Kathleen
Aberdeen, Scotland, July 13 & 14, 2013
We arrived in Aberdeen on a gray afternoon that promised showers. This was Joan’s last day and she had packing and preparing to do for her international flight the next morning. One thing we definately noted on the way in and again going out to procure dinner was the very very grayness of the town in general. It must be a law in Aberdeen that you can only build with gray stone because 98% of the buidings were made of the same gray material. In addition, about 95% of these had black trim, not that it wasn’t a neat, sort of classic look, but it starts to seem a little boring when everyone is doing it. There were occasional departures in colors like red, blue and yellow, which were refreshing if sparse. We walked to dinner in the rain and going to bed I thought that Aberdeen was about the grayest place I had been and did not have much to recommend it. The next morning we were up early and saying goodbye to Steve’s Mom. We had had such a lovely adventure, it was sad to see her go. When we got back from the airport, the strangest thing was happening, the sun was coming out! Our luck had turned again for the better and it ended up being a glorious day. We walked all around town and out to the old university area, which was quite stunning. This is one of the oldest continuously operating universities in the world and when you walk down the streets you can almost feel the history of the place hanging in the air. We really enjoyed it. We also did a bit of shopping on the main shopping drag, trying to procure anything we thought we might need but be unable to find or afford in Scandanavia. All and all, Aberdeen is still a bit gray, but we have seen that there are many colors to offset they gray and we think it would be a fine place to live or spend some time. It is a small city, but fully functioning and with a very cosmopolitan feel. The next morning we said goodbye to Scotland and the UK, excited to explore new countries in the North in which we had never set foot!