I woke up early again and had a large breakfast. I asked for the cooked breakfast and they brought it to me with the full compliment of all the items listed on the menu. I couldn’t finish the entire plate but I did have a chance to try black pudding, made from haggis, for the first time.
After breakfast I headed out to explore the two towns that Nori had found, which Grampy’s ancestors had lived in about 200 years ago. First I went to Petersculter, the larger of the two. After driving around a bit I found signs to the Heritage Center, which turned out to be where the town’s cemetery was located. I started walking through the cemetery, methodically looking at the tombstones. I found a few Duncan’s, but after 30 or 40 minutes I had only gotten through about a third of them and I was getting cold because the wind started to pick up. I decided to head back to the car, but I tried to find someone in the Heritage Center building first. The buildings were locked and they had signs saying that they were open for tea on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays which led me to believe that they were more of a social group that a historical organization.
From there I continued on to Echt. I decided to take the route along several small roads to avoid going out of the way, but this made it a bit more difficult because none of the signs mentioned Echt until I got very close. When I arrived I realized that Echt is indeed a very small town. Centered on the crossing of two roads, it only extends a couple hundred meters in each direction.
I walked around briefly but there was not much to see. There were a few groups of houses each built in the same style. The houses in one of these groups could only be differentiated by the contents of their front yards, which varied from vegetable gardens to children’s toys. I also stopped in the town’s market where I bought a new notepad as well as a locally made greeting card. I sadly found out from the store manager that the gift card was local to Scotland, but not actually to Echt or even Aberdeenshire.
After walking around Echt, I started on my way back toward Petersculter to spend some more time there. As I was leaving, I found Echt’s cemetery. This was smaller than the one in Petersculter so I was able to look through the whole place. I found a few Duncans here, but they mostly lived/died after Grampy’s family had moved to Petersculter so it was hard to know if they were truly related.
I parked near a pharmacy in Petersculter because I needed some lotion for my sunburn for the previous day. After that I stopped in a café and sat for a coffee and pastry. It was nearly lunchtime, so as I sat there a few locals came in and ordered some quick things to take out. I tried to imagine my ancestors stopping somewhere in town for lunch 200 years ago.
I left Petersculter and headed into Aberdeen. I found a place for lunch, which was a branch of an Edinburgh based restaurant (I later saw the original on my way back through Edinburgh). It was very elegant and trendy looking and the food was very good. When I asked what kind of beer they had I was very surprised to find out that they had the original Czech Budweiser (not the American one). I later saw it in other places around Aberdeen as well so it was clearly well known there. I started my meal with haggis fritters. When the waitress asked if this was my first time eating haggis, I told her that my first time was actually just a few days earlier. She responded that I must really like it to order it several times in as many days. I finished the meal with steamed muscles and headed back to the hotel for a nap.
I slept for an hour or two and then headed back to Aberdeen for a drink before dinner. I was thinking of walking to the harbor first, but I had some trouble finding a place to park. When I finally found a spot, I was near the bar I wanted to go to so I decided to go there first. On my way to the bar I saw an interesting restaurant and was inspired when I saw a Scotsman in a kilt walking in.
I drank a hand pulled ale at the bar. I didn’t like it quite as much as some of the others I had tried, but it was still quite enjoyable. I witnessed an entertaining episode in which the bartender tried to carry too much at once and spilled a big dessert covered in whipped cream all over himself.
After I left the bar, I debated whether to eat at the restaurant nearby or to go to the one by the harbor as I had originally planned. I decided to drive over to the harbor to at least see if even if I didn’t end up eating there. It might have been nice to walk to the harbor, but my leg was still hurting from my hiking injury, so it was not really an option. This plan was completely unsuccessful because all I found were some warehouses and a shipping yard. I quickly gave up and headed back to the restaurant I had seen earlier. This time I parked right next to the restaurant on the small side street and went inside.
The restaurant was pretty big so it looked rather empty even though there were several groups of people there. In an attempt to have a light meal I decided against the prix fixe menu and ordered smoked salmon to start and pork medallions as my main course. My hope for a light meal was lost when I later decided to order dessert, but since I had drank a large glass of wine at dinner I wanted to stay a bit longer before I had to drive home. In the same vain, I ordered an espresso after my dessert, which would later cause me some trouble.
In the end I made it home with no problem, but I did get a bit turned around when I tried to take a shortcut instead of the route I already knew. Once I got to the hotel I quickly got into bed, but I had a lot of trouble sleeping. I attributed by insomnia to a combination of my afternoon nap and the espresso I had after dinner. I was also very uncomfortable because I had eaten too much at dinner. After several attempts at sleep and being partially awake for about an hour, I finally got to sleep for the night.
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