Arbroath Abbey and Crathes Castle

Today was the planned trip with the Scotland Program. We started out the day with about an hour long bus ride south to Arbroath Abbey. According to Edith, our bus driver, George, was the best bus driver ever and I think she's right. Besides his awesome accent, he got us where we needed to be on time by going down streets even though the signs said they were closed. I think he said something along the lines of "signs won't hold me back." I can't remember exactly but that was the overall message.
Arboath Abbey was pretty impressive. The Abbey was mostly in ruins. Only parts of the church and the head abbots house were left standing. What I really liked about the Abbey was the size of the church, it must have been massive when it was all in one piece. I also liked the look of the red sand stone that they used to build it. We ended the tour by learning about the declaration of Arbroath. In a nut shell, it was one of the main writings that the writers of the US declaration looked to. I'll make you do your own research if you want to know anymore about it.
After the Abbey we went to the Old Brewhouse for lunch, which was a lot more fancier than the name implies. I had the Arbroath Smokie. It's a specialty that you can really only get in Araboath (even after the air in the town smelled like Arbroath Smokie), and it was delicious. For one thing, we were in a fishing village so the fish couldn't be much fresher. Also, I like my smoked food and it had a very strong, smokey flavor.
Next, we made our way to Crathes Castle. We took these winding roads through huge hills that were covered with very thick conifer forest. The trees may not have been native to Scotland, but it didn't change the fact that the view was amazing. Since the sun was out and the snow was still on the trees they were shining and sparkling. Eventhough George kept true to his best bus driver title, getting us to the castle just in time for our guided tour, we still couldn't go into the castle. Because of all the snow, the manager of the grounds decided to close down the castle for the day. I still don't quite understand the logic behind that choice, but I guess it made sense to him at least. We still got to take pictures of the outside of the castle though. I even managed to get into some of my pictures during the trip.