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lupestripeThe drive up to Aberdeen was largely uneventful aside from some traffic outside Dundee, whose bypass wasn't really much of one in all honesty. Pressing on north from there was a breeze though and as we descended into Aberdeen, the first thing we saw was the impressive range of ships in the harbour. Turning right to skirt around its most interior perimeter, we soon found ourselves outside our hotel, which was largely overlooking it. Having determined that the NCP car park next door was indeed the place to drop off our car, we checked in, dumped the bags and headed pretty much straight back outside again as we had a bus to catch to Ellon, the site of the Brewdog brewery.
Everything was somewhat rushed because the Overworks taproom was slated to close at 7pm. As it is only open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, it being Sunday meant that we had to make the 16 mile trip north as quickly as possible in order to get the stamp and try the unique sour beers they had on offer. We had never tried beers from Brewdog's latest venture and as sour beers are amongst Wolfie's favourites, we felt it a shame if he had to drive to the brewery just to get the stamp. In the end, this wasn't necessary as, after a little confusion finding the bus station around Union Square, we arrived just in time for the 4:30pm departure. This was due to see us set foot in Ellon shortly after 5:10pm, dropping us off at the pitiful park and ride (which I assume serves the charming market town of Ellon rather than Aberdeen) which was just a short walk away from the brewery. Granted their was no walkway and we had to walk alongside a crash barrier for most of the way, but the taste of beer and the looming fermentation tanks of the brewery were quite the prize. But then I am getting ahead of myself.
Leaving Aberdeen, the bus took us along the main street, Union Street, and out along King Street, enabling us to view the city centre for the very first time. The first thing that strikes you is that it's not called The Granite City for nothing, but even in the sunlight, the greyness of the stone made the place look a little drab. I don't know what I was expecting really, perhaps the crystals in the granite coming out to the fore, but in this intense sunshine, it still felt a little cold. Still, the architecture was truly stunning and we even saw one of the Brewdog bars we would be visiting later that evening as we went by. The road out of Aberdeen was surprisingly long and along the way we noticed two cosplayers coming back from an event that we later discovered was in Pittodrie Football Stadium, which was hidden behind some of the side streets as we passed. Upon leaving the city environs we also saw the Aberdeen Exhibition Centre, where the Brewdog AGM takes place, before the road belched us over the River Don and out into the countryside. The rest of the journey was largely uneventful except there seems to be an awful lot of road construction up this neck of the woods and we weren't entirely sure who it was serving.
Anyway, as we approached the charming town of Ellon, we could see the brewery complex on a hill in the distance, with my excitement soon starting to pique. After trundling through the town itself, we soon got deposited at the aforementioned park and ride and after picking our way through the overgrown greenery alongside the grass, we finally reached the industrial estate of our dreams. We had wanted to visit the brewery for so long and so being here was a rather surreal, if not exhilarating experience. I don't know quite why we have invested so much energy into Brewdog - although the name may have something to do with it - but since being on board from the very early days of the company and being shareholders since 2011, I guess we feel it's slightly part of us. This feeling was only strengthened when we saw the giant wooden sculpture of the Brewdog logo right outside their HQ, like some sort of canine Trojan horse.
The brewery itself was smaller than I was expecting, although the huge fermentation tanks were a dominant site. We were to see those far more close up the following day when we embarked on a brewery tour. However, the first target was the Overworks Bar, which was in the Overworks section of the brewery complex at the far end of this greenfield site. It has to be kept separated from the main brewery as sour brews involve wild yeast and this would contaminate the other beers. Anyway, we soon found ourselves outside the Overworks bar, where we were shocked to discover that it closed at 6pm and not 7pm as advertised. We counted ourselves incredibly lucky as the time was now 5:35pm meaning that had we got a later bus, we would have missed this bar. Fortunately, we hadn't though, and soon we were sampling a couple of sour beers on the mezzanine level overlooking the sour brews which were aging in casks and barrels. This bar had only opened back in April and there were only four other tables occupied, making it a rather pleasant place for a drink. I chatted to the man behind the bar about the advertised closing time on the website and he said it had always been 6pm, so he would look to get it changed (it since has been). Meanwhile, we enjoyed a sour strawberry beer and a more traditional sour ale in our half hour in this special place.
