Dundee - Days 1 & 2...museums, gardens and a long walk!

St Paul's

That first full day in Dundee (before slumping into bed and nodding off during my favourite programme) hubby and I explored part of the city. Dundee has two Cathedrals, St Paul's which we visited, and the Roman Catholic St Andrews. St Paul's was small for a cathedral and even the vicar admitted nothing like St Paul's in London. It was much plainer and probably a lot cheaper to run. After a quick visit there we headed to the McManus Museum and Gallery. I fell in love with this place. The building is stunning in parts (inside) and it also has a wide range of areas covering all aspects of Dundee - a sort of mini Natural History Museum with a few science facts. There was a cafe and shop too. I would happily re-visit this place because there is so much on display, and unlike the Natural History Museum in London, it is uncrowded.

The next day (day 2) we went off for a walk to visit two places. We calculated we must have ended up walking at least 8 miles all told. Firstly, we headed up hill to the Dundee Law. It was THE one place I insisted we must go. When I took the online course in Forensic Anthropology earlier this year the 'bones' were discovered here by a dog and its owner in the trees. It felt strange to be standing in the same spot. The walk up was leg killing. I mean it's high and steep but worth it for the views. From the top you can see for miles. It was just wonderful.

McManus Museum & Gallery

the leg killing walk

From the top

Towards the North Sea

Memorial on Dundee Law

From here we worked our way down through succession of Law Steps and with the aid of that map we bought in Waterstones we found our way to Dundee Botanical Gardens. This lies across the road from Dundee Airport and I was able to see a couple of light aircraft there (I get excited about planes, much like trains really!). Anyway, with spring almost at an end up north there wasn't as much colour as there would be in summer. Even so we found the different areas interesting. The hot houses were colourful and one house had a great cacti collection.

We stopped at the cafe for a bowl of soup (delicious) and then began a slow walk back towards the city along by the River Tay finding a whole grass verge of daffs and two rabbits romping around outside a pub. The river was in full flow and, being so near to the North Sea, it was more sea than river slapping against the wall. It was very windy but sunny. Before going back to our hotel we nipped into Tesco for a few provisions and as stood by the check-out I looked out of the window and wondered how many Tesco stores had a view like that across a river!