Dundee; Sunday, 03 June, 2018

As I had to change hotels from the one I’d paid for to the conference hotel that work was paying for I decided to have a lie in and a late breakfast, checking out of the hotel just a few minutes before final checkout time.

I walked the couple of hundred yards across to road to the conference hotel, with the intention of just leaving my luggage there and heading out into town, but the already had my room ready so I was able to check straight back in and less than 10 minutes after leaving the last room I was unpacking again in my new room.

I headed out of the hotel and went for a little wander around the harbour area where the hotel was before stopping off at an oriental buffet for lunch.

On the opposite side of the harbour is the HMS Unicorn, a wood and iron built frigate that never actually saw active service. The boat was built so that the navy was ready if it was needed, but with a roof over it’s top deck rather than any masts or rigging. Given it would only take a couple of weeks to erect the masts and rigging on the ship, rather than many months to build from scratch, this was the quickest way to get lots of ships available. The Unicorn is about the only one still left and with it’s original roof still intact – which probably explains the generally good condition of the ship.

I spent a long time exploring the ship, including long enough stooped down in the hold to have my back complaining painfully.

Having explored the ship I had a bit more of a wander around the harbourside before I headed back to the hotel to meet up with my colleague that I was attending the conference with.