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Driving into Edinburgh is like driving into a medieval city (another one) but Edinburgh is only small and is almost surrounded by cliffs, but the most amazing site is Edinburgh Castle sitting proudly on its own cliff. We had found at the last minute a cottage in the city centre in a converted brewery, it was called Nether Craigwell and had arranged to meet the owner to give us the key etc. Susan was there waiting for us and showed us into the delightful 2 storey, 2 bedroom cottage, as she described it was upside down with kitchen/lounge/dining upstairs and bedrooms and bathroom upstairs, but it was just what we needed.
It was equipped with absolutely everything, so we took stock of what we needed and headed off to the local grocery store to buy supplies for our 6 nights here. Once again the only downside to the cottage was the double bed, and the fact that the bedrooms are at ground floor level and literally on the street (footpath is only a meter wide); combine that with a cobblestone road and cars traveling down it very noisily, we thought we would have trouble sleeping. I have found ear plugs essential, and once again they helped me get a good nights sleep.
Saturday 25/02/2012
We enjoyed an ordinary breakfast at home, even had Vegemite on toast, they stock here in Scotland for some unknown reason. Then we headed off down the road to jump on Edinburgh's 'Big Red Bus'. We did the city tour, and saw so many things we wanted to see, then jumped off that one and got on the Ocean Pier bus, which took us down to the Royal Yacht Britannia. This beautiful yacht was decommissioned in the 90,s because of political grand standing before an election. The royal family was copping it because they didn't pay taxes, the Brittanica needed refitting and that would have cost millions, so the decision was made to sack her. Apparently even Tony Blair now says it was the wrong move.
We toured at leisure throughout the decks with an audio guide, most of the furniture is still the original, but amazingly the engine (considered an antique) is still fully functional. They had recently moved her to another port for repairs, then sailed her back to Edinburgh, and the engine worked perfectly. Along side her is the Royal Racing Yacht Bloodhound, built in 1936, restored in 2004 and sold back to the royal family who lend it to yachting clubs.
We jumped back on the bus and made our way into the city centre and had a walk up the Royal Mile, this is the street that links Edinburgh castle to Holyrood Palace, the official residence of the queen when she is in Edinburgh, another must see.
We had seen so many things that when we got home we tried to work out a timetable for the next few days so we could fit it all in, but found we didn't have enough time; don't be silly we still have months left, so I emailed Susan to ask if we could extend our stay.
Sunday 26/02/2012
Today saw the 6 nations match between Scotland and France being played here in Edinburgh, hence why there were so many French people here. We decided it would be a good day to venture out of Edinburgh for obvious reasons. So we headed for Stirling and the famed castle. It was a wise decision as there weren't a lot of people here. Marty had a passion for this castle what with William Wallace and Robert the Bruce.
An hours drive found us at this magnificent castle which was the most important castle in the history of the battles between England and Scotland. The castle sits atop Castle Hill, an intrusive crag, which forms part of the Stirling Sill geological formation. It is surrounded on three sides by steep cliffs, giving it a strong defensive position. Its strategic location, guarding what was, until the 1890s, the farthest downstream crossing of the River Forth, has made it an important fortification from the earliest times. Most of the principal buildings of the castle date from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. A few structures of the fourteenth century remain, while the outer defenses fronting the town date from the early eighteenth century. Several Scottish Kings and Queens have been crowned at Stirling, including Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1543. There have been at least eight sieges of Stirling Castle, including several during the Wars of Scottish Independence, with the last being in 1746, when Bonnie Prince Charlie unsuccessfully tried to take the castle.
We joined a tour which gave us the above history of the castle in much more detail, then at leisure explored the many facets of the castle including the museum of the The Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders Regimental Museum, 2 floors dedicated to the kilt wearing regiment, the Stirling Tapestries, The Stirling Heads Gallery, The Palace Royal and so much. It was a great experience.
We lunched at an Inn just outside the castle, then made our way to Falkirk to see the wheel. The Falkirk Wheel is a rotating boat lift. It connects the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal. Named after the nearby town of Falkirk, it opened in 2002 as a tourist attraction. The two canals it serves were previously connected by a series of 11 locks, but they had become dysfunctional and obsolete so this wheel was constructed in their place. Unfortunately it was closed for the winter, so although we were able to view it, we weren't able to take a ride, not that we were overly concerned.
