92 String Duet: 28 and 29 July - Tarland to Aberdeen to Shetland

On the morning of the 28th we again awoke to rain, but it cleared up so we set off for the Tomnaverie stone circle, which is only around 4000 years old. It's truly fascinating to stand in the middle of a stone circle in the quiet of the morning and think about the centuries of generations that have passed across this planet. What were their lives like? Their personalities? Their concerns, joys, happy moments, sad moments ... and we kind of wonder if they were very much different than we are.

For brekkie we picnicked near the stone circle, and enjoyed our typical morning fare: crumpets with peanut butter, honey, and nutella. A piece of fruit. And a dram!

The rest of the day was a comedy of winding through eastern Scotland to get to Aberdeen. We could have made the day much easier, but why bother, right? If you have a chance to look a map you should trace out our route: From Tarland we went to Coull, up to Crossroads, down to Lumphanan, west to the Peel Ring of Lumphanan, south nearly to the A93, then back up an off-the-road bike path to Torphins, then the A93 to Banchory. Then on the B9077 to Peterculter where we picked up the Deeside Way cycle path, and into Aberdeen.

We actually had a pretty easy time getting in to Aberdeen on the Deeside Way, and we were dumped off at a park where the path rather abruptly ended. Fortunately we were just a couple miles from the hostel on Queen's Road. Nevertheless, it was a bit harrowing because it was our first real interaction with busy city traffic, and indeed it was a little bit stressful! We stopped every few blocks to collect ourselves and make sure we were headed in the right direction. We made it to the hostel just fine by 4:00 pm.

Later we ventured to the nearest market for a genuine Scottish snack...

The Haggis crisps are actually labeled as being suitable for vegetarians and vegans. Seriously! I know everyone was baffled by boB's "vegan haggis" at our past Burn's Night events, but we found these chips even more baffling than that! The soft drink next to it is Irn Bru, "The National Drink of Scotland," and tastes somewhat like ... um, well, it has a taste. The only thing we can come up with is that it's similar to the old Big Red soda we used to see in the States.

Here's the roundabout on Queen's Road. The statue in the middle is ... the Queen. In the back ground is one of the many magnificent churches in Aberdeen. Aberdeen was once known as The Granite City because the whole place is made of granite.

We spent the night at the hostel, which was originally built in the 1860's to house wealthy ship captains.

Upon spreading out all our camping stuff to dry and air out, we realized that our best efforts at keeping everything off the ground at the Lecht Mine weren't completely effective. After all, the footprint of the tent has to touch the ground, right? Needless to say, the room at the hostel took on a rather, um, grassy odor. We cranked open the windows, washed the footprint, and sprayed it down with a disinfectant spray. Muuuuuch better!

Wednesday was a free day for us since we didn't have to board the ferry until about 6 pm or so. We found a fantastic Indian takeaway lunch for £5, and dined in a cemetery. Not sure what it about eating in cemeteries with us. I mean, you don't really have to share with your dining partners, but the conversation with them isn't all that good, either.

Here's Melinda dipping her toes in the North Sea. It took us 10 days to bike from the Atlantic side of Scotland to the North Sea side. But we made it!!

Here's a shot of the inner harbor at Aberdeen. These are all working boats in the North Sea oil and gas industry. The middle one with the bright blue bow is quite odd looking, but it seems like it would weather the horrible North Sea swells very well.

On our way to the ferry in the - cycling now with renewed confidence in the busy city traffic - we stopped for a pic with Robert Burns. Robert Burns is "Scotland's Bard" and is celebrated every year at the end of January around the world. In Bozeman we've hosted a number of Burn's Nights, and they're great fun. We look forward to experiencing a Burn's Night in Scotland!

Thar she blows! This is our boat to Shetland, the Hjaltland. Impressively large, so it's sure to be stable on the North Sea, right? We're in for a great night on the seas, and an early arrival in Shetland, fresh and ready for a fantastic week of music and fun.

We rented "sleeping pods" for the night. They're at the front of the ship, and recline pretty well. Hopefully we can get some good sleep tonight.

Looking aft toward Aberdeen, the land fades away with the light, and we settle in for the night.

There's a nice cafe and bar on board. To celebrate our safe arrival in Aberdeen, and our departure to Shetland, we celebrated with Fish and Chips (known also as

F & C) with mushy peas. Turns out, it wasn't the last time we'd see dinner...

Turns out we were sailing into a northerly blow, the seas were ROUGH!

It took about an hour before poor Melinda turned green, so we headed for the sleeping pods to relax and, we hoped, sleep off the pending doom. Well, that didn't work very well!

The ship was heaving up and down, and with every heave up on a swell it felt like the ship sped up. Then when it came crashing down into the trough it felt like it was slowing down. And the bow made a tremendous crashing bang when it came down off a particularly high swell, so it was incredibly noisy, too!

Bob was doing better, but still feeling pretty green about the gills, too. Everytime he got up to deliver another "wee white lunch bag" to the trash bin he'd get a bit greener. Sitting down and not moving helped a bit, but all in all it was NOT the relaxing adventure we'd hoped for.

We did discover that the back of the boat was much smoother in the horrible seas, so Melinda headed back to the cafe seating area, where there were nice padded benches. So much for the sleeping pods! The benches at the back of the boat were really quite comfy, and since the boat was tossing a lot less so was Melinda...