{"id":12133,"date":"2025-09-16T19:51:03","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T19:51:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/?p=12133"},"modified":"2025-09-16T19:51:03","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T19:51:03","slug":"tuesday-16-september-aberdeen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/16\/tuesday-16-september-aberdeen\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday 16 September Aberdeen"},"content":{"rendered":"

I forgot to mention the surprisingly amateurish vibe we got from the Caledonian Sleeper team.<\/p>\n

It all looks very professional on the internet, but it\u2019s a different story in person. I can\u2019t blame them for having a fault with the water, meaning our cabin had to be changed at the last minute (or can I?) but it seemed to completely floor the receptionist in the lounge when we checked in. \u201cIs it just you?\u201d well, no it\u2019s me and the man listed below me with the same surname who is standing beside me. \u201cWhy are you in a twin room, then? Did you not want to share a bed?\u201d she asked before blushing and deciding perhaps it wasn\u2019t an appropriate question. I tried to explain I\u2019d booked a double room and it was them who had changed it, but by then she was caught up in the stress of finding our keycard that was missing. \u201cWhat\u2019s your cabin number?\u201d she asked, which of course, I didn\u2019t know. She went through all her cards twice while a queue built up behind us, so I said we\u2019d grab a seat in the lounge and pick up the key later. \u201cWe\u2019ll bring it to you!\u201d she said (they didn\u2019t). There were several announcements while we were waiting for our train, looking for various missing keycards \u201cCould everyone please check your cards to see if you have C1? Or how about Victor Charlie?\u201d I had to go up and get our card shortly before we boarded, and she didn\u2019t remember me. \u201cOh yes. What\u2019s your cabin number?\u201d I had to explain the whole situation again before she would give it to me.<\/p>\n

Similarly, the shower in the lounge was very much appreciated, until I was done and found there was no towel, and no indication anywhere of how to get one. Simon had to grab one from reception and bring it to me.
\nThere was only one wait person for all the passengers in the lounge, who was very nice but only appeared intermittently and seemed more concerned with clearing tables than taking orders. We did eventually succeed in flagging her down and got our haggis shortly before boarding.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Anyway, in spite of all that, I really enjoyed the trip. It wasn\u2019t quiet but the rocking of the train was very soporific and I got my best night\u2019s sleep yet. They brought our room service breakfast at 6:30, by which time Simon was already up and dressed. We\u2019d had a standoff about having the blinds open. I said we can\u2019t ride along with no view of the outside, what\u2019s the point in being on a train otherwise? But he was concerned about random people being able to look in and see him in bed. To be fair there were quite a few train stations in the last hour of the trip.
\nWe got into Aberdeen promptly at 7:30, actually earlier than advertised. We went to the lounge which was in great condition, sparkling new and clean. It was certainly uncontaminated by staff. I had to find a ticket office to ask about my refund (\u201cyou\u2019ll have to contact them on the website\u201d) and ask, unsuccessfully, for a towel (not falling for that twice!) (\u201cTowels! No, they never supplied us with any towels\u2026\u201d)<\/p>\n

The shower was lovely, and luckily for me, Simon had stolen a facecloth from the club in London (so much for the high trust model), which I used to dry myself.
\nIt was a 20 minute walk through town to our accommodation, dragging our suitcases over the cobblestones. It was 9 am when we got there but they happily let us into our room straight away. Bless.<\/p>\n

Simon had booked a 3 hour walking tour of the highlights of Aberdeen, which was very good but after 2 hours our guide had clearly run out of highlights so we let her get away early. Her name was Morgan and she was actually Canadian. I said Oh! Our son in law is Canadian, he\u2019s from\u2026. and I completely forgot the name of the city, and spent the entire tour racking my brains trying to the think of it (and now I\u2019ve remembered, when it\u2019s clearly too late. I was right that it started with O, and I was sure Ontario wasn\u2019t right\u2026it was Ottawa).<\/p>\n

Morgan said she was an historian, but spend most of the tour recommending various drinking establishments. She did say she works as a restaurant manager on the side. Although I suspect tour guiding is actually the thing she does \u201con the side\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Arty shot of the revamped gardens, photo creds Morgan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Highlights:<\/p>\n

The Harbour has been used for shipping for 1000 years.<\/p>\n

Robert the Bruce kicked out the British and destroyed two castles around here \u00a0in the early 13 hundreds.<\/p>\n

Theres a statue of William Wallace of Braveheart fame but I don\u2019t think he ever came to Aberdeen.<\/p>\n

Aberdeen had two universities back when all of England only had two, Cambridge and Oxford.<\/p>\n

North sea oil has brought enormous amounts of money to the city, at one point property was more expensive than in London, although it\u2019s going through a bit of a rough patch at the moment. The Main Street has a lot of vape shops, charity stores, a \u201cPoundland\u201d (like a two dollar shop) \u00a0and barbers (good for money laundering apparently).<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, my bowels have been acting up on our holiday, not unusual for me. I, like many others, tend to get constipated when I\u2019m away from home. My tummy was very gripey and gassy while we were walking around, I tried to fart as quietly as possible whilst maintaining an innocent expression but I suspect I was being fooled by my tinnitus into thinking I was much more stealthy than I actually was. Never mind, in any event, Morgan took pity on me and acted oblivious.<\/p>\n

We had lunch in a beautiful old converted church. There are so many churches here, they\u2019ve obviously decided God can spare a few.
\nBack to the club for a nap.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Slept far too long but felt very refreshed afterwards. Dinner in the club, just the two of us. Lovely.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Nearly empty dining room at the Royal Northern and University Club, Aberdeen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I forgot to mention the surprisingly amateurish vibe we got from the Caledonian Sleeper team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8Ukf-39H","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9839,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/01\/putting-my-foot-in-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":12133,"position":0},"title":"Putting my foot in it","author":"Interloper11","date":"March 1, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"I went to see the first patient on my theatre list this morning, on the day of surgery admission ward. 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