Two nights in the hotel were comfortable, the luggage is dry again. Today my way leads me to Aberdeen, golf is only on the agenda while rolling past. In one case this is quite unfortunate and in the other completely unquestionable.
I woke up from the hustle and bustle on the small market square in front of the hotel. With the usual noises which such an activity brings with it, market stalls were built and filled with life. I turned around, annoyed and abruptly shocked up again. I suddenly remembered an event a long time ago that happened in colossal confusion: my car, parking overnight, a market taking place only one day a week and a tow truck played the leading roles then. I quickly made sure that my bike, locked in front of the hotel, was not too much in the way of building up the market, and then turned around, annoyed, but reassured this time.
Transporting the six bags and two golf shafts down through the hotel turned out to be surprisingly handy thanks to the elevator. The fact that I had to manoeuvre the luggage through a larger gathering of young bagpipers somehow clearly paid into the account of originality. While I was loading my HGV, the chequered group was about to whistle a serenade to me - and probably to all the others standing there as well. A nice scenery.
The track itself was quite relaxed today. Relatively mild stretching both in height and length as well as relaxed weather conditions ensured that this day ranked rather in the lower third of the scale of spectacle during this trip. But at least I passed two golf courses, for which one way or the other the opposite is true. Number 1: Cruden Bay is a jewel of a golf course. Although this course also takes the same way in the last years that apparently all courses here have taken: The prices for playing shoot up. If I remember correctly, then I paid here eight, nine years ago still under 70 pounds for a day ticket, three years ago (at that time I wrote about it HERE) the round cost me 90 pounds and meanwhile it is already at 115 pounds a round and 150 for the day ticket. That's a remarkable development. I'm not sure if this will work out well in the future and have the impression that especially in this corner of Scotland a market adjustment to the financially completely painless US-American tourists travelling for number 2 is taking place. During my trip three years ago, I was told in detail in the clubhouse how much the prices in the area had been spoiled upwards by this course. But one can be completely sure that if you were willing to put the money on the counter in the Pro-Shop, one will never forget the round again. This is really a place that has so much independence and originality that it would also be enough for three places. Absolutely isolated courses, separated by high dunes, raised greens, sunken greens, tees from high above or a dogleg par 3: Simply a huge adventure playground that guarantees fun. Today I just wasn't in the mood to play here, I probably would have spoiled my memory. As I suspect and as I was told by Cruden Bay during my last trip here in the clubhouse, the number 2 course also spoiled the area: the new construction of the course by the inventor of the daily state of the union address via Twitter. Probably and after all what you can read, this course has become quite pretty from a golf architectural point of view - some say that is too soft to be a good links course. But in general I personally think that Scotland doesn't need new golf courses, no matter if it's Kingsbarnes, Castle Stuart or the Trump thing here, no matter how beautiful they get, because they will take forever to get the charisma of St. Andrews, Dornoch and North Berwick and so on and they won't really fix an emergency. And the fact that it is this historical joke of a president who has dug up the area and its inhabitants makes it even more impossible to accept this place. A pleasant and slightly shameful joy comes over me when I see the much-discussed windmills that disfigure the view from the square despite the trumpish will. Obviously there was no good deal here.
The highly esteemed golf blog spieltgolf.de has discussed another course from the Trump portfolio, including a discussion of the pros and cons. I disagree, but that's what opinions are for.
Anyway, I arrived relatively relaxed in Aberdeen in the afternoon. The last kilometres reminded me a little of the stress around Inverness, but at least I was able to avoid driving directly on the two-lane road. As soon as I reached the city, I found relatively well-designed bike paths and the way to my B&B was quickly found. by the way that B&B was only 9 pounds more expensive than my campground two days before and I was blessed with more than a good breakfast.
Tonight I felt the need for cultural luxury. A cinema had to be and actually was quickly found. I really wanted to see the Spike Lee movie BlackkKlansman. A film narrated after a real event about an African-American policeman infiltrating the local KKK. Fantastic plot, but unfortunately the movie seemed too stretched. The links to the present ("Make America great again") weren't that bad, but 90 instead of 136 minutes would probably have resulted in a better movie. And then I didn't even get popcorn. Nevertheless it was a nice variation.
Not a spectacular day, so it gets the popular Be-Thankful-For-Everyday-Life-Award!