A busy, tiring couple of days. We left our comfy digs in
Aberdeen Sunday morning and had a look around the town, visiting St Machan’s
Cathedral, a site of worship since 580CE and a cathedral since 1131. We wandered around the graveyard and found
yet another Alex Anderson. Then on to
the Brig o’Balgownie – the Old Bridge – said to be the oldest extant bridge in
Britain, walked over and beneath the bridge and then past the too-cute-for-words
stone cottages, still in use as homes. To
Duthie Park where we chatted with several people out exercising their dogs over
the expansive lawns, and walked through the enclosed Winter Garden, filled to
overflowing with all types of plants and flowers; we walked through the cactus
room, the scented room, the tropical room, past the seedling beds, then made
our escape through the cafeteria, equally overflowing with people, especially families
with children of all ages. Obviously a
favourite meeting spot on a chilly Sunday morning.
We left Aberdeen and took the long drive to the ruins of Dunfermline
Abbey and Palace, built about 1600 and not far out of Edinburgh. Much of the abbey is still intact, along with
one complete external wall of the palace. Of significance is that the remains
of the famous Scottish warrior Robert the Bruce, king of Scotland in the early
14th century and the leader of the first War of Independence against
England, lie in the abbey. Apparently
his remains have been moved around quite a bit but have now finally been laid
to rest in an impressive tomb under the altar.
The palace was also the birthplace of King Charles I, who was head of
England, Scotland and Ireland from 1625 until he lost his head entirely in
1649.
We then drove on to a lovely hotel near Edinburgh Airport
and caught up with Elizabeth’s cousin Jonathan and his lovely wife Nicole and
son Cameron. We were able to spend a delightful
couple of hours with them before we had to head off to the airport, return our
car and board our Vueling flight to Barcelona, arriving at 12.30am. After a relatively quick process of customs
and luggage retrieval we caught a cab to our nearby hotel, quick shower and
into bed by 2am.
Back up at 9am to a warm, sunny day – not a cloud in the sky;
breakfast, another cab back to the airport, then an hour and a half wait to
pick up our Spain car, a very flash BMW. We managed to find our way out of
Barcelona without incident and headed for Manresa, our overnight stop. On arrival we went looking for our accommodation
and drove around in ever decreasing circles to the point that we were concerned
where we might end up, then we were rescued by a delightful (and very
attractive, says John) young lady who, when asked for guidance, actually took
the time to lead us down a couple of almost impenetrable, narrow back streets
to our apartment building - even though she spoke no English.
We caught our collective breaths and then wandered up to the
imposing Manresa Cathedral, a huge church built over 160 years from 1322, situated
behind our apartment. It is enormous; to
give you an idea of its size, if you look at the photo of the interior of the
church and focus on where all the pews almost meet in the distance, that little
speck that you may see standing in front of the altar is John. The cathedral contains exquisite art works dating
back to the 15th and 16th centuries, and a set of eight three-dimensional
marble reliefs that defy description in their detail.
A slow walk back to our apartment and that’s it for the day.
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