Morning well spent: Provand’s Lordship, coffee at the Brew Box Coffee TARDIS, an animal mummy exhibition at the Kelvingrove, concluded with a cheese steak sandwich at Roast.
Deep fried haggis and chips at the Merchant Chippie
The DogHouse, BrewDog’s only restaurant
In the Drygate taproom
Drinks at the the DogHouse
Arrived in Glasgow with a little delay, so we quickly checked into the hostel to shower and change. Headed to the very hot Merchant Chippie for some battered haddock, haggis, and chips.
We needed to cool down after that, so we had a couple of beers at Drygate. We finished the first evening at the DogHouse, BrewDog’s only restaurant at the moment, but luckily just a bar as well. Another BrewDog location to check off our list!
Shortest visit to London to date: after a timely arrival at St Pancras Station, we had a Malay lunch at Roti King, then a quick pint at the Euston Tap, before boarding our train to Glasgow again.
We narrowly escaped overheating, since apparently the AC in some of the other coaches wasn’t working…
Leaving for Scotland again! We enjoyed traveling by rail so much last time, we decided to take the train again. We’re only using daytime trains this time, and stopping in London just long enough to have lunch in between our connections.
But first, let’s leave, so we can actually catch our train!
In the harbour near Fittie, with my girlfriend. Kilt lifted a bit by the strong wind…
Monument for the Gordon Highlanders
Playing with a mini submarine in the Maritime Museum
Wearing my black ‘beer kilt’ at the Punk AGM 2016 (photo by BrewDog)
Walking towards the BrewDog brewery in Ellon
In a blog named Kilted Guy, it wouldn’t be right to skip the subject of being kilted in Aberdeen.
Usually I change into my kilt once I check into my hotel or hostel, but since we had the convenience of a private cabin in the Caledonian Sleeper, I could just put on my kilt in the morning, before even touching Aberdonian soil.
As usual in Scotland, people never seem to be fazed by the sight of a kilt — unlike in Brussels — and wearing my MacLaren kilt, I never received any remarks about it. Well, the lady at the left luggage facilities at the train station inquired about it, but she seemed to be seizing any opportunity to chat about anything…
During our stay in Aberdeen, we noticed two other kilties. The first one, a guy in his twenties, was wearing his kilt very casual. Read: halfway down his calves, way too low to my taste…
The other one was wearing a beautiful kilt, obviously made by 21st Century Kilts, easily identified by the typical kilt pin. He was wearing it exactly as you see it worn in the ads of the kilt maker, complete with high boots and scrunched down hoses. Now I look at their photos again, it might very well have been the white-bearded guy featuring in a couple of them!
For the Punk AGM I decided to wear my black ‘beer kilt’, complete with BrewDog-bottle-opener-converted-to-kilt-pin. Only minutes after leaving the hotel, someone noticed my BrewDog outfit, and wanted to take a photo of me.
At the AGM, someone else even made close-up shots of my kilt pin!
Then, while I was on my own for a couple of minutes, a Scottish lady — who obviously had a few beers too many already — came up to me to ask me why I was wearing “a schoolgirl’s skirt”! At first I thought it was because my black kilt is not the same high quality and yardage as my MacLaren kilt, and her Scottish eye spotted it was probably made in Pakistan. But no, it was merely because it was black! Apparently, in her mind, only a tartan kilt is a kilt.
I guess even some people in Scotland still have to get accustomed to ‘modern’ kilts…