Winter in Aberdeen

We recently had a lovely weekend in Aberdeen for our anniversary - I wrote about the first part of our weekend in The Twelve Days of Christmas and Cats in Aberdeen. During our journey we stopped in Fochabers for coffee and cake and discovered that they have a window display competition for Christmas. This was our favourite, drink cans that have been turned into a church choir, complete with sheet music.

I loved this little reindeer French bulldog that was in the cafe window - very cute.

The day before we drove across to Aberdeen it decided to snow very heavily but thankfully we were on a main road the whole way so had no problems.

When we got to the hotel we discovered that a friend had managed to get us upgraded to a premium room which was such a nice surprise - I'd already arranged for chocolates and prosecco in the room to celebrate with so it was a great way to start the weekend.

There was a lovely lounge bar downstairs and as it was freezing outside we just stayed at the hotel in the evening and enjoyed some time together in a nice environment.

Here's some pictures of snowy Aberdeen for you to enjoy - the snow makes everything look a little magical.

Ken found a mate to pose next to - I should have got him a matching costume to show off all his muscles.

I loved how this statue looked with the snow - very regal.

The gold mailbox is for Katherine Grainger who won gold in the rowing at the London 2012 Olympics. Every British gold medal winner at the London games had a post box in their hometown painted gold for them.

This huge piece of street art on the side of a building is by the artist Add Fuel, who is a Portuguese Street Artist. 

Look at these boots of loveliness that I spotted in a shop window - I had to go in and hold them for a moment and imagine winning the lottery so that I could go back and buy them.

Beautiful war memorial with the winter sun on it.

We had a good wander round Union Square shopping centre, admiring the lovely Christmas decorations and the shops that we don't have in Inverness. Loved this waterfall of lights in the front of the centre.

One of the shops had all sorts of things made out of chocolate - they were amazing. Love the shoes and lipsticks in this photo.

Chocolate tools and nuts and bolts.

Chocolate 'cheese' and utensils. I was tempted to buy a piece of the 'cheese' as I'm sure it must mess with your head having something that looks so like cheese, but is solid chocolate.

This is looking down into part of the shopping centre from a balcony.

We stopped to have a coffee (of course) and I had this very cute little meringue snowman. He was very yummy.

On our journey home to Nairn we stopped part way for a break and took these photos that show the snow looking like icing on these picnic tables.

The cafe had a lovely wood burner for us to sit near - nice and toasty warm.

More snow shots.

Hope you enjoyed this visit to snowy Aberdeen. That was two weeks ago and now there is only snow left on the high mountains - the weather is being very bizarre.

Until next time, be good, stay safe, and I hope the weather is good wherever you are in the world.

Pamela & Ken
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Santa Arrives in the Highlands on a Trike!!

It's been a real Christmas themed weekend despite it still being November (my beloved keeps muttering this as he has a thing about Christmas too early in the year). Today we went to the Baxters Village near Fochabers to see Santa arrive in the Highlands. Lots of kidlets had been dragged out in the cold to see the jolly old man, and there were lots of irritable parents and whiny children. Annoyingly, in the middle of everyone there was one old man smoking so we had to move away from him as it was awful.

Trying to keep the crowd happy whilst we waited was Rudolph and Sugar Plum Mary.

Finally Santa arrived in style, on the back of a Rewaco trike.

Once Santa had arrived and was being mobbed, we headed to the dining room before everyone else did - it was a smart move, as no sooner had we sat down than a huge queue formed. When I told people at work that we were going to the Baxters village they told me that I must try the pancakes as they're 'amazing'.

The pancakes are huge (remember we are in Scotland) so I only had one, and I went old school with maple syrup and icecream. There were lots of other options but this is my favourite. I only managed to eat about half of it, and the sweet waiter offered me a takeaway box for the rest - I didn't accept as I don't think the ice cream would have made it home in one piece.

After our sustenance we headed around the shops to look at all the lovely Christmassy things. The food hall always has lots of lovely things on display, and wonderfully they had lots of tasters, mulled wine, and mince pies. We tried lots of pieces of fudge and I think our favourite was the panettone fudge - the Christmas pudding fudge was not nice.

Lollipops

Tins of fudge

Lovely antique cash register

Tins of Biscuits

After the food hall we went in the whiskey shop, and I was fascinated by the fact that is written above these bottles. It states that Speyside (the area around the River Spey) contains more than half of Scotland's distilleries - that's amazing!

One of the shop assistants was trying to tempt me with a taste of whiskey, but I declined as I really dislike it (slight problem being in Scotland) so then she offered me Gin, but I have the same problem, awful stuff. Her next salvo was to ask if I liked Baileys, which I do, so she gave me a sample of a whiskey cream liqueur called Magnum and hey presto, I loved it. There was one older gentleman in the shop who I think had tried one too many samples, he was a little bit merry.

In the courtyard between the shops was a brass band performing Christmas Carols - they must have been freezing, and their lips must have been so cold on the metal. Despite the cold they sounded wonderful.

Our next stop was the Christmas shop, which is my favourite, and yes we did buy a new Christmas decoration. At the back of the shop is the grotto with Santa, so lots of kidlets and irritated parents queuing to see him.

There are so many things of loveliness in the shop that I'm just going to share lots of photos for you to enjoy.

On this lovely letter box for letters to Santa the times of collection are; Bedtime, After Dark, and Fast Asleep.

It was a really magical day out and I was very excited to see Santa. Do you still get excited by Santa, or are you too mature for that now?

Until next time, be good, stay safe, and I hope all is good in your little corner of the world.

Pamela & Ken
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