With the bar closing at 6pm, we thought it would be a shame to just come here and do that, so we decided to go to Dogtap too. This was the more conventional bar inside the main brewery itself, which we discovered was incredibly popular with locals. You can see some of the brewery floor through glass doors on both the ground and first levels, while they even have a kids corner. We noticed that they had special colouring in sheets and wax crayons here, so Wolfie and I coloured in a picture from the Lego Batman movie, sticking it amongst the others on the wall. We cheekily put our Brewdog referral numbers on the bottom and although we did feel we were usurping the childrens' art wall, we swiftly noticed that half of the colouring ins up there had been done by sad middle aged tossers like ourselves. The range of beer at this bar was quite disappointing - the standard range mostly - but the bar staff were wonderfully friendly and we even met the lady who was going to conduct our tour the next day. We chatted to her for a bit, told her a little about our picture on the wall and had a generally relaxed hour and a half before we headed back to the skanky park and ride for the bus. Alas, Stagecoach's 'timetable' was even worse than First's back home and the 8pm service didn't arrive, seeing us having to wait a full forty minutes for our bus back to Aberdeen. This saw us pull into the city centre shortly after 9:15pm and we feared there would not be enough time for us to do everything we wanted to do. Wolfie was on call, so had taken his laptop to the brewery with him, but spying the aforementioned Union Street Brewdog bar zoom past on the bus, we opted to get off on Union Street and walk to it, not least to get another stamp. And fortunately our hotel was literally around the corner so Wolfie could drop off his laptop bag afterwards.
This bar was incredibly friendly too and we enjoyed a pleasant drink here. I had tried to coax out a non-fur local called Andi out but he had to decline as he was working in Edinburgh the next day. This meant the night belonged to just Wolfie and I, but we met a number of cool people along the way, not least the bearded gentleman who worked in Brewdog who we were to see in the neighbouring Fierce bar the next day with his cute little pug and his girlfriend. He was the last person we spoke to in Brewdog, having bumped into him whilst exploring the extensive ground floor of this rather massive bar, as we left shortly afterwards to drop Wolfie's bag off. We had heard that Fierce had opened a bar in the city but what we weren't expecting was to stumble upon it literally as we walked out of the hotel. We had turned left to go to the bus station earlier but turning right, it was right there, between our hotel and the Brewdog bar. We were shocked but delighted, and we couldn't turn down an opportunity to drink at the bar of such a prestigious brewer. This turned out to be a masterstroke as we enjoyed only our 16th ever five-star rated beer (and we have drank over three thousand) - Fierce's Peach Melba was truly devine.
We would have happily stayed in this bar all night but our mission in Aberdeen wasn't yet complete as we still had one Brewdog bar to visit. This was only four minutes walk away and was the Flagship venue, the very first bar the company opened eight years ago. Along the way, we saw the impressive city council building, Marischal College, which was only slightly devalued by the building work being done on the road and pavement outside. This place is like a gothic castle it's so grandiose, all done in granite and incredibly long. It was built for the university between 1835 and the early 1900s and is leased to the city by the university, which still has a presence inside. I have never seen a building like it and I would go as far as to say it was breathtaking. The Brewdog bar is just down the road from here, and soon we were settled into one of the booths, enjoying another beer. The place was surprisingly quiet and the bar lady did lament that its close proximity to the other bar had cost them footfall, but it still seemed to be in good shape and it was a delight to be in the bar that started it all. Peering out of the window, we noticed that the Six Degrees North bar was just down the road, and they were the third and final local brewery who have a bar in Aberdeen that we wanted to try. This saw us finish our drinks and head over there, only to discover that it was closed for some reason. This may have been because this part of town was quite quiet and there were fewer than thirty minutes to go until last orders but we couldn't help feel a little disappointed. En route, we noticed a cute little light statue of a snow leopard erected in a random field and on our way back we took a few pictures of it. We then headed back to Fierce for a nightcap, which ended the evening quite well.