That was the days travels and we headed home for another home cooked meal
Monday 27/02/2012
We were hoping the French may have gone home after their victory against the Scots but this day proved they were staying a little longer. We rugged up and walked to what is called Our Dynamic Earth, only to find it was closed to the general public for a function, grrrrr, will tell you more about that if we get to see it. Change of plans and headed to The Palace of Hollyrood which is the official residence of the monarch when they are in Scotland. The palace stands at the bottom of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, at the opposite end to Edinburgh Castle (our cottage was one street down and 500 meters from the palace). Queen Elizabeth II spends one week in residence at Holyrood Palace at the beginning of each summer, where she carries out a range of official engagements and ceremonies. Queen Elizabeth II spends a week in here at the beginning of each summer, where she carries out a range of official engagements and ceremonies including knighting people, can you believe Gordon Ramsay received an OBE, they must give them out to anyone.
We then made our way to the other end of the Royal Mile and signed up for the Scotch Whiskey Experience, a tour through a virtual distillery, explaining the process of making scotch whiskey, it was ok and at the end Marty got to try 2 whiskeys, his and mine and we got 2 whiskey glasses, which we will probably leave at the cottage.
We wandered down the road and found The Real Mary Kings Close. This is a difficult one to explain, but basically the centre of Edinburgh is made up of main streets with little narrow streets running off it called closes. In the 1700's their existed several closes that ran down steep inclines to the river and had buildings on either side that started at the top of the hill with 2 stories, and ending at the bottom with buildings up to 14 stories high. They had hundreds of families living in these buildings with no sanitation, water or services, so we're plaqued with disease and crime. Eventually after one serious plague in 1644 the closes we're abandoned and the top layer of the buildings destroyed, the bottom layer being used for foundations for the existing buildings.
Those underground buildings were virtually forgotten about until rediscovered last century, and is now a tourist attraction, where we climbed down into the old closes and saw the buildings as they were hundreds of years ago. It really was an experience and where I learnt that the "Old Town of Edinburgh" was heritage listed, which explains why there are so many extremely old buildings there in perfect condition (although dirty), Marty also surmised that Edinburgh probably didn't get bombed in the war, another reason why they were in such good nick. I assumed that the reason they don't clean the buildings is that the cleaning process would probably damage them, either that or it's too expensive.
Anyway, we kept strolling down the Mile and eventually found the Museum of Children, which had been highly commended, 2 stores of children's toys and games etc, interesting, but not thrilling, by this time it was late afternoon, so we headed home. Couldn't be bothered cooking tonight so found a Thai restaurant and enjoyed a very nice dinner.
Tuesday 28/02/2012
We had planned on walking to Arthur's Seat, (the top point of the crags behind Edinburgh), but didn't think the view would be as good as Calton Hill, and I think we were right. At the top of Calton Hill is the Nelson Memorial, so after climbing the hill, we climbed to the top of the memorial and had the most amazing views of the old town and new town to the port.
Took lots of photos, and Marty suggested we get a planking photo of me on a concrete marker, I gave it a go, but unfortunately the tummy muscles just weren't up to it, but we had a good laugh.
We then headed back down and over the Waverley Bridge back to the Royal Mile to find Gladstone's Land, a tenement building showing how people lived in the 17th Century, but guess what? Closed for renovations, oh well, off to the Scottish National Museum. We spent a couple of hours exploring the wonderful displays and then found the Surgeon's Museum and explored that as well.
Wednesday 29/02/2012
We had dedicated the whole day to Edinburgh Castle and it was well worth it. The first thing we did though was walk to full length of the Royal Mile to get to it, no mean feat when one is as unfit as us after 8 weeks of holidaying and eating.
The first thing we noticed was that the courtyard out the front was no where near as small as everybody says it is, however what did surprise me is the extent of the slope, never noticed that on the tele before. Also they seat 8000 people, no idea where.
