Blogs from Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe

Today we head north to Aberdeen and the eastern shoreline. The real purpose of this part of the trip is a bit of pre-retirement investigation. Our plan is to retire in either France or Spain (Carcassonne is currently the leading contender) and spend most of our time there, but when July and August come and the tourists, we are looking for somewhere a bit more remote but yet still accessible by train. This leads us to Scottish Coast. Ideally would be to find a lovey village like the one in Doc Martin. Our search will take us to several small villages along the coast, but more on that later. As for now, our train is at 9:30, allowing us a leisure final breakfast in the Old Waverly and a simple walk across the street to catch ... read more

Days 28 and 29 - By Car, Boat, and Train After breakfast we checked out and drove over to the beach. It was another lovely morning in Scotland, meaning the sun ALMOST came out. We stopped at the amusement park from last night and rode the VR roller coaster Michelle had been eyeing before we left. Then we headed to Innoflate, a new inflatable fun house. We got a nifty pair of lime green antimicrobial socks, and tickets for a half hour of bouncing. 30 minutes was PLENTY. After the first 15 minutes of bouncing, sliding, bouncing, climbing, bouncing, running through inflated obstacles, and more bouncing were ready for a break and wondering just how long we had been in there. Tony showed off his ability to launch small children into the air as well as ... read more

We arrived in Aberdeen Wed 23 May after driving through the picturesque fertile farming region of Angus/Aberdeen. And, yes, fields of gold everywhere. We checked in to the Great Western Guest House. The proprietors, Paul & Wanapat, were very welcoming and friendly. Our room had a big photo of Sydney Harbour on the wall. Cute! We teed off at Royal Aberdeen Golf Club at 8am the next day. A little cool. Light jumper and jacket stayed on for 18 holes. Royal Aberdeen is a reciprocal club of Royal Canberra. The club and the course lived up to our expectations. A typical links course and quite tough. I was advised to play the Green Tees - thank goodness! I lost no balls (possibly because I was in so many bunkers lol). Bill only lost one but not ... read more

Well it's all over! But what a fantastic Dickens Fellowship International Conference it turned out to be. Sincere thanks to Paul Schlicke, Chairman of the DF Aberdeen branch; Gillian, Marian, Sally, Neil, Sandy and all other members of the Aberdeen DF who helped to make the conference such a roaring success. They were all friendly, helpful and enthusiastic, looking after any requests and sorting out any minor glitches for us all and were greatly appreciated. With our accomodation in the student digs of Crombie Hall and many of the lectures taking place on campus at Aberdeen University it was all very convenient. For those events which were off campus buses ferried us there and back. The official welcome and dinner took place at Elphinstone Hall with an introduction by Paul Schlicke and the welcome reception hosted ... read more

Thomas Cook (1808-1892) began his international travel company - now the world's best known name in travel - when he organised a special train to carry 500 passengers from Leicester to Loughborough to attend a temperance meeting. A distance of 12 miles there and back, Cook charged one shilling for the return journey which took place on 5 July 1841. Four years later his travel business was showing a profit by which time he had expanded the services offered. By 1851 more than 150,000 people from Yorkshire, Derby, Nottingham and Leicester travelled through Thomas Cook's agency to London to visit the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park. Four years later Cook offered his first continental tour. And so a travel business was born. To honour Thomas Cook there is a statue of him close to the entrance ... read more