Monday was something of a groggy start, but we soon livened up, not least because we had a walk-in shower at our disposal, which is not something we get to enjoy at home. After a rather intimate experience, we got dressed and headed out into the city to scout some late breakfast. As we did, we noticed that the cleaning trolley was called Carmen, which was most serendipitous as we have an ongoing thing with the name Carmen based on the 'Rainbow does Top Gear' YouTube clip. Suffice to say I texted the company sales guy with whom I share the joke pretty swiftly. Anywho, I had done a little googling beforehand and discovered there was a highly acclaimed bakery called The Bread Maker, which was situated on Rosemount Viaduct. This was about fifteen minutes' walk from our hotel and enabled us to see some of the city's architecture before grabbing some food. After all, we hadn't had much opportunity to check out the city on Sunday evening what with the palava of the buses and we only had a few hours during the day on Monday before we had to head back to Ellon for our Brewdog tour.
The weather was splendid again and it was one of those days that was a joy to be alive. We checked out a number of impressive civic buildings in the square around Castle Street, not least the Tollbooth Museum which functioned as a jail in the seventeenth century. It was situated across the road from the square and upon it there was a statue tribute to the Gordon Highlanders army regiment consisting of a soldier with a rifle stood proudly atop a pink granite plinth and a circular building known as a mercat cross. These are incredibly common in Scotland as it is the Scots name for market cross and donates a place where a monarch, a bishop or a baron had historically granted the right to hold a regular market or fair. It is therefore seen as a symbol of prosperity and a secular notion of authority.
Moving on from here and heading west, we passed the impressive council buildings once again before stumbling across a statue of Charles George Gordon outside a school. Gordon was a major general who saw action in Crimea, made his name as a military commander in China before dying in the Siege of Khartoum in 1885. The statue was outside a school bearing his name, which looked very much like a Georgian utopia. We tried to snag a look, but the kindly lady at the doorhouse prevented us from entering, telling us it was private property. She was quite a nice lady all told and we had a chat about how this was our first ever trip to Aberdeen before going on our way.
Our next stop was the huge curved war memorial, outside which sits a growling lion statue. Constructed again in granite, it's a very imposing edifice, only made more imposing by its relative simplicity. Its curved nature gives the impression of it being larger than it is, while just the dates of the two wars in Roman numerals, some reaths and the phrase 'To Our Glorious Dead' sums up an attitude of all that needs to be said, which states the gravity of the topic. Fittingly, opposite this is a statue to William Wallace, proclaimed as the 'Guardian of Scotland'. Wallace is in warrior pose, arm outstretched with his sword in his other hand, and long the base reads key details of his life, clearly with a nationalist fervour. Juxtaposed against the war memorial, it seems oddly appropriate yet inappropriate at the same time - fighting for your kingdom and yet evoking a nationalism that has been the cause of so many wars in the past. Oddly, on the other side of the Wallace statue is that of Prince Albert sat in a chair - a very odd choice and one I could not quite understand.
Anyway, the bakery was near here and feeling hungry, we decided now was the time to eat. Finding it proved to be easier said than done, but we soon caught glimpse of it on the other side of the road to that down which we were walking and were sitting down to some of the most fantastic sandwiches I have ever eaten. I had roast beef and horseraddish and boy did they not skimp on the horseraddish - it almost blew me away! Still, the bread was all freshly baked in house and the fact they give support and employment to people with learning difficulties by teaching them the process of making bread made the sandwiches taste that ever so much sweeter. The place was understandably popular, such was the quality of the food, and it was certainly great to see it so busy.
After this, we double backed on ourselves and headed to the Union Terrace Gardens, which were in the shadow of the rather impressive His Majesty's Theatre. This strip of greenery in the heart of the city was a pleasant place to stroll in the noonday sun and as we walked around the park, we noticed that there was construction on the other side of the railway tracks which was a new building incorporating an old church tower. There was a lift shaft buttressed to its side and some of the church had clearly been demolished in the background and we wondered what this building would become. It was certainly an interesting reuse of an old structure. There was some interesting graffiti in the arches underneath one of the roads fringing the gardens here, but all in all the area was quite small and we didn't need to spend long here to have experienced it.
