Scotland for Family Visiting

On our way to the Wedding we travelled along the A93 road, from Aberdeen City and out into this new land.  Neither of us had travelled this road before but we were on our way .... the A93 is shown on the map as an almost straight road crossing form east to west.

Peterculter shops

We travelled through typical villages and stopped in Peterculter for some flowers and a wedding card (yes! I forgot!).
Really nice helpful people in the shops and we were soon on our way to Banchory.
We were meeting up with my cousins who I hadn't met for over  ... a long time!  As we approached the town we realised we were nearly an hour early and so we looked for somewhere we could stop for the proverbial coffee and cake.

Mains of Drum

 We saw this tower from the road and a sign saying Garden Centre - we stopped.
Coffee, cake and a more suitable Wedding Card later we continued on our way.  Alongside the road, just before we turned off into my cousin's road we noticed a railway and mentally booked to visit on our return journey.
My cousins were waiting in their bungalow and were pleased to see us, I was sooo excited.
A beautiful tea was laid out, I have forgotten how it used to be  .... the best china brought out for visitors.  It was so lovely, sandwiches, cakes and tea.

Family!

We chatted, swapped photos, caught up with each other's families.  Turns out that J used to work on the railway, giving us all the gossip.
My cousin's were so lovely, just the same as they used to be all those many years ago.  True, they looked older but then so do I.
The last time I saw them I was thirty and burying my daughter, not the best memories we shared.  This time together replaced those memories with new happy ones.
After a couple of hours spent together we said our goodbyes and headed out through small villages, through Ballater and Braemar.  In Braemar we veered right towards Mar Lodge while the road continued on past Balmoral Castle (the Royal Family were in residence but we didn't see them) towards the west coast.