A Visit to Ayr - Part 1

Last week was finally the time. I was able to spend a few days on vacation in Scotland. I spent five days with friends near Ayr in the district of Ayrshire.

From my West Dulwich stop, right outside my front door, to Euston Station, it was already a little way. These are always the disadvantages of living in a big city. Sometimes it takes forever to get where you want to start. From Euston it took five hours by train to Glasgow.

I was able to spend half an hour in the Glasgow station, which opened in 1879, and the station is anything but ugly. With small shops of all kinds, it invites you to stroll and makes time fly by quickly. The architecture is also remarkable. The station is the largest in Scotland and the most frequented in the UK outside of London. In two levels you can find the terminal station above and an underground through station below.

After a long journey across the UK, I was warmly welcomed. In the evening we started an extraordinary puzzle. 299 cats and one dog. But not normal puzzle pieces but the shapes of the cats. A rather difficult puzzle that accompanied me throughout the vacation.

On my first full day we visited the castle 'Culzean' (pronounced Collin). The castle stands on steep cliffs directly on the coast, not far from Ayr. The area is a total of 260 hectares and was converted into a stately country estate in the 18th century by David Kennedy, the 10th Earl of Cassillis. Today, visitors can visit the more than 80 rooms of the castle.

Next to the castle there are several parks and a lake on the 260 hectare land. You can discover an incredible collection of plants. The variety of different species is impressive. So we found a plant that looks very similar to rhubarb, but is so big that you can stand underneath it. But I was also able to admire a variety of different flowers. Two particularly beautiful ones can be found in the photos.

Since the castle stands directly on the cliffs close to the sea, you could walk along the beach below. The beach, a mixture of stones and shells, immediately invites you to collect or build stone figures. It was very relaxing to sit on the beach, let your fingers glide through the little stones, and listen to the sound of the sea.