We were soon back on Union Street, but further down, so we decided to walk its length to see what we could see. Down one of the streets perpendicular to it, we saw a statue of George the Fifth and Last Duke of Gordon, who was also a first colonel in the 92nd Gordon Highlanders. This rather imposing statue of robed man and sword was somewhat devalued by the seagull perched on top of his head, but for me it was made worse when a rather loud but unexpected fart slipped out as we were circumnavigating the roundabout on which it was sat. There were a number of people casually enjoying their lunch here and as one they all turned to stare at me, leaving me to shuffle away uttering embarrassed apologies. Wolfie thought it was hilarious. There was a church around here that we had a quick look at, before returning to Union Street where we continued to walk down its length. Meandering along some of the back streets parallel to Union upon our return, there was very little of interest aside from a few bars, so upon getting back to the east side of the city where our hotel was, we had a refreshing Dugges IPA as a treat for all the walking. We picked this up in Fierce bar, which was fast becoming our favourite place in the city, and here we were told about a small area of fishermen's cottages just beyond the harbour. This was in response to me telling the barkeep we wanted to see the boats and I didn't initially make the connection, but what he was talking about was the village of Footdee (Fittie) which is under threat from the expanding oil industry. I remember stumbling across and then being intrigued by a documentary on BBC Four once about this very place when a few furs were round at ours and so it was great to actually get to see it.
It's about fifteen minutes walk past all of the tankers and industrial premises, very near the Aberdeen beach, which we were surprised that the city had. Footdee was a planned community and has a North and South area, all of which having doors facing away from the sea such is the exposed nature of this little spit of land. Laid out in 1809 by John Smith, it is a series of regimented squares and quite a unique place to wander through. Indeed, the only place it reminded me of was old town Rabat in Morocco, with its old street lighting, small buildings and a clear sense of community. The houses are tiny, with the sheds opposite them perhaps representing half of their area, and they were built for the close-knit community of fishermen. As you walk around, the oil industry is never far away, with the industrial units and storage tanks literally looming on the horizon. Inside the neat squares though it does seem rather isolated, dated even, despite how small an area this is. There's a small church, a war memorial and even a restaurant, although all of this is juxtaposed with modernity such as the Marine Operations Centre. The brick obelisk known as Scarty's Monument - a ventilation shaft for a disused sewer outfall which emptied straight into the harbour - is perhaps the most unique building here but the Roundhouse that is the Navigation Control Centre, standing here for over two centuries was pretty striking too. However, in this tranquility, as I said, the working oil industry is never far away and we even saw a tug pulling a rope inefficiently in the harbour.
Leaving Footdee behind, we walked along the beach for a while, heading to an area of tacky amusements, a Burger King and Mecca Bingo. We could see the heart of the city wasn't too far away, but we had to do a circuit around the industrial streets. With time pressing, we headed back into them, roads upon which I felt quite at home as they were quite similar to those in Middlesbrough, while seeing working industry and huge ships is always exhilarating. As we walked back, we stumbled across a bar called Krakatoa with a scary Aztec-style gurning mask in its front door for some reason - a mask that scared the shit out of me - before we successfully made our way to the Angus and Ale restaurant very near our hotel. This was a place that was frequently cropping up in any search I was doing about good eateries in the city and as it was nearby, we thought it was worth a try. Also, as our tour was at 6pm and we had to get back from Ellon afterwards, we knew that food after this was going to be unlikely, so we thought we would grab our main meal now.
What we didn't bank on was the erratic nature and unreliability of Stagecoach as their bus timetable for the Monday was even more weird than the Sunday, with no buses whatsoever out to Ellon for a two hour period in the middle of the afternoon. This put us in something of a pickle as we entered the restaurant at 2:50pm and the last bus we could get to make the tour was 3:45pm. Fortunately, there was only one couple in the restaurant and they were finishing, while the American waitress was incredibly understanding. The meal wasn't as relaxing as we would have liked, but it was one of the most excellent dishes of my life - chicken burger with haggis patty. It sounds so simple, but it was so good. To my surprise, the chicken wasn't breaded, it was just naked, but this actually worked as the richness of the haggis complemented the succulence of the chicken perfectly. Indeed, had it been coated, it would have been too rich. The chips were crispy and divine too, and I have got to say that this was one of the best meals I have ever had, it was so good. The service was also exemplary and we paid up briefly, swinging back to the hotel to pick up our beer visas before pushing on to the bus station. Here, we were greeted by a queue of three people with the bloke at the front taking forever to get his ticket. Sensing my frustration, the gentleman in front of me told me not to get too stressed because "you are likely to spend all fucking day here" which somewhat broke the ice. We did get to be served in the end though, only to be told to buy the tickets on the bus (we had no choice on Sunday as the ticket office was closed) so he hared down there only to find the bus driver had gone AWOL and there was a lengthy queue meaning we didn't need to rush at all. Still, the bus did make good time in the end and soon we were back in Ellon, where I'll pick up the story again later.
