Trip to Cruden Bay - Friday & Saturday

On Friday, flew to Aberdeen for another London Museums A-Z (LoMAZ) Dracula event, yay! The UK air traffic control crash caused us some angst.. thank goodness it happened early enough that the chaos had ended by then. Mostly. An early flight from Heathrow is an unpleasant thing to be doing, and I hardly got any sleep. Was out of the house just after 5.. took the Tube to intersect with the Elizabeth Line. Mind you, it wasn't until JW pointed it out that I realised it was the 25th anniversary of 9/11!

No seats on the Lizzie Line, even at 6am, until I was nearly there. He'd slept in the airport.. and when he eventually found me, we moseyed down to the gate.. where the plane was delayed. But not by much. I got some sleep on the plane - until the guy beside me kicked me as he was getting back into his seat.

Lotsa wind turbines just off the coast of Aberdeen.. well, as it was an internal UK flight, there was no passport control, and as we had only hand luggage, we were through really quickly. The idea was that we'd be staying in the Kilmarnock Arms Hotel in Cruden Bay, where Bram Stoker started writing Dracula! (The hotel was full that night.) Now, as it happens, I was co-hosting, JW was hosting.. and we were the only two on the trip! So, we hosted each other.. anyway, looking up public transport options to Cruden Bay, I discovered that public transport is a palaver, so I hired a car - feasible with just the two of us. I'd rather not trust to Uber, or even taxis, in what is quite a remote area. It was me driving, as he's still learning - which is fine, it wasn't the first time I'd driven in Scotland. 

I found a great deal with Planet Rental Cars.. but when they sent the details a few days before to remind me, I dug around a bit and realised they don't accept debit cards! Cue panic - I haven't had a credit card in years, haven't seen the need. Well, I consulted AI, which pointed me in the direction of Indigo, one of two rental brokers it mentioned that deal with debit card bookings. Sure enough, it's there as a special category. I filled in my details and waited for them to get back to me. Then I got antsy about the delay, and went on chat with them.. well, I can't fault their customer service. He found my details, asked me a few more questions, proposed me a deal, and gave me a link to pay a deposit. Et voila, booked! I could cancel the other at short notice.. so I did. And the actual company I got it from is Enterprise, which I have at least heard of before.. he also took my flight details, which Planet Rental Cars didn't (handy in the event of delays), and gave me clear directions about where to go when I arrived. 

We were looking for a covered walkway - followed the signs for car rental, but with no-one at the desk, a sign directed us to the cabin in the rental carpark. We were actually early, but no harm - the chatty team took my particulars, then took us out to the car. Which turned out to be a Renault Symbioz - a bit bigger than what I'd booked, but hey. And it was more than the usual palaver to get used to the controls.. what with me unable, for some minutes, to figure out how to move my seat forward.. JW figured his out first, and there was some fun with him trying to fix mine! On top of that, it's a push-button start, which is new to me, and wow, it's actually lucky he was there, because the gearstick has to be pushed up to go into reverse, which is something I had no clue about! He's the one told me about that. Oh, and don't get me started on the handbrake, which is a toggle switch - I started trying to avoid using it whenever possible, but especially as we drove through the city, I came to having to use it for hillstarts at traffic lights. And on one occasion, I completely muffed it, and had the car behind me beeping. Oh dear, it's a long time since I did that.. Think I got the hang of it in the end, mind.. and life became considerably easier when I realised that if the accelerator is pressed, the handbrake automatically disengages!

The car does have lots of cool safety features that are new to me - the large info panel in the centre console can be set to display a number of things, but the handiest on this trip was Google Maps! See, he was also ordering a kilt, and needed to swing by there.. so we just typed in the address, and directions came up. Handier still, the same was displayed on the panel in front of me! along with the speed limit, I finally figured out, so I didn't have to take note of the signs I was passing. And there were separate ping sounds for speed cameras, and for when I exceeded the speed limit (very disapproving, that one). I could have done without the supporting act of my passenger joining in on each of those..

