Oh-oh. Jen and I woke up with a hangover. And today is a big day. Firstly, we have to pack up and move out. Secondly, we need to have a fairly significant drive and third, we are so sad to be leaving Stonehaven. We had to be out of our amazing apartment at 11:00 am. We were out at10:59:59. Stumbled down the stairs with our 250 lbs of luggage and crammed ourselves into our Scottish station wagon and headed out. We took a slight detour to Craigievar Castle and while we were waiting for our tour to begin Jen bought a carbonated water and I had a cup of tea. We needed to settle our bellies and recalibrate. I have to do a quick side note, if you’ve ever ridden in a vehicle with Jen you know she is very anxious in a vehicle. She must have died in a horrible car crash in a previous life because she is always expecting impending doom. If it’s windy she is worried, if it’s icy she is grabbing onto door handles, God help you if you are with her on the Trunk Road and you meet another vehicle!! Well, Scotland has been rough on her! We average 50/50 - 50% of our roads are 2 lane and 50% are 1 lane with “Passing places”. Needless to say she inhales suddenly and says “Jesus Fuck” alot!
Okay back to Craigievar - great tour led by Dave, who was very entertaining. Had to hear the mandatory ghost story - back in the day there was a Forbes girl whose father was the Laird of Craigievar Castle. She had a boyfriend and she finally confessed that he was a Gordon (Michael Rodriguez, pay attention - you know this isn’t ending well) so her father was furious (Forbes and Gordon’s were sworn enemies) so he waiting upstairs for the aforementioned Gordon to arrive. When he boy did arrive he was told, in no uncertain terms to piss off. The boy, coming from a richer, more affluent family said, no YOU piss off. The angry father pulled his sword and pushed the boy to the window, all the while with the sword tip pressed against his throat. At the window he was given an option - be run through or jump. The window was about 50 feet up from the ground. The boy jumped….and died. There was an attempt to avenge his death but those Gordon’s also died. There are sounds of steps and voices but the young lovers never again meet. I looked out the window….I’d rather be stabbed.
Anyway back on the road. Not going to tell a lie, I may have contributed to our navigational “detours” but our GPS in the car was not very helpful either. We also stopped at Kildrummy Castle, only a ruin, but still very impressive. Walked around there for a good half hour and then back into the car. Stopped in Strathdon to look through the cemetery. Oldest headstone we could find was 1813. The AGAIN on our way to Glenlivet. Glenlivet to Stonehaven is only 66.4 miles but 1 mile here takes a solid 20 minutes. Arrived at our little croft in the country, unpacked, poured a drink and cancelled our dinner reservations! We ordered takeaway and convinced the boys to go get it. Played cards and shut it down at about 11:00.
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