Everything was somewhat rushed because the Overworks taproom was slated to close at 7pm. As it is only open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, it being Sunday meant that we had to make the 16 mile trip north as quickly as possible in order to get the stamp and try the unique sour beers they had on offer. We had never tried beers from Brewdog's latest venture and as sour beers are amongst Wolfie's favourites, we felt it a shame if he had to drive to the brewery just to get the stamp. In the end, this wasn't necessary as, after a little confusion finding the bus station around Union Square, we arrived just in time for the 4:30pm departure. This was due to see us set foot in Ellon shortly after 5:10pm, dropping us off at the pitiful park and ride (which I assume serves the charming market town of Ellon rather than Aberdeen) which was just a short walk away from the brewery. Granted their was no walkway and we had to walk alongside a crash barrier for most of the way, but the taste of beer and the looming fermentation tanks of the brewery were quite the prize. But then I am getting ahead of myself.
Leaving Aberdeen, the bus took us along the main street, Union Street, and out along King Street, enabling us to view the city centre for the very first time. The first thing that strikes you is that it's not called The Granite City for nothing, but even in the sunlight, the greyness of the stone made the place look a little drab. I don't know what I was expecting really, perhaps the crystals in the granite coming out to the fore, but in this intense sunshine, it still felt a little cold. Still, the architecture was truly stunning and we even saw one of the Brewdog bars we would be visiting later that evening as we went by. The road out of Aberdeen was surprisingly long and along the way we noticed two cosplayers coming back from an event that we later discovered was in Pittodrie Football Stadium, which was hidden behind some of the side streets as we passed. Upon leaving the city environs we also saw the Aberdeen Exhibition Centre, where the Brewdog AGM takes place, before the road belched us over the River Don and out into the countryside. The rest of the journey was largely uneventful except there seems to be an awful lot of road construction up this neck of the woods and we weren't entirely sure who it was serving.
Anyway, as we approached the charming town of Ellon, we could see the brewery complex on a hill in the distance, with my excitement soon starting to pique. After trundling through the town itself, we soon got deposited at the aforementioned park and ride and after picking our way through the overgrown greenery alongside the grass, we finally reached the industrial estate of our dreams. We had wanted to visit the brewery for so long and so being here was a rather surreal, if not exhilarating experience. I don't know quite why we have invested so much energy into Brewdog - although the name may have something to do with it - but since being on board from the very early days of the company and being shareholders since 2011, I guess we feel it's slightly part of us. This feeling was only strengthened when we saw the giant wooden sculpture of the Brewdog logo right outside their HQ, like some sort of canine Trojan horse.
The brewery itself was smaller than I was expecting, although the huge fermentation tanks were a dominant site. We were to see those far more close up the following day when we embarked on a brewery tour. However, the first target was the Overworks Bar, which was in the Overworks section of the brewery complex at the far end of this greenfield site. It has to be kept separated from the main brewery as sour brews involve wild yeast and this would contaminate the other beers. Anyway, we soon found ourselves outside the Overworks bar, where we were shocked to discover that it closed at 6pm and not 7pm as advertised. We counted ourselves incredibly lucky as the time was now 5:35pm meaning that had we got a later bus, we would have missed this bar. Fortunately, we hadn't though, and soon we were sampling a couple of sour beers on the mezzanine level overlooking the sour brews which were aging in casks and barrels. This bar had only opened back in April and there were only four other tables occupied, making it a rather pleasant place for a drink. I chatted to the man behind the bar about the advertised closing time on the website and he said it had always been 6pm, so he would look to get it changed (it since has been). Meanwhile, we enjoyed a sour strawberry beer and a more traditional sour ale in our half hour in this special place.
