Tour of Scotland Take 2 - Saturday/Sunday

This weekend was the second May bank holiday weekend. I did not have to work on Monday, so I hired a car to travel around and see more of Scotland with my friend Chris.

When I got to the car hire place to collect my Vauxhall Corsa, the guy asked me if I would be interested in a Smart fortwo if he gave me a discount. He showed me a car, which was very cute, just big enough for 2 people, with very little boot space. Since it is not a car I would normally drive or hire, I agreed to take it with the discount. It is a city car, with a Mercedes engine, small so that it can be easily parked and not meant to be driven over 80 mph (the speedometer goes up to 85 mph only). It turned out not bad at all, big enough for our purposes, including the distance and country roads, and quite comfortable too.

We actually wanted to go up to Glencoe, near Fort Williams, where the scenery is very beautiful, but there was no accomodation to be found. Apparently there was some bike event in that area so everything was fully booked. In the end we decided to go to Peterhead, just north of Aberdeen on the east coast, which I have not yet been to. We stayed at the Waterside Inn, a nice hotel with pool and gym facilities, plus a nice 50% last minute discount. Although the area was not very exciting, pretty flat and mostly farming country, the hotel was good and the food served in the restaurant was really good. We had Aberdeen Angus steaks for dinner both nights... yum! There were some very cute (wild) rabbits running around the fields when we looked out the windows during dinner.

It was a very pleasant break for us, to be away from Edinburgh, but not in the mad tourist mode, so we can have late nights and lie-ins, long breakfasts and some swimming, sauna and steam room (but did not make it to the gym!).

On Sunday, when we finally could be bothered we drove around the area. We went to Haddo House but did not pay to go in. Instead we had cream tea at their restaurant. Then we went to Tarves to visit the medieval tomb of William Forbes, the Laird of Tolquhon Castle. From there we found Tolquhoun Castle (click on More for more pictures). It was an interesting place, still quite intact, but left a lot for the imagination.