Drum Castle, Falls of Feugh, Craigievar Castle! (Monday, June 5th)

I'm really behind on my blog.  Was spending time with family instead and in Iceland the internet didn't work.  :-(  Anyways, working on catching up... then I'll be working on my travel book :-)

We started the day off with Drum Castle.  The original 13th-century tower of Drum Castle has been suggested as the work of medieval architect Richard Cementarius.  It is believed to be one of the three oldest tower houses in Scotland and notable unaltered.

On the way to the next castle, we stopped at Falls of Feugh to take some pictures.  It is a beautiful waterfall on the river.

Everyone calls Craigievar Castle the Disney castle because it looks pink.  The seven-story castle was completed in 1626 and the Forbes family resided in it until 1963!  The plasterwork ceilings are amazing.

Dunnottar Castle

Sunday - after a great church service at Westhill - Amanda and I went to Dunnottar Castle.  Dunnottar  Castle is a ruined medieval fortress.  The surviving building are of the 15th and 16th centuries but the site is believed to have been fortified in the Early Middle Ages.  Dunnottar is best known as the place where the Honors of Scotland, the Scottish crown jewels, were hidden from Oliver Cromwell's invading army in the 17th century.  It is in a beautiful location.

This was a war memorial.  These are everywhere in Scotland but none quite like this.  

After dinner we attempted to make amores outside... the marshmallows here are huge so it was kinda hard.  The kids were more interested in eating the marshmallows.  :-)  

Aberdeen Tour & Sledding on the Sand :-)

Saturday we took a free Aberdeen Walking tour.  Learned a lot of the history of Aberdeen and had a nice walk through town.

This is a cat cafe... you go in and drink coffee with the cats. I think we have one in Denver... 

This was part of an art show... it is a tiny man on the ledge of a building.  I forgot what the meaning was...  there are 36 around the city.

John Anderson was a magician.  Behind the flowers it say Wizard of the North.  He is known for figuring out how to pull a rabbit out of the hat and the loaded gun trick.  Apparently Houdini idolized John and came to Scotland to visit his grave.  Houdini was appalled by the condition and paid for it to be restored. They have a picture of Houdini next to it once it was restored.  

After the walking tour we had some lunch then Jason and I ran over to the Maritime Museum while the kids played at the playground.  

For the afternoon, we went to the beach.  They have these huge sand dunes and we sledded down them.  It was a lot of fun.  So hard to get back up the steep hill though!  

Falconry, Shortbread, and Sheepdogs!

Friday was a beautiful day here in Scotland.  We started the day at the Falconry where they did a demonstration with a few different birds. I have a ton of pictures... here are a few.  :-)  

We went to Deans Shortbread factory for lunch.  You can watch them make shortbread through the windows.  Parking was next to a crashed car lot but their sign looked like it was pointing to that lot...lol. 

We went out to a sheep farm where we were given a great demonstration with the shepherd's dogs.  He had 18 dogs total but not all 18 were in the demonstration.  Each dog had a different whistle!  How crazy is that?  He said he'd been doing this all his life.  We asked how long his family had been doing it and he said BC...lol.  which actually is probably true.  :-)  He even sheared a sheep and let others try it.  He had baby lambs for us to feed and puppies that were only 18 days old.  So sweet and cute!  :-)