Road Trip: Aberdeen
Part 2 of Christmas Road Trip (Part 1: the road to Stirling)
Then we were onto Aberdeen with a good stop in Perth. Here we visited the dog friendly Brew & Chew café and spent the whole time sipping our coffees and willing the dogs to come and have a play. They had a ’50 Shades of Scotland’ posted which made me look up an England version (there is one).
Highlight in this, the Granite City, is generally the great restaurants. We enjoyed excellent food at Café Andaluz, who fitted us in between bookings for 90 minutes of scrumptious food and excellent, unhurried service.
Then, Rustico meant another rarity for me, an Italian restaurant with good food, cooked well at a reasonable price. Italian is my favourite food, but finding restaurants like this – rather than overpriced pasta/pizzeria types - is a rarity. It came paired with excellent service too. Approximately £35 for two including a drink each.
Places for breakfast and coffee were a little rarer. The recommended Coffee House with its communal tables was good enough. We felt the Sand Dollar Café on the beach over-hyped and perhaps over priced at £18.35 for two very basic breakfasts. It was fine, not exceptional and a tight squeeze. But it set us on our way up Aberdeen Beach Promenade where I note people had placed wreaths on dedicated benches and thought this a wonderful idea. I put ours on one in the local church square on returning home but I swear it got taken away in minutes.
Then we were on our way to the Footdie (Fittie) which I loved! ‘Foot of the Dee’ is a place of heritage, an old fishing village where I Iearn of the history of this particular part of the coast. That and the beautiful, colourful little cottages that I could not stop taking photos of is pretty much all there is but its pure delight and a highlight.
Aberdeen certainly feels like an affluent city, although I imagine it may not have been before they struck oil nearby. As well as restaurants, it’s great for shops although I was surprised that one of the shopping centres was taking down its decorations before New Year’s Eve. As we saw the wreaths too, perhaps this is a thing here in Scotland where New Year’s Eve is such a big thing? I’ve never been here at this time of year before. Heck this is my first Christmas week in the UK in twelve years.
Regardless, the Aberdeen city centre Christmas lights were fantastic and stayed put.
Perth and Kincross; the heart of Scotland
We went on a drive on New Year’s Eve and found breakfast at The Kilted Frog deli in Inverurie which had a few cafes and, something I have noted increasingly in Scotland, a decent sized M&S Food Hall tucked away. If it’s not that, I’m spotting large branches of Waitrose although off the beaten track, in small towns or out of town.
Driving up to the furthest north we’ve ever been to Elgin, we enjoy a mocca in The Cosy Neuk in Keith and had fun spotting the spelling errors in the menu of this wonderful little café. Which means I need to triple check the errors in this post.
Next: the road to Berwick-upon-Tweed
