The North - Brodie/Forres

Today is my little brother Jamie's anniversary. He died in our house fire 27 years ago today. 08/08/80 (Did I ever mention I don't like the number eight?). A day doesn't go by that I don't miss him. I love you Jamie.

Forgot to mention the amazing bathroom in this B&B. It was so nice I had to take pictures! It was huge, bigger than our bedroom here at home and had a corner tub, wonderful standup shower, and even a bidet! Haha. No, I didn't try it out. I was actually scared of it. Haha.

Anyway, the shower was incredible. Love showers that almost peel the skin off you. After showering, our hostess served us one hell of a breakfast. I had a concoction of bruschetta topped with fresh mushrooms in a cream sauce - it was excellent. I should have gotten the recipe from her. Keith had the full Scottish breakfast.

Spent the morning in St. Andrews shopping and taking more pictures. I was so amazed and interested in the Cathedral ruins that I had to go back. It is just so beautiful. And for some very strange reason I enjoy checking out graveyards (in daylight only!). I'm always interested to see the age of the head stones.


















Once I was pictured out we were back on the road. Today we're off to the North! We left St. Andrews at 12pm and drove through Dundee which looks very nice too, also located on the ocean. Seemed like quite a large city as it took us a bit to drive through it to get on our route. The lady at the B&B suggested we travel a secondary route that is much nicer and doesn't have the highway traffic.





We opted for her suggestion and took the road less travelled. Most of the drive was through the Grampian Mountains (one of the 3 major mountain ranges in Scotland). Surprisingly, there were no signs before entering the mountains to warn of the last gas station or anything. These mountains (this route anyway) were very remote, serene and untouched.

During the drive we travelled by Lecht Ski Hill Doesn't really look like much of a skiing area (this isn't a picture of it - I didn't take any of it) and I sure wouldn't take the time to travel to it! And Glenshee Ski Centre . Part way through the mountains there's a little village called Braemar that is nestled in the middle of nowhere it feels. We stopped here for lunch at Gordon's Tea Room and poked around in the shops.

This is a bridge we drove over in the middle of nowhere. We thought it was quite impressive. A good portion of the drive was one lane traffic. There isn't a lot of traffic but more than you'd expect. The key is to keep your eyes on the road and pay close attention that someone isn't coming around the corners!

We finally arrived in Brodie at 5:30pm. Once we checked in we hopped back in the car and went to Findhorn (nice small coastal village) above Brodie. Our friend Dave spent many years at RAF Kinloss which is right beside Findhorn and had told us of a great pub to visit, The Kimberlie. We decided to check it out. It was indeed a popular place and with no seating left so we popped next door to the Crown & Anchor. Not great food or as good of atmosphere as the Kimberlie, but it did the trick. Afterwards we went back to the Kimberlie to have a drink before heading back to the B&B.