Deflection

It was 12:00 Scotland time when I got to the resort, and I am really tired. Of course, I did not sleep on the plane last night. I was up for about 23 hours when I got to the resort, and now I am waiting until my suite is open. I am begging to wonder if this type of vacation is worth the bother, if it takes getting so warn out.

It was strange when I got to the plane, since there was a Boeing KLN Royal Dutch plane setting in the gate. Where was the Delta Airline? But, it was correct, we were flying on the KLM 787 for seven hours. The carbon body of the 787 makers a nice plane, since it is quiet and a sturdy plane. It made for a nice smooth flight. But the seat was horrible, since I was so uncomfortable. I took the blanket that they gave us and put under my legs to take the pressure off of my bottom from pushing into the seat, but I di have enough leg room. The person behind me wanted the back of their seat down and the person behind me did not want me to lower the back of my seat. At times, my muscles became stiff. It was nice to land. Seven hours on the dot, and we came right out of the clouds and landed in Amsturdam

As expected, the Netherlands are a flat as a pancake. I could see tulip fields from the plane. It was overcast and soon into the clouds.

I waited two hours to get on to another KLM plane, but this was a smaller Embraer 190. The seat was much better on the small plane. They stated that the fight would be 1.25 hours that seemed like 1.5 hours. The last portion of the flight was a little hard on the stomach, with the pilots making turns in the clouds.

Get through customs was really easy. After giving the agent my passport, she asked me there questions: Where I was from, how long was I goin got be here, and the place that I was stating. After botching the name of this resort, she smiled and gave me my passport. There was no going through my luggage.

The taxi was there waiting for me. we had a good ride to Balllater. Since it will take me a while to get use to diving on the wrong side of the road, it was probably good that he was driving, since things are a little different around the airport with most of the road being a back “woods” highway. The highway signs do not seem to be uniform, like in the states. During most of the highway, there was a soils curb on at least one side of the asphalt pavement if not both sides, In Iowa, we would state that the pavement was in a bath tub with the base and the pavement deteriorating fast. Most of the pavement did not have a blemish, but there were areas of a poor base under the pavement. This was an experience.

Before I got here, I had watch several videos on this area, and I found out that the there is a large granite quarry around Aberdeen, but I have never seen so much granite used to build structures. Each rock took time to make it fit the location that it was designated for from the quarry. The workmanship is very good. After working on wood frame houses growing up, I cannot imagine the number of workers and time that it took for each structures. There are thousands of home, buildings, and churches constructed out of granite.

Then there are the farmers field that had more rocks than glaciers brought down as the glacier moved south. The rocks in these four-foot high by one and a half-foot walls are cut and perfectly fit into the walls. I mean there are hundreds of miles of these walls. Without much of a frost, these walls do not move.

It is unbelievable to think about the centuries that it took these Scots to construct these rock and granite structures. Including the highways, and I was extremely tired, this has been a real experience for me.

I did get some sleep this afternoon, so I am not as tired at I was, but I still feel tired. I looked at some tours this evening, and I will be making phone calls tomorrow for tour. I will also be taking on the city of Ballater and hike trails. The trial along the River Dee, as it seems like the Scots want to call it, looks like a nice scenic trail to walk.

Roger .