Breakfast this morning was scrambled eggs with bacon, tomatoes and mushrooms. We decided to go to Aberdeen as it is only 40 miles away.

Our first task was to find a parking garage. With that sorted we stopped in at Books and Beans for an espresso and machiato (£3.20).

We walked down Belmont street but there was no market.

The indoor market in Market street is not worth the detour.

We went to the Aberdeen Maritime Museum which was fantastic. The highlights include great information on the Aberdeen fishing industry history, the Titanic and the North Sea oil rigs.

We had lunch at the Old Blackfriars which is part of the same chain as The Advocate in Edinburgh. I chose Red Smiddy to drink and Dave had Bellhaven Best IPA. Dave had tempura battered king prawns (£4.96) and I had chicken and sweetcorn soup (£3.69). Our total bill came to £11.58.

We made our way back to Ballater to shop for dinner and stopped off for an espresso, machiato and a whisky truffle for Dave (£3.60).

After relaxing in our lodge we went up to The Study for a whisky – Dave chose The Balvenie and I had Glenkinchie (£6.95).

We walked back to the lodge and shared a bottle of Suffolk Cyder. We’ve still not found anything as good as Devon cider. We finished off the pate and then had Scottish lamb chops with leeks, mushrooms, bacon and cream. We finished our bottle of La Pradera which we started last night. Dessert was the rest of the strawberries with cream before we finished the Stilton.
