Bitesized Scotland

Aberdeen Edinburgh and Glasgow

I was very fortunate to be flown to Scotland by work to take part in some field meetings and managed to grab a couple of hours in the afternoon in Aberdeen and a couple of hours in the evening in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

My rather quick bimbles around these beautiful, yet very different cities have left me wanting to make a more thorough investigation into what they have to offer. Quite remarkably not one spot of rain appeared and I was able to enjoy the sunshine everywhere I went.

I now present my whistle-stop taster guide:

Aberdeen

There for such a short time I only had a chance to wander along the very long high street and loop back before having to leave. However I noticed many of it’s shops and markets had names long since disappeared from southern England, almost like stepping back into my childhood. The architecture comprises imposing and majestic granite monolithic buildings and a great park can be found between the main roads down wide stone stairs.

Edinburgh

A dramatic scene awaited me when I walked from my hotel on the wide stone street at the bottom of the hill and walked toward the great road bridges crossing to the old city built repeatedly upon itself almost as a real life Gormenghast:

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Along the Royal Mile toward the great Edinburgh castle I find delightfully steep and beautifully preserved stepped walkways with fabulous names:

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And finally I arrive at the castle itself:

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This is a city made for bimbleling and I am looking forward to whiling away many an hour in its higgledy-piggledy streets.

Glasgow

Put simply, Glasgow is enormous. It is astonishing how far the sprawl of the centre seems to go. Set out on a not completely grid like grid I found it very easy to lose my bearings and loop round on myself whilst failing to find my way home to my hotel. This was made all the more challenging as the setting sun lines up with the streets heading east to west, shining straight into the eyes of pedestrians, making only one side of the street navigable at any one time!

Glasgow is a strange mixture of old and massive ornate stone buildings and new and old concrete monstrosities masquerading as office buildings and somewhere I would like to try and get my head around.

I also have to have a ride on the famous metro underground train, I have heard it is rather cute in comparison to the crazy-busy one I am used to in London.

This post has been waiting to be published for ages as I’ve been hunting for the photos I took. Unfortunately it  looks like they are on the mini-SD card I put in a safe place when I got my new phone. If and when I find it I shall update this post. However if I ever neded an excuse to go to Scotland again I now have one. 🙂