OK, since we are a reasonably small group on the tour, 27… we are assigned seats on the bus and they rotate toward the front on the left and then to the back on the right. … we started out near the back of the bus on the left and now are just 1 seat behind the front… My nieces, today, were on the front left side with others of our small group, on the right. The trip today was from Aberdeen to Balmoral… along the river Dee… now to be honest the road is barely a 2 lane road… and we are in a 8+ft wide bus… 40+ ft long… decent ride but we are really wide for these roads… Next on the list is that the road along the river, any river, is very winding, curved, up and down, back land forth… so being in the very front of the bus may not be a good place for those that get car sick… (the girls had been in the back and decided that was not good either so they have rejoined the group in the move forward but today…. It got to them… yep… calling RALPH in a plastic bag… and from then on they were pretty much sickly the rest of the morning till we stopped for lunch they got out and walked around and picked up some junk food to calm things down… I would say they are Internationally food challenged… by they it is hard to find things they can or will eat and most of what they try tends to give them a rolling stomach… add that to the rolling road and … just glad they were in front of me…
OK, where does the center of the bus appear to ride? and what about the beaten down stuff on the side of the pavement where everyone else has had to get off the road ? Not too wide here..
Close fit and we went through numerous gates, bridges, and crossings that were about the same width…maybe 1 ft on each side of the bus…
We did get to Balmoral on time and made our tour there…
Proof of arrival or near departure? anyway got there but you can’t see anything of the castle except the ball room…
The queens flowers in preparation for her return in a month…
We also got a tour of the KIRK that the Queen attends when in Balmoral…
The Queen entrance… separate from the front door…
And of course the royal family section coming in from the queens entrance…
Mostly it is just a nice small English church… with a few nicer pieces but still pretty much a small town church…
I have been seeing these all over and think I better try some before I leave… I like FREECASH… somehow I don’t think it works for me?
We stopped in Ballater for lunch and shopping… got a few small things there… found the same shop that I had been in 20 years ago to buy my Dad a real Scottish golf cap.(Happy Fathers Day Dad..miss you).. I now have that in my closet… somehow I missed getting a picture of the place… nice little town, had a craft fair going on and we learned a few things there… like ISPY quilts for small children…
We didn’t get any but thought about it…
After all this we drove on to the Falls coiffeur to have Tea and Scones… not bad… but I am ok with hot tea…
When we were ready to leave one of the girls got to try the bagpipes…
It was not as easy as it looked… seems it takes a few years to learn these things…
Back at the hotel we got another chance at a dinner meal that we couldn’t understand the writing and wondered about the food… tonight it was ok… but the service was just as bad as yesterday… took almost 2 hours to get 3 courses done? and a lot of it was pasta… or fish… This place needs to fire the French chef and hire a good country cook that can get good food out in a short time period… and quit trying to make it all overly fancy… a little show is fine but they are going to extremes and the prices on the menu for what they are putting out is excessive… but then again… I am a colonial and have no clue about high society… and glad of it, I would starve or die of thirst waiting on them to get things done. Oh and they may want to hire a training person to train the people how to really clean… black mold on the shower heads? although the rest of the room is ok…
So ends another day… we pack it up and move tomorrow… final move from what I hear until we pack it out of country on Wednesday morning…
WD0AJG
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