McCall's, the kilt place was - right in the city centre. So it was easy to find a car park, and we were early enough to go hunting for lunch beforehand. 

Initially, we didn't have much luck..

but I saw a place on Google Maps that sounded interesting, so we headed in the direction of The Wild Goose - a rather unprepossessing building, which specialises in brunch, which sounded perfect; I'd managed a sandwich in Heathrow, but he hadn't really had anything for breakfast. We were soon seated.

It mightn't be much to look at on the outside, but we loved the interior - and as he pointed out, although we were dead centre, with tables on either side, and the place was almost full, we didn't feel at all crowded! Plus, we noted many quirky features - the interior displays an obvious love of, and taste in, interior design, from the style of the seating right down to the glasses, and the unusual water bottle. Unable to drink because I was driving, I had apple juice - and a "buttery benedict", which was of course eggs benedict, smothered in butter, and which you could have with a choice of topping - I chose smoked salmon, and it was absolutely gorgeous. He had a standard cooked breakfast, and coffee - later, a hot chocolate as well.

The view was interesting, if you ignored the sundry scaffolding and barriers:

The only fly in the ointment was the service, which could be slow - he wanted sugar with his coffee, but had to ask for it twice, and was halfway through by the time it arrived. But it was friendly. We were slightly late for his kilt appointment.. they also do hires, but purchases are right at the top of the shop, up a narrow spiral staircase. And wow, do they have a selection.. not only of kilts, but jackets, waistcoats, sporrans, socks, shoes, sgian dubhs, kilt pins.. and the sporrans are completely customisable, from the fur used, to the lining, to the clasps, to the tassels, to the bits connecting the tassels to the chains, and how the chains are arranged!

As the afternoon wore on - and he chose a whole outfit (sans shoes, he didn't like the ones they had), I meandered around, spending much time sitting in their conveniently sited chairs:

All credit due to a dedicated shop assistant with a dry sense of humour, who walked him through every one of hundreds of options - he also got measured, and she's posting the whole lot out to him. Not cheap.. but a bucket-list item. Made to last.

And so, finally, out to Cruden Bay, where the hotel makes the most of its Bram Stoker connection:

I parked around the side (and discovered that, with the fob on my person, the car automatically unlocked when I was within a certain distance of it, and locked as I walked away). We had a bit of trouble finding anyone to check us in:

Upstairs, and my room had a lovely view of the bus stops:

JW's view was less appealing:

The information booklet in the room has a Bram Stoker quote that sounds strangely familiar.. ;-)

We'd agreed to try the other hotel for dinner that night, as we were to be eating in our hotel on Saturday (and those are the only two options). As I waited for JW, I had a mosey around our lobby, and came across a snug dedicated to Bram Stoker!

It's not a long walk to the St. Olaf Golf Hotel.. d'you know, for a small area, Cruden Bay has eight golf courses! We were seated without difficulty.

We were well fed.. garlic mushrooms in breadcrumbs for me - molten hot! I hadn't had them in ages. And the minute I saw it, I had to have the chicken katsu - which had very thick sauce. I asked for chips with it, which were unfortunately chunky. Got rice as well, but I'm not as keen. And we had rather a lot of wine..

Now, on the way, we'd spotted The Fairway pub, so he suggested we stop in there on the road back. And do you know, it turned out to be the best fun, and we had the greatest banter with the few punters in there. And then more arrived.. and pool was played.. and wine was drunk.. and, um, at some point in the evening, he noticed my glassy-eyed expression, and so we returned to our hotel. It'd been a long day..

Have to say, I slept like a log - the bed was comfier than my regular one, and it was so quiet, I didn't need earplugs. Next day, he actually beat me to breakfast (having mistaken the time). I ordered the full Scottish, which I ate most of, and white toast - but she brought brown, which I don't like. The large table in the middle was occupied by a Liverpudlian golfing group, with whom JW was bantering.. he derived much amusement from my confession that I didn't remember them from the pub, the night before.. which is a shame, because the conversation was.. riveting..

