Well, it was an adventure today, that’s for sure. The plan was to drive from Alnwick in Northumbria to Aboyne in Scotland.
We stopped off in Perth to tour the Perth Museum—a brand new museum in the old Perth Town Hall. It was such a great museum (recently written up in the Winnipeg Free Press) and it was amazing to see how much information they could get into their relatively small exhibit spaces. It focuses on the history of Perth and had two special exhibits today. The first that we saw was The Destiny Stone. It’s the first time it has ever been on display north of Edinburgh. There was a significant security presence and process to viewing the stone with timed tickets and a locked entry and exit system to the viewing room. This is the mythical stone from Scotland that is used during the coronation of kings and queens of Britain. The display particularly focused on the example of the use of the Destiny Stone during the coronation of seven-year-old Alexander who became the King of Scotland in the 1200s following his father’s death. It is a part of the British coronation ceremony that the new king or queen must be crowned with the Destiny Stone. The other popular temporary exhibit was pages from the last letter written by Mary Queen of Scots before her execution. The museum has a new Stone Cafe that served wonderful fresh food enjoyed by us both.
On leaving Perth we decided to follow a whim and see if we could locate the home of my friend Pat’s cousin. Leslie and I had stayed there when we were 19-years-old on a visit to Scotland and we will always remember the lack of central heating, the huge beautiful home and the very large bed and comforter to keep us warm. I remembered the name of the home, “Findynate” and was pleasantly surprised to see that the house still retained the family name when driving down Tullylumb Terrace (oh you have to love the names the Brits use for their streets and roadways and towns).
Up to this point, the GPS and David’s personal navigator (that’s me) had been functioning well. But on our way to Aboyne once we left Perth, things went a little astray, as in we took the wrong road and couldn’t get back to the proper road despite our attempts. From there things went uphill (that’s right), not downhill. We ended up driving all the way through the Cairngorm Mountains (not in the day’s plan) but more importantly we ended up on a single track road that wasn’t really paved and looked like no one had traversed it in months. The driver felt we should go down this one road which looked pretty iffy and the navigator pointed out that the signage on the road indicated a red bar at the end of the T to which the navigator pointed out she was pretty sure that was the international language for ROAD ENDS. Quite simply, we felt alone, we felt lost, and it was not a good moment for the navigator. The cell phone wasn’t picking up cellular service and we felt the GPS wasn’t really functioning. Thankfully, in the middle of nowhere, driving down said road (where we ended up in a dead end!) we encountered a genial couple out walking their dog. They said we were the second couple they had met that day looking to get to Aboyne. They kindly advised that we just want to go on the other side of the mountain, while I looked blankly asking how we were to get there. They redirected us to go through the castle estate gates just up the road we’d driven down (who knew there was a castle there??) and that the gates would automatically open even if the barrier was down (who knew they’d do that or that we’d even be allowed onto an estate which from the backside didn’t look anything like an estate). We got out of that predicament and continued on to a more substantial looking road, meaning it was paved, when we weren’t sure which fork in the road to take. The driver chose the one that had people coming down towards us and so we continued, going higher and higher and higher. The road was called Old Military Road. At least there was traffic but we had no idea where it was leading. Thankfully the GPS did kick in and did take us the correct route, we navigated the country house proprietor’s directions to avoid the flooded bridge and to cross Potarch Bridge and got to the street where the home was to be located but we had to resort to calling them to find out where it was. Turns out it was on another part of the street— our GPS just didn’t recognize that. So we’re here. It’s lovely and scenic. The hosts are wonderful and friendly and welcoming. He said “You just needed to come the other side of the mountain.” So now I’ve done my “Go Tell It On The Mountain” escapade for this week. Hoping there aren’t more in our immediate future. (But in case you don’t hear from the navigator tomorrow, we’re heading way, way north. And please send help and a paper map!)
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| We didn’t take photos as we were too busy clutching the steering wheel. This is someone else’s photo of where we were today. That’s the road we drove, not a river. Photo Credit:
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