Sandlivegen – Bergen Lufthavn – Aberdeen Airport – Union Square bus station – Aberdeen – Dundee – Glasgow Queen Street

I started the day at yet another enormous breakfast buffet. This one was certainly the largest, but the hotel was much bigger, so that was no surprise. This one had more fruit and more cheese, but the bread wasn’t as good as yesterday so that one remains the winner!

I walked back to the tram stop, and after a few minutes my service to the airport arrived. The tram stop is right next to the very modern terminal.

I had a bag to drop off so went to check in and was issued with an old-fashioned boarding card; quite a rarity these days.

This service primarily serves the oil industry and on a Saturday morning it was very quiet indeed; even our small plane was nowhere near half full.

The views of the islands outside Bergen were rather lovely as we climbed for the short flight to Scotland. The weather wasn’t as nice in Aberdeen but we got a decent view of the city as we came in to land.

I’ve not used Aberdeen Airport before but have passed it by train many a time. There is a station, Dyce, right by the perimeter fence. What I didn’t realise was that there is no way to get there after landing. By some piece of genius planning the terminal is on the opposite side of the runway to the station so catching a train means two buses or a taxi around the edge of the airport. Annoyingly I’d bought my train ticket from Dyce, but accepted that it wasn’t going to be feasible and caught a bus to the city centre instead. This was a predictably slow affair, taking almost 45 minutes, but took me through parts of the city that I’ve not seen, before arriving at a very sorry looking Union Street, and finally what seemed to be a temporary bus station around the back of the shopping centre. “Welcome to Aberdeen!”

One good thing about Aberdeen is that you always get a good selection of HSTs at the platform, or at least you will for another couple of years. This is now the last fleet in mainline service and they are in their 50th year. I’ve done a couple of long weekends playing on them in Scotland in recent years and have another one planned in November, with a group of friends.

The journey down the coast was lovely as ever. The sun was in the wrong place for me to take many photos but I did manage to get a couple of the coastline near to Montrose as we headed south.

I’d decided to get off at Dundee. I was here on a previous trip a couple of years ago and very much enjoyed the Victoria & Albert Museum, but on this trip I wanted to go next door, to see the museum based around Captain Scott’s ship, RSS Discovery, though I did leave my bags in the lockers at the V&A first.

Before I started looking around Discovery Point I paused for lunch in their cafe, where I was exceptionally well looked after by the young staff. The food was super and the service was even better, so credit where it’s due.

The museum has some really interesting displays and information in the main building. It was reasonably busy here on a Saturday afternoon, but not so much that you felt rushed or crowded. I though the shipbuilding section was particularly interesting. This perspective model is huge and very impressive.

After looking around the displays I crossed the yard to board the ship. Walking around the interior gives a real sense of how it was a century ago. Captain Scott’s quarters are preserved as they were in his time.

Back on deck I got into a long conversation with one of the volunteers. The ship needs an enormous amount of conservation work and there isn’t the money to do it all. They are concentrating the resources they do have protecting what is there from the elements, in the hope that money will be found to do the major works at a later date, though some areas, such as one section of the stern are being worked on. It’s a huge project but the team here are passionate and determined and I wish them well.

I spent three hours in the museum, but could easily have stayed for longer. I do thing Dundee is a something of gem, with this and the V&A next door to each other, and I’ve barely touched the rest of the city.

My next train took me to today’s destination, Glasgow. I know this city pretty well but always enjoy returning. This is the first time I’ve been here since the fire at Central Station, and I was shocked to see the big space where a lovely old building had stood at my last visit. I’ve used the cafe at the corner of the building more than a couple of times over the years.

I’d booked into an old favourite hotel, Motel One, above Central Station. This is where I stayed for a few nights when I did a practice run for Interrailing, about 4 years ago. There isn’t a diary entry for this, but I wanted to find out how feasible it was to carry the amount of stuff I would need to “work from home” in a hotel anywhere in Europe. I had a reason to visit Glasgow so decided rather than a day off and an overnight stay, I’d book in somewhere for 4 nights and see how it went.

I learned a lot from that trip. Things I didn’t know I would need and things I could leave at home. The packing list has refined a bit over time but I have pretty much nailed it now, thanks to a few nights in this hotel. One key thing was that the room was lovely and comfortable, but had no desk. I’d just taken it for granted that there would be one and clearly others have said this as well, as there is one now, and it is something I check whenever I make a booking!

My arrival tonight coincided almost to the minute with the climax of the SPL football season, with Celtic winning a dramatic game in the final minutes, and so becoming league champions. I was fully aware that Glasgow would be “lively” this evening, whatever the outcome, so I dropped my bags in the room and headed straight out to get something to eat, in an Indian buffet, less than a minute walk from my hotel.

I was back at the hotel before 8pm and after a drink in the hotel bar, spent the rest of the evening in my room. Just as well as it turned out as the “revellers” had put a window through in reception around 10pm. I took this photo the following morning.

It’s such a shame that people need to be destructive when they have a really great result to celebrate. I could hear police sirens well into the night, though the street outside my window was relatively quiet, with most of the drama about half a mile away.