With the bar closing at 6pm, we thought it would be a shame to just come here and do that, so we decided to go to Dogtap too. This was the more conventional bar inside the main brewery itself, which we discovered was incredibly popular with locals. You can see some of the brewery floor through glass doors on both the ground and first levels, while they even have a kids corner. We noticed that they had special colouring in sheets and wax crayons here, so Wolfie and I coloured in a picture from the Lego Batman movie, sticking it amongst the others on the wall. We cheekily put our Brewdog referral numbers on the bottom and although we did feel we were usurping the childrens' art wall, we swiftly noticed that half of the colouring ins up there had been done by sad middle aged tossers like ourselves. The range of beer at this bar was quite disappointing - the standard range mostly - but the bar staff were wonderfully friendly and we even met the lady who was going to conduct our tour the next day. We chatted to her for a bit, told her a little about our picture on the wall and had a generally relaxed hour and a half before we headed back to the skanky park and ride for the bus. Alas, Stagecoach's 'timetable' was even worse than First's back home and the 8pm service didn't arrive, seeing us having to wait a full forty minutes for our bus back to Aberdeen. This saw us pull into the city centre shortly after 9:15pm and we feared there would not be enough time for us to do everything we wanted to do. Wolfie was on call, so had taken his laptop to the brewery with him, but spying the aforementioned Union Street Brewdog bar zoom past on the bus, we opted to get off on Union Street and walk to it, not least to get another stamp. And fortunately our hotel was literally around the corner so Wolfie could drop off his laptop bag afterwards.
This bar was incredibly friendly too and we enjoyed a pleasant drink here. I had tried to coax out a non-fur local called Andi out but he had to decline as he was working in Edinburgh the next day. This meant the night belonged to just Wolfie and I, but we met a number of cool people along the way, not least the bearded gentleman who worked in Brewdog who we were to see in the neighbouring Fierce bar the next day with his cute little pug and his girlfriend. He was the last person we spoke to in Brewdog, having bumped into him whilst exploring the extensive ground floor of this rather massive bar, as we left shortly afterwards to drop Wolfie's bag off. We had heard that Fierce had opened a bar in the city but what we weren't expecting was to stumble upon it literally as we walked out of the hotel. We had turned left to go to the bus station earlier but turning right, it was right there, between our hotel and the Brewdog bar. We were shocked but delighted, and we couldn't turn down an opportunity to drink at the bar of such a prestigious brewer. This turned out to be a masterstroke as we enjoyed only our 16th ever five-star rated beer (and we have drank over three thousand) - Fierce's Peach Melba was truly devine.
We would have happily stayed in this bar all night but our mission in Aberdeen wasn't yet complete as we still had one Brewdog bar to visit. This was only four minutes walk away and was the Flagship venue, the very first bar the company opened eight years ago. Along the way, we saw the impressive city council building, Marischal College, which was only slightly devalued by the building work being done on the road and pavement outside. This place is like a gothic castle it's so grandiose, all done in granite and incredibly long. It was built for the university between 1835 and the early 1900s and is leased to the city by the university, which still has a presence inside. I have never seen a building like it and I would go as far as to say it was breathtaking. The Brewdog bar is just down the road from here, and soon we were settled into one of the booths, enjoying another beer. The place was surprisingly quiet and the bar lady did lament that its close proximity to the other bar had cost them footfall, but it still seemed to be in good shape and it was a delight to be in the bar that started it all. Peering out of the window, we noticed that the Six Degrees North bar was just down the road, and they were the third and final local brewery who have a bar in Aberdeen that we wanted to try. This saw us finish our drinks and head over there, only to discover that it was closed for some reason. This may have been because this part of town was quite quiet and there were fewer than thirty minutes to go until last orders but we couldn't help feel a little disappointed. En route, we noticed a cute little light statue of a snow leopard erected in a random field and on our way back we took a few pictures of it. We then headed back to Fierce for a nightcap, which ended the evening quite well.
Monday was something of a groggy start, but we soon livened up, not least because we had a walk-in shower at our disposal, which is not something we get to enjoy at home. After a rather intimate experience, we got dressed and headed out into the city to scout some late breakfast. As we did, we noticed that the cleaning trolley was called Carmen, which was most serendipitous as we have an ongoing thing with the name Carmen based on the 'Rainbow does Top Gear' YouTube clip. Suffice to say I texted the company sales guy with whom I share the joke pretty swiftly. Anywho, I had done a little googling beforehand and discovered there was a highly acclaimed bakery called The Bread Maker, which was situated on Rosemount Viaduct. This was about fifteen minutes' walk from our hotel and enabled us to see some of the city's architecture before grabbing some food. After all, we hadn't had much opportunity to check out the city on Sunday evening what with the palava of the buses and we only had a few hours during the day on Monday before we had to head back to Ellon for our Brewdog tour.
