The next morning the weather is still bad: rain and wind directly from the North Sea, but the city during the day has a much less bleak: the granite scattered everywhere (there is practically no building not built with massive blocks of granite on sight) gives everything to a silvery gray color that makes the overview really amazing.

After a brief sightseeing along the main street useful rather to appreciate the extraordinary impact chromatic (where there is also an international marketplace where products are exposed typical German, Spanish and Italian!) we leave Aberdeen and we head north.

For today our plan is to move north along the coast of Grampian via Peterhead - a town of fishermen to some thirty miles from Aberdeen certainly not famous for its beauty, but characterized by a rich fish market - and Fraserburgh - located on the more north-eastern coast and famous for the Kinnaird Head lighthouse that now hosts the 'Scotland's Lighthouse Museum'.

From Fraserburgh we continue, always on the coast, up to Banff where we stop for lunch. Here we taste an excellent Poached Haddock in a very suggestive restaurant with a view directly on the marina where we observe the local fishermen who are preparing to start deep-sea fishing. The sight of the black and stormy sea (and we are in summer!) makes us not so envious of their wor...

In the afternoon our march to the west to arrive to Inverness continues making a stop in Elgin, where we take some rest visiting the impressive ruins of the Gothic Cathedral. The visit is worthwhile: imagine a Gothic cathedral the size of that of Amiens and of which remain only a part of the load-bearing walls, a few apses and little else. In an apse remained intact a tape recorder sends a Gregorian music that propagating for all ruins, disturbed only by the noisy and ubiquitous gulls!

Elgin is the capital of Scotch whisky: here the main activity is the production of the famous liquor, thanks to the many distilleries that are in the Speyside and we visit the Dallas Dhu Distillery an ancient distillery transformed into a museum of whisky. We then move towards the hinterland up to Aviemore and the Cairngorms National Park situated between the counties of Inverness and Aberdeen, on the territory of the Grampian Mountains and the valley of the River Spey. The area of Cairngorms is of considerable interest and natural features (for what we have seen at least) for its heath covered hills and the beautiful landscapes.

Unfortunately the weather is worsening further and our visit to the Cairngorms reduces merely to a quick stroll in the town of Aviemore before heading to Inverness where we stay at the Amanda Wimberley House, another great B & B.