From Rolling Country Hills to the City of Aberdeen

Wedesday, October 26, 2016 ~ by Amy

Rolling hills of Scotland

I've never been a big fan of city driving and today's destination would have me driving through one of the biggest cities in Scotland. Thus, it was with great reluctance that I let the cozy wood fire burn down at the Bothy and packed up my bags. Our drive to Aberdeen was supposed to take less than two hours so we had some time to kill before we checked in at the Northlink ferry terminal. The cottage had a plethora of maps and literature about the area so before we pulled out of the narrow drive, we put a nearby castle ruin in our gps.

Our sweet-voiced navigator sent us down one narrow road after another, some ending in ancient, tumbledown farmyards, until we gave up. We pulled out our paper map and redirected back to the main “A” road, leading to Aberdeen. One thing I've come to realize about this trip...it will never be about how many amazing castles we tour or how much history we absorb. It will be about our personal experience with our day-to-day challenges, about the people we meet and about appreciation of the beauty of God's creation wherever we go.

The high hills around us have been dotted here and there with a variety of windmills and wind turbines. All along the narrow roads there are pull-offs so that you can let faster traffic safely pass. At one such pull-off, we found a sign detailing the nearby wind farm.

Foudland Wind Farm

A few of the thousands of wind turbines scattered over Scotland's hills

We tried unsuccessfully several times to find a little pub for lunch in one of the towns off the beaten path, but finally gave up and let ourselves be drawn (through a million roundabouts) into the city of Aberdeen. As we pulled into town in our way-too-fancy for us car, I must have bumped a lever while fumbling for the windshield wipers. My car suddenly was governed at 20 mph. It was fine while we were driving through a university area and the speed limit was 20, but when we moved into a 30 zone, I almost panicked when I couldn't go faster. Finally we pulled into a gas station to figure it out. There was a lit button by the radio dial that Alyssa pushed off. When we pulled back out of the station, we were governed again, but later it seemed to go off by itself. I nearly lost it then and had a good cry right there in the busy traffic but didn't dare. Later we discovered that there was a little hand signal down below the wiper switch that I had bumped when I turned on the wipers. It could be set to hold down your speed at 20, 30 or 40 mph. A handy feature when you know it's there.

The outskirts, between the university and downtown, seemed to be mostly Chinatown. We were surprised then, to see a Papa Johns Pizza.

Papa Johns, downtown Aberdeen, Scotland

Once we started seeing a few places that might work for lunch, we began looking for parking. Seeing few option, we tried to find a lot with the car gps. It took us through some pretty sketchy areas, including down a back alley. 

Back alley, Aberdeen, Scotland

 When we finally got to a lot, the max time we could buy was one hour. That wasn't even enough to walk and eat lunch, let alone wait for our ferry time. I asked a woman walking by and she suggested Union Center. After a few wrong turns we found it, a very nice mall area with a huge parking lot. Better yet, it was right across the street from the harbor!

Ferry terminal ~ Aberdeen harbor

We had a late lunch of butternut squash soup in a department store cafe and then browsed around the shops. Each of us bought a pair of cozy slippers to wear in the many apartments that request we don't wear shoes inside.

NorthLink Ferry ~ MJ Hjaltland

The earliest that we could board the ferry for our 7:00 pm departure for the Shetland Islands was 5:00. At 4:45 we drove to the terminal and got into the queue of cars. At 5:00, we were let through a gate one at a time. We had paid for valet parking so that we could just leave the keys and walk up the ramp with pedestrians instead of parking and waiting to go up later. We found our room, at the end of a long hall, to be both roomy and cozy. There was a nice en-suite bathroom with a shower and fluffy white towels. In the main room there was a tiny vanity that doubled as a coffee bar.

Room #256, MJ Hjaltland

I had paid in advance for a half portion of a three course meal so we went and ate in the dining room. I wasn't expecting a cruise ship type experience but it was a little disappointing. The room was pretty shabby, empty of people, and very cold. It was dark out by then so we couldn't watch the rather wild water outside the window. To be fair, it is now winter here and it's probably mainly locals using the ferry so it's understandable that it was largely unoccupied.

There was a storm warning given in advance so we knew the decks were all closed for the duration of the sail. We were thankful that we had a such cozy room to go and read and talk in.