And Briefly, Aviemore and Aberdeen

Nice Cairngorm scenery around Aviemore

This post is going to be a bit scant - I have to play catchup for a few days. The first of which, of course, was Aviemore.
As I said, I showed up quite late at Aviemore. The place is really a hub for extreme sports - skiing, mountain biking, hiking, cross-stitching, that sort of thing. Every second building is an "outdoors" shop. Apart from getting a disappointingly good Aussie Burger and a Cooper's Pale Ale at the local Australian theme pub, I did nothing that night. The next morning, however, I went on quite a good walk through the local nature reserve. Unlike all the imagined animals I saw on Loch Lomond and Loch Ness, I actually saw a few things.

Photo-shy deer

In order: one heron, a number of ducks, a mole (scampering wildly to not get trodden on), a heap of finches or sparrows or something and a deer. For some reason wildlife seems to have an uncanny ability to tell the exact moment when I'm about to press the shutter button on my camera. I can be standing for ages getting the shot just right, but the moment I press the button then turn their head or walk away. Still, it was quite a nice walk, although I got my trousers soaked from the dewy undergrowth.

North Sea from Aberdeen

So after that I headed off to Aberdeen, going the long way to see another distillery. This was probably the best distillery tour I've done, better even than Singleton. Royal Lochaber is a very small distillery with only two stills, but it was favoured by Queen Victoria (hence "Royal"), and the tour-guide was passionate and incredibly informative. The sample wasn't bad either. But since I took such a long way around, I ended up in Aberdeen just before 4pm. Parking lots in Aberdeen move. They hide when you drive past. There's signs for them everywhere, but following them doesn't lead you to any parking lots, just more signs. As soon as you do park your car and start walking you can barely move for all the parking lots. So by the time I got parked, found the tourist information and found my hostel all the museums and things I wanted to see were shut. Shame that because I had to leave quite early the next morning to drive my little Ka all the way back to Dumbarton to return it on time. So all I really experienced in Aberdeen was a nice walk along the beach.
The next day I got up at sparrowfart and drove all the way to Dumbarton. Even though it's a crappy little car with an uncomfortable seat, I was a little bit sad when I gave the keys in. I'd grown about as attached as a lover of old-school volkswagens can get to a new model hired ford two door hatchback. But after taking the train to Edinburgh I saw it was all for the best. The Edinburgh festival was on and the streets were packed. Unless I was particularly keen on getting a whole lot of points running over pedestrians, I was much better off without a car.