Aberdeen, City 18/69 in the UK Cityscapes project

For many years I'd wanted to visit Aberdeen, the granite city and coming in on the train from Inverness where I'd just spent 2 nights I wondered what delights Aberdeen would throw up, it was to be my last Scottish city in the UK Cityscapes Project and it was also my very first AirBnB experience so I was a little nervous.  No need though, Pat who I stayed with was the loveliest lady, she even offered to come and rescue me when a rain shower hit and on the day I left for home she met me at the station with my backpack so I didn't have to carry it all day, I have to say that I love AirBnB and have no problems with using it again in the future, I think all you really have to look out for are the properties where the hosts have lots of good reviews, it's a much more personal service than a traditional B&B though they still have their place but when we have our late summer holidays we'll probably look at renting a house on AirBnB for a week.

Aberdeen is a strange city I found, there's nowhere I've been with such an odd juxtaposition of old with new, industrial with beautiful, for instance a tiny quaint fishing village which backs on to the industrial harbour of Aberdeen (Footdee) or if you walk just a mile or so out of the city centre you get to old Aberdeen, they even have their own language (Doric).

I loved that the beach is so near to the city centre, they even have a theme park and it's just about 5 or 10 minutes walk from the shops, I've been to a lot of cities and there's none with such a mish mash of old, new, industrial, heritage, ugly, beautiful...

I think the images explain so much more than my words.  I'll definitely revisit Aberdeen and I'll probably take my daughters, I know they'd love the theme park but I'd love to know what they think of the rest of the city.

So there you have it, I hope you see what I mean, all of these images were shot within the city of Aberdeen and yet it could easily be three or four different cities, on the whole I loved the old, the quaint and the beautiful, I've never been a fan of massively industrial and of course Aberdeens main trade is that of oil so it was always going to be an industrial place, I'm glad I got to experience it though and I'll look forward to coming back again.