Aberdeen

Flying over Scotland - - just as green as it ought to be, though a bit foggy.

Our arrival in Scotland, on July 10, was in Aberdeen, where our daughter, Allison, and her husband, Jan Peder, have an apartment.  They met us at the airport.  It was a bit unsettling at first, to experience the whole steering-wheel-on-the-right-side, driving-on-the-left-side-of-the-road thing.

Most buildings in Aberdeen are built of granite, available locally, so everything is about the same color.  It's sometimes called "the grey city" or "the silver city," because of the granite, which sometimes sparkles in the sun. 

In the city, we mostly saw row-houses . . .

And every house has several chimneys.











Aberdeen also has several beautiful churches.

Pretty sure this one's attached to a university.

We could see three great steeples just from our bedroom window.

On our first evening in Aberdeen, we took a drive down by the waterfront.  Aberdeen is an ancient city, built between the mouths of the Rivers Don and Dee.  It has been a seaport since Medieval times and has launched thousands of fishing boats.

We saw a restaurant near the waterfront, called The Silver Darling, which name was explained when I saw this bit of pavement nearby:

An old light

A fishwife, looking forever out to sea

Several ships awaiting their turns to come into the harbor

Many ships coming into Aberdeen these days, such as this one, supply the oil-drilling platforms in the North Sea.  We saw two of these come in while we were there that evening.

On the ocean side,  we watched a surfer trying to catch a wave, though there wasn't much to catch.

My favorite discovery was the little fishing village of Footdee, or "Fittie," right by the harbor.  This little neighborhood was built about 200 years ago, to provide housing for fishermen who were displaced by some changes made to the harbor.  It was originally built in two large squares, with the openings facing inward, away from the winter winds.  Later, "sheds" were added inside the squares, and even they are still occupied today.

The original squares of housing are made up of row houses.

They were all originally one story tall, like these.

Some were made taller to provide more living space for families.

Slate roofs

Lots of colorful little "sheds" fill the insides of the squares.

The village has its own chapel, too.

Thus began our two-week journey with Jan and Allie.  More adventures to follow.  : )