Wright After Reading

I was really excited that so many meetup people were interested in coming out for a night of bowling. I even got to meet a few new people, which is always great.

I have been so busy this week. I went Saturday and am only now getting around to writing about this on my blog.

The Great Timmies Trek was postponed due to bad weather, so on Saturday Aarti and decided to make it up. Instead of the train, we took one of the CityLink buses from Edinburgh and switched buses in Perth. It took almost an hour longer each way, but part of that is the ten minute stop in Perth and the indirect route that the coach takes. Worth it though because it is about half as much money.

After some aimless wandering in the city centre, Aarti and I started walking west. On the way to Glamis Road and the promised Tim Horton’s coffee. In our aimless wanderings, we did spot a few interesting pub names – Tickety Boos was probably our favourite. After what felt like a lot of uphill walking, we eventually made it to Glamis Road and almost immediately saw the SPAR in question and were rewarded with some really good coffee.

With an incredible show of willpower, we waited until we reached Mills Observatory before we opened the box of donuts. The observatory is in Balgay Park, and after I took us on a wrong turn, Aarti suggested in a surprising show of bravery that we go off trail and down a steep hill. Of course I went first in order to offer encouragement/criticism from down below. Instead of walking, she chose to slide down most of it on her bum.

After leaving the park, we walked to another hill, the Law. Its an old volcano that sits above Dundee like Arthurs Seat sits above Edinburgh. I still need to write a review of that for the Woodlands Trust website. I have already posted a few photos on Flickr.

Dundee is really more of a city than I imagined and it reminded me of the older part of Nanaimo. Its history has been tied to the ocean and the city’s importance as a port. Its also about the same size if not slightly larger.

On the way back into the city centre, we walked past Dudhope Park and saw the tulips starting to bloom. The weather was sunny for almost all of our time, and we had the heat of a proper spring.

Back in the city centre, the McManus Gallery was also an extremely good way to spend an hour and half – a mix between an local and natural history museum and an art gallery. Outside is one of the oldest statues of Robert Burns – from 1880. After a short walk along the shore, we were both sick of walking and started back to the bus station.