(Cue the Wallace and Gromit theme tune!)
I love the British pragmatism of the “Bank Holiday Monday.” People need a day off occaisonally and there’s no reason why a designated and named day is required. Let’s just close all the banks and offiical offices on a Monday and call it a day off. It’s even better when not everyone gets the day. This past Monday was the spring Aberdeen Bank Holiday so I had the day off and it was time to go explore! Weather in Aberdeen didn’t look promising so we headed north to Moray where the sunshine was glorious and the temps were comfortably around 16 or 17 C (60ish for the Farenheit folks).
Starting in Elgin, we played tourist at the cathedral, parts of which date back to the 13th century. It is the historical home to the Bishop of Moray. Even though most of it was destroyed during the Reformation, the remains are still an impressive structure. We learned all about stone masonry, climbed one of the towers, wandered the graveyard, and got to see Bishop Archibald’s reconstructed effigy from his burial in 1298. Astounding to think of how old things are!
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With our history itch scratched, it was time for lunch so we were off to the garden centre for some baked potatoes and paninis. If you have not yet experienced a Scottish garden center, you are in for a treat. Not only do they sell plants, outdoor furniture and other garden implements, some sell furniture or groceries and booze as well. And every one that I have ever been to has had a cafe that did everything from scones to roasts. This one was no exception and while we could have had the pork loin or haddock mornay, we decided to stick with simpler fare. We wandered around the town while our lunch settled and then it was time to hit the road – there was more of the north coast to explore.
A braugh sunny day is the perfect day for the beach so off we went to Lossiemouth – at the mouth of the river Lossie! We stopped to get some ice cream from a shop selling more types of sweets that I’ve seen in ages. Then it was time to walk the gorgeous sandy beach with our sweet treats (including sour plooms and shrimps!). We even found the campsite where Frank thinks his family went on holiday MANY years ago!
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Then a short drive brought us to Cullen, an amazingly lovely seaside town – possibly one we could see ourselves retiring at someday. More wandering about town where we found: public toilets labled in Doric (I’m the quine, Frank is the loon) and a very bright dinosaur head sticking out of an empty building. Apparently this has caused much concern amoungst the locals – it even lights up at night!
But that wasn’t the highlight of the day: not far off our route home was the village of Pennan where much of the movie Local Hero was filmed. One of my favorite films, I had to stop by and see the iconic phone box that is so important to the movie. So here’s my little taste of Hollywood (freshly painted too!) All in all, it was an amazing day!
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