Day 4: Dundee to Aberdeen and back again!

When we woke up this morning it was pouring with rain. Not just slightly raining, but pouring torrentially. We had a rather slow start to the day, hoping that it might clear up a bit, but when we checked the weather forecast it looked like it was going to rain all over Scotland for the entire day, so we had to make some wet weather plans!

When we'd stayed in Hawick on Saturday night, the owner of the apartment we'd rented had recommended that we visit the small coastal town of Broughty Ferry while we were in Dundee.  It was only a few miles away from where we were staying, so we decided to give it a go. 

First impressions when we arrived was that it didn't look as scenic as I expected, but places are never at their best in the rain! We parked the car on a side street and set off for a stroll towards the beach.

The beach was beautifully sandy and there were even some little sand dunes. But everywhere was a bit damp  

We walked along the esplanade for a while, looking for the castle.

It didn't look particularly old to me, but apparently Broughty castle was originally built in 1495!

It was closed today so we couldn't go in. We walked back along by the beach instead.

In the distance we could see the not very scenic port of Dundee, and also the bridge over the river Tay.

We were quite wet by this point and seemed to have exhausted the immediate attractions of Broughty Ferry, so headed back to the car. The Visit Scotland website had recommended driving along the A92 towards Aberdeen, which was described as a scenic coastal route, so that was our next plan.

The road took us north, through towns such as Arbroath and Montrose, towards Aberdeen. At times the road was quite close to the coast and we could get glimpses of the North Sea, which makes me think that it probably is a really scenic drive on a sunny day. But today was so wet and cloudy that the sea and the sky were just merging into one general kind of greyness, and it wasn't possible to get any photos. We did cross over some impressive bridges though, like this one over the river Esk.

The journey to Aberdeen was around 66 miles in total. We arrived in the early afternoon and quickly found somewhere to park. I didn't know a lot about Aberdeen, but had the impression that it might be rather grey. That turned out to be correct!

We walked down Union Street, which looked like it must be one of the city's main streets.

The building with the large tower is Aberdeen Town House, which was built in 1874.

The building with the smaller tower at the far end of the street is apparently the Salvation Army Citadel.

The citadel stands in a pretty square.

We were incredibly wet by this point, though. Not only was it pouring with rain but there was a strong wind in Aberdeen which was driving it into our faces.

All in all the weather was just too miserable to do any significant exploring! We decided to go back to the car to dry out and begin the drive back towards Dundee. Today probably hasn't been the most exciting of holiday days, but we at least attempted to make the best of the weather. And the good news is that tomorrow looks more like it might just be cloudy and/or showery rather than being one long constant downpour Fingers crossed!