Aviemore was our first stop after hiring our car from Aberdeen. We trekked for hours and hours (read: perhaps 30 mins) with our packs on in Aberdeen to find the car hire place. Exhausted, we signed our lives away then drove straight up the coast through Peterhead and stopped at Fraserburgh for lunch at the Lighthouse cafe (surprisingly, it was in a Lighthouse and had great views of the ocean). The car park smelt like fish.
After supping on some rather pleasant soup we continued on down the countryside towards Aviemore, which we'd heard was a great little highland town. Our accommodation was Glamping in an Eco-Pod, which turned out to be really cool! Basically it was a B&B, but on the front lawn they had put up several little pods which were pretty flash - underfloor heating, ensuite with shower, radio with ipod doc, tv, bar fridge, tea & coffee, latex mattress. Very comfortable and warm, and I couldn't stopped wondering 'Why doesn't Booloumba Creek have these?!" I think I might have to write a letter to them when we get home....
Anyway, Aviemore was really beautiful. It was settled right in the middle of the snow-capped Cairngorm mountain range, and you could sit down to enjoy a coffee in town and admire the frosty giants surrounding you. As everyone kept asking us "Have you been up to see the snow yet?" we started to think that maybe it's something we should do while we were there. Isaac was thinking about getting a snowboarding lesson, however by the time we got there it was a little late and it also cost about $160.
We drove up the mountain squealing in delight at all the snow (or maybe it was just me squealing, if Isaac was also squealing then I couldn't hear his squeals over mine). Initially we were a little disappointing and put off by what we were met with once we arrived at the base of the mountain. All I really wanted to do was find a big pile of fluffy snow to roll around in, and Isaac just wanted a friendly ski slope to wobble around on top of a snowboard without being laughed at. However we were met with a serious looking slope covered in serious looking skiers who were all just coming down the mountain quite seriously and then going back up again. Even the kids were skiing properly. Not one snowman, no small children trying to eat snow, no one wobbling and falling off their snowboard. We were thinking 'Um...where are all the people who can't ski? Surely there has to be some???'. I really wanted to just sit and play in the snow, but it seemed that would have been the equivalent of pulling out a box of lego at a boardroom meeting.
So before we embarrassed ourselves, we acted like we knew what we were doing and went into the cafe for a tea whilst we discussed our plan. There was a funicular train that went up to the top of the mountain that a lot of people with their ski gear were using...we thought that there probably wasn't much at the top and they were just going up then coming straight back down, but we decided to get on the train and at least see some more snow to make the trip worthwhile. Perhaps there was a clump of snow out of sight of the skiers that I could assemble into an army of minions.
When we bought our tickets (10 pounds each) the man told us that there was a restaurant, bar and shop up there. The restaurant had a viewing platform which was covered (like 1+meters deep) in snow. It was actually pretty windy and blizzard-y up there, no one was really going outside except for the hard core skiers. The viewing platform is where we made our first snowman together! His name was Frosty. I miss him.
We also had a bit of a snowball fight, and just generally acted like 5 year olds. It was heaps excellent. And FYI, snow turns into water when you go back indoors. Not the most convenient when you have to drive for several hours to get to the next town and you've had several hand fulls of snow mooshed through your jacket and beanie.