As to activities, well, nothing to do with the area at all, but The Uprising, a film about the Peasants' Revolt and starring Andrew Garfield and Jamie Bell, was out at the weekend and we both want to see it, so we were talking about doing that.. but also in Cruden Bay is Slains Castle, which is rumoured to have provided inspiration for Dracula. Was rumoured to be generally creepy. So we decided to do that.

Our route took us past a nice park - the river leads out to Cruden Bay itself:

There's a lovely, long beach, which was used by a Norwegian aviator, the first person to fly across the North Sea! We didn't see the beach, but came across an info board about him:

Passed a church. Note the unusual brickwork, which we saw on other houses roundabout:

Happily, at the end of the paved road is a helpful sign, pointing to the woodland track that leads to the castle. And an info board on the castle:

And a notice against fly tipping. But I have no earthly idea what that logo is supposed to represent..

Now, I have to admit it's a beautiful track. However, I, who grew up around scenes like this, was considerably less enthused than JW was..

Someone built a swing!

Some cliff. And JW, at this point, took a souvenir rock. I did tell him that'd be trouble, when it was scanned at the airport..

You can't tell from the above images.. but after heavy rain earlier, that road was a nightmare of puddles. Happily, my shoes are pretty waterproof, and I tended to find it easier to walk through puddles than to navigate the slippery mud at the sides. JW, mind you, had his shoes soaked through..

We came across one building first, not attached to the castle proper, which we wondered the origin of:

Ooh, thistles!

We finally saw the sea:

And ooh, our first glimpse of the castle - much further than Google Maps' estimate!

From the first, you can tell this is something special - and we both agreed we'd never seen a ruin like it. It occupies an imposing setting on the cliff edge:

Looking back gives an idea of how far we'd come:

I had to love the "DANGER - KEEP OUT - Building unsafe" sign in front of the castle - everyone was blithely ignoring it, and many were walking their dogs through it:

We had fun determining what the different bits were used for - this, he surmised, was the main entrance, which must have had steps up to it, now eroded:

Ooh, a spooky cellar.. I didn't go down, what with the iffy staircase, but I'm assured it was spooky down there:

            

Sea views abound.. and what was surprising was the expanse of castle down the back, once you'd finished with this front bit:

Next stop Scandinavia.. and how odd it seems that some windows remain so perfectly preserved:

We spent quite a while exploring.. it is truly a spectacular place. And Jesu, if JW didn't see fit to regale me with Wikipedia articles (and sporadic spot quizzes) as we navigated puddles all the way back down..

We were hungry, but didn't fancy the hotel, and The Fairway doesn't do food. He had the idea of grabbing something at the Co-Op and eating it in the park - and that's what we did. And had a lazy afternoon, returning to the hotel to chill for a while afterwards.

Now, the hotel was in touch with him last week (funny, not with me!) to say if he wanted to have dinner there on Saturday, he'd better book - so we agreed on a time. And then he completely forgot about it, but managed to get a booking on Friday night (for Saturday). Sure enough, as I'd waited for him to come down to head to the castle, I'd overheard people on reception taking bookings, and saying they only had two timeslots left for dinner - one of which was then booked!

So, it wasn't a massive surprise, when I came down for dinner on Saturday, to find the lobby rammed, and spilling outside. When he surfaced, we went for a drink in the bar.. noisy as it was, we headed for the snug, which I'd told him about.

When it was dinnertime, we enquired about his reservation, and were told we could stay in the snug, which was lovely! There was a 40th birthday party in the restaurant, y'see. I had deep-fried brie, which I've always loved, and a sirloin - which was a teensy bit overcooked, but serviceable. Unfortunately, his fishcakes - in common with the accompanying fries - were doused in pepper, and he didn't finish them. We tried the pub adjacent to the hotel, which was, predictably, packed, and then repaired to The Fairway again, which stays open later. And although he racked up a list of songs on the jukebox, I could hardly hear them over the hubbub - but it was nice when a singsong started to Country Roads..

And so back to the hotel.

More in the next post..