Tuesday in Aberdeenshire, Scotland! British Isles Explorer aboard Viking Mira

We spent the morning exploring on our own, using Scott's fantastic port guide. The "Granite City," as it is called, offered a typical rainy day to explore. We first happened upon Marschial College (now part of the University of Aberdeen), which is the 2nd largest granite building in the world! King Robert the Bruce greeted us out front. We visited the St. Nicholas Kirkyard and the Union Terrace Gardens. We then tried to stroll up and down Union Street, which is under construction nearly its entire length. Because of that, it was difficult to take in the usual striking granite architecture aligning both sides of the street. We did a little souvenir shopping and a brief visit to the Maritime Museum, then made our way back to the ship for lunch and our afternoon excursion. Our delightful tour guide was Donald Cameron, wearing full kilt in daytime Cameron of Erracht Hunting tartan. (As requested by OUR Cameron, we did a brief interview with Donald.) The first stop on our "City of Aberdeen & Duthie Park" was King's College, the first college in Aberdeen and the 3rd oldest university in Scotland. We learned about the Three B's in student life: Bread Books & Beer. We strolled around and visited the chapel, too. We also visited the Cathedral Church of St. Machar, who was a 6th century Irish saint and brought Christianity to northern Scotland (via Iona). Notable was the unusual FLAT oak-paneled heraldic ceiling featuring 48 shields arranged in 3 rows representing the 16th century hierarchy of power spanning the Church, Scotland and Europe. We the went down to the "foot of the river Dee at the North Sea," or the village of Footdee, aka "Fittie." It is an historic fishing village of granite single story cottages, often colorfully decorated. Because they were so small, the villagers added wee outbuildings called tarry sheds -- often built from waste lumber and even driftwood, then sealed from the weather with bitumen paint (black tar). Our final stop was the Duthie Park and David Welch Winter Gardens. The Duthie family was very prominent in Aberdeen (you can do your own research if you'd like :-) The Victoria Corridor was breathtaking with its many flowers in full bloom. There were numerous glasshouses with a large variety of flora and a little wedding chapel that we are considering for our nuptials! Ha. A famous Aberdonian of whom you may have heard is Andrew Carnegie, who was a great generous philanthropist who gave away almost 90% of his fortune to charities, foundations and universities. Pennsylvanians and Pittsburghers, you know all about him! We enjoyed a late Italian dinner at Manfredi's Ristorante and a cocktail at TorsHavn lounge with live music. Tomorrow ... Edinburgh! NOTE: Scotland expects to reach 50% renewable energy by the year 2030.