruined sites, and still structurally sound enough to walk around.  The oldest structure being a stone chapel built in 1276.

I feel like you can't be majestic without being silly a minute later. 

Walking down to the beach, we could see the Stonehaven War Memorial in the distance.  It too was surrounded by the local wildflowers. 

We really had to drag ourselves away from the views at the beach.  We reminded ourselves we were coming back in the morning and left to go to the Fowlsheugh cliffs to see puffins.  What I didn't expect was the cliffs also having a beautiful waterfall.  

It was almost 8'o clock at this point, so there were only a few people on the cliffside facing the nesting grounds, and they were just leaving so we decided to wait.  We realized these were traditionally dressed Buddhist monks, which made the scenery look that much more majestic somehow.

Once we were alone, we carefully walked down to the edge facing the nesting grounds.  The birds there were all shades of black and white, perfectly camouflaged against the cliffside. I searched for any hint of that orange puffin beak, but to no avail.  Ah, well. Besides the seagulls, there were tons of a black and white seabird, which we identified later from the information plaque. They were Razorbills, which are in the same family as penguins and puffins. 

The cliffside was very secluded, very serene.  And we probably would have stayed there longer, but it we still needed to eat dinner.  We settled on the pub next to our hotel, and we were not the only ones.  It was a little over an hour wait for food, and while we didn't mind, we were also fighting off sleep with the knowledge we'd be getting up at 3am for our sunrise photos.  It was a very long, but good day.