The weather was splendid again and it was one of those days that was a joy to be alive. We checked out a number of impressive civic buildings in the square around Castle Street, not least the Tollbooth Museum which functioned as a jail in the seventeenth century. It was situated across the road from the square and upon it there was a statue tribute to the Gordon Highlanders army regiment consisting of a soldier with a rifle stood proudly atop a pink granite plinth and a circular building known as a mercat cross. These are incredibly common in Scotland as it is the Scots name for market cross and donates a place where a monarch, a bishop or a baron had historically granted the right to hold a regular market or fair. It is therefore seen as a symbol of prosperity and a secular notion of authority.
Moving on from here and heading west, we passed the impressive council buildings once again before stumbling across a statue of Charles George Gordon outside a school. Gordon was a major general who saw action in Crimea, made his name as a military commander in China before dying in the Siege of Khartoum in 1885. The statue was outside a school bearing his name, which looked very much like a Georgian utopia. We tried to snag a look, but the kindly lady at the doorhouse prevented us from entering, telling us it was private property. She was quite a nice lady all told and we had a chat about how this was our first ever trip to Aberdeen before going on our way.
Our next stop was the huge curved war memorial, outside which sits a growling lion statue. Constructed again in granite, it's a very imposing edifice, only made more imposing by its relative simplicity. Its curved nature gives the impression of it being larger than it is, while just the dates of the two wars in Roman numerals, some reaths and the phrase 'To Our Glorious Dead' sums up an attitude of all that needs to be said, which states the gravity of the topic. Fittingly, opposite this is a statue to William Wallace, proclaimed as the 'Guardian of Scotland'. Wallace is in warrior pose, arm outstretched with his sword in his other hand, and long the base reads key details of his life, clearly with a nationalist fervour. Juxtaposed against the war memorial, it seems oddly appropriate yet inappropriate at the same time - fighting for your kingdom and yet evoking a nationalism that has been the cause of so many wars in the past. Oddly, on the other side of the Wallace statue is that of Prince Albert sat in a chair - a very odd choice and one I could not quite understand.
Anyway, the bakery was near here and feeling hungry, we decided now was the time to eat. Finding it proved to be easier said than done, but we soon caught glimpse of it on the other side of the road to that down which we were walking and were sitting down to some of the most fantastic sandwiches I have ever eaten. I had roast beef and horseraddish and boy did they not skimp on the horseraddish - it almost blew me away! Still, the bread was all freshly baked in house and the fact they give support and employment to people with learning difficulties by teaching them the process of making bread made the sandwiches taste that ever so much sweeter. The place was understandably popular, such was the quality of the food, and it was certainly great to see it so busy.
After this, we double backed on ourselves and headed to the Union Terrace Gardens, which were in the shadow of the rather impressive His Majesty's Theatre. This strip of greenery in the heart of the city was a pleasant place to stroll in the noonday sun and as we walked around the park, we noticed that there was construction on the other side of the railway tracks which was a new building incorporating an old church tower. There was a lift shaft buttressed to its side and some of the church had clearly been demolished in the background and we wondered what this building would become. It was certainly an interesting reuse of an old structure. There was some interesting graffiti in the arches underneath one of the roads fringing the gardens here, but all in all the area was quite small and we didn't need to spend long here to have experienced it.
We were soon back on Union Street, but further down, so we decided to walk its length to see what we could see. Down one of the streets perpendicular to it, we saw a statue of George the Fifth and Last Duke of Gordon, who was also a first colonel in the 92nd Gordon Highlanders. This rather imposing statue of robed man and sword was somewhat devalued by the seagull perched on top of his head, but for me it was made worse when a rather loud but unexpected fart slipped out as we were circumnavigating the roundabout on which it was sat. There were a number of people casually enjoying their lunch here and as one they all turned to stare at me, leaving me to shuffle away uttering embarrassed apologies. Wolfie thought it was hilarious. There was a church around here that we had a quick look at, before returning to Union Street where we continued to walk down its length. Meandering along some of the back streets parallel to Union upon our return, there was very little of interest aside from a few bars, so upon getting back to the east side of the city where our hotel was, we had a refreshing Dugges IPA as a treat for all the walking. We picked this up in Fierce bar, which was fast becoming our favourite place in the city, and here we were told about a small area of fishermen's cottages just beyond the harbour. This was in response to me telling the barkeep we wanted to see the boats and I didn't initially make the connection, but what he was talking about was the village of Footdee (Fittie) which is under threat from the expanding oil industry. I remember stumbling across and then being intrigued by a documentary on BBC Four once about this very place when a few furs were round at ours and so it was great to actually get to see it.
