We ate an early breakfast and went to the train station. Our plans were to ride to Edinburgh and buy some clan (MacLean) tartan, and then ride up through the mountains to Elgin. But when we looked at the time tables we wouldn't be able to get to Elgin until 9PM, so the day would mostly involve sitting on the train. Plus, we wouldn't have *any* time to visit the cathedral or palace in Elgin because we'd have to travel to Inverness the next day.
We decided to head to Elgin town directly. There was a bit of a wait for the train, so we chilled out in the first class lounge. There wasn't any first class coach on the train to Elgin (boo) but it wasn't a bad trip. The Croft B & B was a short walk from the station, and close to the downtown area. We went to the local Mark & Spencers grocery store and got pre-made sushi, couscous, and a sandwich. And Percy Pigs, a great gummi candy in the shape of the eponymous pig.
There are two main historic attractions in Elgin: Elgin Cathedral and Spynie Palace. The palace was a fair walk from town, so we decided to hike out there and visit it before closing time. To get directions, we went to the library/visitor center. As it happens, the library is directly in front of the cathedral, so we stopped there first. There was some verra interesting ruins, and an octagonal chapter house.
The walk to Spynie Palace was long. We were both wearing our hikers, but it had been a long day and my legs still ached from the Dunnottar hike. The remnants of the palace were beautiful - a long spiral staircase led us up to the roof, and we could see for miles and miles around. I don't know that there's much I enjoy more than climbing around on rocks. If they're rocks with a history, so much the better!
Trekking back to town, we passed a pig farm and some sort of crop covered over in plastic (for warmth, Jen says). We ate at Littlejohn's, a typical pub food restaurant. Jen had broth (vegetable) soup and a veggie burger with onion rings. I had potato skins with chili, and a chicken sandwich with bacon on it.
Let's talk about bacon for a second. When I had visited Ireland, all I found was large, meaty strips of pork with a bit of fat on one side. This is bacon. As in, "I'll have a rasher of bacon." In the U.K. this is the kind of bacon served at breakfast. The second kind, "streaky bacon," is what we Yanks are used to. When I ordered my chicken sandwich I expected "streaky" bacon, but got the normal UK piece-o-pork. It was good, and probably better for me than streaky bacon, but I kind of miss the saltier, fattier American stuff. |
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I went out this morning and bought soy milk to have with breakfast today.
After breakfast we went to the Aberdeen train station and lounged in first class for a while, then I ran out to buy the next Outlander series book for John. I had to try two bookstores to find it in stock and I bought another copy of the first book, Outlander, because it's called Cross-stitch in Scotland.
We got the train to Elgin and stayed the night at the Croft. We spent all day Monday in Elgin walking everywhere. We saw Elgin Cathedral and walked forever to get to the Spynie Palace, which was disappointing to me because it wasn't even a palace at all. It was another ruined church. But we did see a pig farm on the way over and there were a bunch of wee piglets running around being cute.
We were crazy exhausted from walking in the wind and cold and when we got back to town and we ate at Littlejohn's. I had a pot of tea, soup, and a veggie burger. Nothing special, but they had Heinz ketchup in weird round packets that were cool.ruins of Dunnottar Castle sit by the sea. Lunch in town consisted of fish and chips, and for dessert I bought a "homemade tablet." I have no idea what this tablet was, but it tasted like a block of sugar. Homemade sugar cube/tablet perhaps? I doubt I'll ever know. |
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