Driving through Perthshire

It is a gray day, it drizzles occasionally and it is cold. Weather to drive around a bit and when we enter Perth we see a large field with a tent with Fake Festivals written on it. On the news you hear nothing but Mr. Trump, who says everything he does not like is fake news, here they are proud of it. Their motto is 'fake bands, real festivals' and there are only cover bands. It seems to be one of the fastest sold-out festivals in Great Britain and they are organized throughout the country. Here it was such a success that they want to make it into an annual festival.

In Perth we visit The Black Watch where a museum in the castle tells all about this elite regiment of the British army. They wore dark kilts and were the guards of the Highlands but also fought in many battles because history shows that the Scots are quite willing to fight. It is a well-designed museum but we are not really interested in wars and weapons. Then we go to Huntingtower Castle which we like better, just outside of Perth. At least they have a real ghost, Lady Greensleeves but you better not see her because that never seems to predict much good as the stories go.

Then we drive around a bit more, the area north of the A9 and west of Perth. There are many roads through the area and we drive them all off. Occasionally we see a nice house, there are lots of them in Scotland. At the cottage on the right we found the expansion with the separate chimney quite unique. Would it just be a stove or a type of oven built into the house?

The next morning the weather is a little better when we leave the hotel, it is in any case dry. We choose a different area that we want to explore better and then see a nice entrance sign with a representation of a castle. We see the castle in the distance and drive all roads around it but we can not get any closer and we respect the 'private road' signs. I would also put down such signs if I had such a fantastic castle. The 16th century castle was completely restored in the beginning of the 20th century and is still inhabited.

While driving around all those roads that, according to Teije's map, we still have to explore, we come across something that is worth photographing only very seldom. Statues of metal-made deer in a garden and a neglected gateway to an estate. That is the disadvantage if you drive around without a fixed goal, you never know if you come across something nice or funny. I have to admit that we have seen some beautiful things because of exploring all roads, but sometimes it is also a bit boring when you don't see anything interesting for hours.

Fortunately, the landscape is hilly, I think that's much better than the flatness in the Netherlands. Pertshire is part of the Highlands and in the south you have rolling hills and valleys, in the north mountains.
Now and then we come across a funny or special house, but I like the stone gatelodges best. But we already show too many pictures of them on the website. So here something different, a cut tree trunk is also special. In street view you can still see the whole tree, so it was not so long ago that this tree-art was carved..

In the afternoon we decide to drive to Dundee, a city on the north side of Firth of Tay. We have already passed it a few times but now we make a longer walk through the center. Dundee is a large city with almost 150,000 inhabitants and it is clear that there are two universities from the large number of young people who walk around. In a shopping street we see a statue of Desperate Dan, a British cartoon character, the publisher of the comic is located in Dundee.