It's about fifteen minutes walk past all of the tankers and industrial premises, very near the Aberdeen beach, which we were surprised that the city had. Footdee was a planned community and has a North and South area, all of which having doors facing away from the sea such is the exposed nature of this little spit of land. Laid out in 1809 by John Smith, it is a series of regimented squares and quite a unique place to wander through. Indeed, the only place it reminded me of was old town Rabat in Morocco, with its old street lighting, small buildings and a clear sense of community. The houses are tiny, with the sheds opposite them perhaps representing half of their area, and they were built for the close-knit community of fishermen. As you walk around, the oil industry is never far away, with the industrial units and storage tanks literally looming on the horizon. Inside the neat squares though it does seem rather isolated, dated even, despite how small an area this is. There's a small church, a war memorial and even a restaurant, although all of this is juxtaposed with modernity such as the Marine Operations Centre. The brick obelisk known as Scarty's Monument - a ventilation shaft for a disused sewer outfall which emptied straight into the harbour - is perhaps the most unique building here but the Roundhouse that is the Navigation Control Centre, standing here for over two centuries was pretty striking too. However, in this tranquility, as I said, the working oil industry is never far away and we even saw a tug pulling a rope inefficiently in the harbour.
Leaving Footdee behind, we walked along the beach for a while, heading to an area of tacky amusements, a Burger King and Mecca Bingo. We could see the heart of the city wasn't too far away, but we had to do a circuit around the industrial streets. With time pressing, we headed back into them, roads upon which I felt quite at home as they were quite similar to those in Middlesbrough, while seeing working industry and huge ships is always exhilarating. As we walked back, we stumbled across a bar called Krakatoa with a scary Aztec-style gurning mask in its front door for some reason - a mask that scared the shit out of me - before we successfully made our way to the Angus and Ale restaurant very near our hotel. This was a place that was frequently cropping up in any search I was doing about good eateries in the city and as it was nearby, we thought it was worth a try. Also, as our tour was at 6pm and we had to get back from Ellon afterwards, we knew that food after this was going to be unlikely, so we thought we would grab our main meal now.
What we didn't bank on was the erratic nature and unreliability of Stagecoach as their bus timetable for the Monday was even more weird than the Sunday, with no buses whatsoever out to Ellon for a two hour period in the middle of the afternoon. This put us in something of a pickle as we entered the restaurant at 2:50pm and the last bus we could get to make the tour was 3:45pm. Fortunately, there was only one couple in the restaurant and they were finishing, while the American waitress was incredibly understanding. The meal wasn't as relaxing as we would have liked, but it was one of the most excellent dishes of my life - chicken burger with haggis patty. It sounds so simple, but it was so good. To my surprise, the chicken wasn't breaded, it was just naked, but this actually worked as the richness of the haggis complemented the succulence of the chicken perfectly. Indeed, had it been coated, it would have been too rich. The chips were crispy and divine too, and I have got to say that this was one of the best meals I have ever had, it was so good. The service was also exemplary and we paid up briefly, swinging back to the hotel to pick up our beer visas before pushing on to the bus station. Here, we were greeted by a queue of three people with the bloke at the front taking forever to get his ticket. Sensing my frustration, the gentleman in front of me told me not to get too stressed because "you are likely to spend all fucking day here" which somewhat broke the ice. We did get to be served in the end though, only to be told to buy the tickets on the bus (we had no choice on Sunday as the ticket office was closed) so he hared down there only to find the bus driver had gone AWOL and there was a lengthy queue meaning we didn't need to rush at all. Still, the bus did make good time in the end and soon we were back in Ellon, where I'll pick up the story again later.
