Dallying in Dundee

Whoosh! The first thing Van experienced of Scotland was the weather as his plane tried to set down. It was windy, windy, WINDY and a bit chilly. Still, we got in and settled just fine.

The afternoon our guest arrived was like “Christmas,” and his extra luggage carried for us, among many other treasures, twenty-five pounds of pinto beans (and so THANK YOU EVERYONE, but there’s now a moratorium on anyone else sending us pintos), a huge bag of baking soda (which was helpfully perforated and leaked everywhere: thanks, Customs!), and D.’s long lost birthday+Christmas gift all rolled into one: a digital camera. Hopefully all of our blog pictures will now be vastly improved over our cell phone pictures!

We had a great visit and kept Van up talking until 8:30 p.m., whereupon he became incoherent, mumbled something, and stumbled off to bed…

…and rose the next morning at 4 a.m.(!!!). Fortunately, D. was up playing with his camera already (!!!) which meant T. was up soon as well (!!!!!!!!!).

We made breakfast and at 7:30 hopped on the train to Dundee where at nine we met Holler & G-man for a ramble around the town (roughly 6 miles of the twenty-six mile square that makes up Dundee), some castle-visiting (they’re not exactly huge in “Dùn Dèagh,” as its called, but they’re pretty, and Broughty Ferry Castle has a museum that is interesting. It’s surrounded by gorgeous grounds right next to the sea.), and some hill-climbing.

(Well, “law” climbing, anyway, since law is Scots Gaelic dialect for “hill” and Law, Dundee is an actual leftover basalt volcanic plug 500 feet [or 174 meters] above sea level) It was a rough climb in that whipping wind — T. slipped down a couple of stairs and scared herself — but it was so well worth it for the view!)

Atop the law, the wind favored us with gusts at least 50 miles per hour, and at times we were about knocked off of our feet, but it least it wasn’t raining! It was instead a marvelously bracing day of walking, climbing, being blown around, and laughing. Not only our guest, but the people we were with are… well, certifiably insane…not to put too fine a point on it, and we won’t name names but …um, nuts. And lots of fun.

Wandering through town offered us plenty of time to catch up and see Dundee, which is really a peach of a city, and Scotland’s fourth largest. The waterfront area reminded us — to the point of heart-pangs at times — of Benicia… (*sniff!*) except with gigantic sandstone churches, lots of statuary and some really unique history. (Eventually we even learned the tale of the Nine Maidens and the Dragon — even if we couldn’t find a nearby Dundonian who knew it!)

Originally, we’d intended to visit Dundee to see an historic vessel, and Holler was even good enough to get us a coupon for a free ticket to R.R.S. Discovery, but as G-man used to be a tour guide on the ship, they figured they’d seen enough of it for their lifetimes. We decided to continue to pester them instead of going to the ship alone, which will, after all, be there next time. We went, instead, in search of castles and the famed ‘Swanny Pond…’ Oddly enough, we never saw that pond… but we did manage to crash a wedding. Again. D&T are beginning to believe that they are slowly earning the enmity of the marrying Scots public — but they dear people will keep swanning around in castles with pipers and kilts! It simply invites one to gawk. We kept our visit to this wee castle short — but if the bride wants to drop us an email, we have lovely pictures of the wedding party…

Late in the afternoon, Van finally met up with a friend from Spain (which in itself was hilarious — as we drove around trying to find him, G. spotted a man on the sidewalk on his phone… and we all saw each other and waved), and D&T went on to introduce their hosts to the wonders of their Asian market — another Matthew’s owned by the same family as ours in Glasgow — and threaten them — er, promise them that someday they’d learn to like tofu. Or else. We then ended the day with a fabulous meal at a local theater café (vegetarian haggis… lasagna. Hmm, top that for a classy meal!), desserts, and lots of chat.

As soon as we got on the train, Van’s eyes glazed — it really had been a long day — but it was a day of unbridled silliness and fun, and we were told that if we would perhaps move to Dundee that Van would perhaps come back and visit more often!

Sunday will be a bit quieter, as the wind is still whipping and the rain is falling straight up, and we’re all a bit tired from being bashed about and rained on here in Glasgow! Van is only hoping to get out in the wind and rain to see some of the bridges and other architecture near the Lancefield Quay, the BBC Building and the Science Center. We should never have let the Dutch surname confuse us — Van’s great-great-grandfather was born and raised in Glasgow, and once again, another American is here to delve into his family tree. Monday Van will begin searching for the history of the Simpsons clan in Glasgow at the lovely Mitchell Library, and we’ll maybe take a ferry ride… but only if the wind dies down. Stay tuned!

(There are almost two hundred shots of Dundee on Flickr, including some of the wedding. Want to view our whole day as a slide show? click here.)

– D & T

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