We joined the free tour and learnt a lot about the castle from a wonderful young guide Sid, then explored the castle on our own including the infantry museums, one of the most beautiful war memorials I have ever seen (it is situated on the highest point of the castle, as a sign of respect for the soldiers and has some of the volcanic rock exposed where the unknown soldier lies to show this); the prisons, the crown jewels (which we both felt were better than the British Crown Jewels, but then they stopped using them about 300 years ago, so it is to be expected). Placed next to the Crown Jewels is a white rock, this rock was used prior to crowns and decorative apparel for coronations. The upcoming monarch would sit on this rock as the representation of his coronation. It was stolen many monarchs ago by the British and the throne that is used today for coronations was built around the rock; many monarchs have sat on this including Mary Queen of Scott's and QEII. The Queen gave the rock back to Scotland in the 1990's but it will be returned for the next coronation, whether that be Charles or William.
Incidentally I asked Sid about how the people of UK felt about who would be next King, she said a lot of people believe that Charles will abdicate because of his age, and apparently it is nothing to be ashamed of if he does,so fingers crossed.
That took up most of the day so we cooked our dinner and had a quiet evening at home, as we do most nights.
Thursday 01/03/2012
WOW March already!
We left early, bad move, peak hour traffic is a bit later than we are used to at home, we forgot that most people don't start work till about 9.30 - 10.00. But eventually we made it to Glasgow, there wasn't anything in particular that we wanted to see here so we got to the town center and then had a drive around. Much different city to Edinburgh, although the largest city in Scotland. Many many more modern buildings and lots of high rise, which you don't see in Edinburgh. Stopped for a lovely coffee at Costa, then off to Loch Lomond.
We didn't expect to see anything open at Loch Lomond, because obviously it is a summer tourist attraction and we weren't disappointed, but had a bit of a look around the loch, then decided to head to Doune Castle. You may ask why, well I will tell you. Marty is one of many Monty Python fans, and as most of you will know, he can recite almost all of The Holy Grail off by heart. Doune castle was where the movie was filmed.
We stopped at a pub on a diversion that we were directed to take and had some lunch then headed for the castle. It was of course closed but Marty asked me for the camera to take some photos, and it was at this time I realized I didn't have my bag (with camera, wallet, credit card and drivers license). We tried to work out where I could have left it, but I couldn't remember taking it in to either the pub where we had lunch or the coffee shop in Glasgow. The worst part was we couldn't remember the name of the pub or place where the pub was.
We managed to find our way back but it wasn't at the pub, fortunately after a long drive back to Glasgow through peak hour traffic, we found the costa coffee shop and the bag with all the contents was there. Our first mishap in 9 weeks.
Late night home, so had takeaways delivered.
Friday 02/03/2012
We left Edinburgh and our lovely home away from home and headed to Inverness. These couple of days were basically dedicated to whiskey distillery's, Marty's wish list while in Scotland. On the way to Inverness we found the Dewars and Bells distillery's, had a tour and tasting at Dewars and tasting at Bells.
Our accommodation in Inverness was in a lovely B&B called Furan Guesthouse. We had a great chat with the owner Janice, who was widowed young when her husband had a heart attack at just 43. I must admit I was flabbergasted when she said how lucky we were to have such lovely weather, to me overcast and dull and raining does not constitute lovely weather, but apparently overcast, dull and raining is good in march as opposed to snow!
The weather lulls you into a false sense of security just about every morning, the sky is just about clear, there is mostly blue skies, and you think 'great, a nice day and hopefully not too cold' but within about an hour its totally overcast and freezing.
Saturday 3/3/2012
Strange people the scots, I can understand that a lot of things are closed during the winter months, using the quiet time to do renovations and repairs, but I can't understand why a lot of the attractions are open Monday to Friday but closed on weekends, seems to be a bit back to front to me.
Anyway we had a lovely breakfast with Janice (we were the only guests that night), I had haggis and black pudding, yummmmo.
Our morning took us driving through some of the most beautiful countryside, firstly to Loch Ness, then across the Highlands to Aberdeen. As I explained before, the satnav was set for the fastest route, so we once again drove off highways in the country and saw the real Scotland. Sheeps every where and lots of wild Grouse, much like a small pheasant. Castles are abundant, some in excellent condition but most ruins, beautiful churches in just about every town, far too many to stop and look at all of them. I decided that to date Scotland is my favorite country.
First we stopped at the Glenfiddich distillery, this one was free and by far the best tour we had, they even gave us free drams of their 12, 15 & 18 year old whiskeys.
Next Glen Garioch (Geerie), another full tour but this time 2 drams of whiskey.
Found our accommodation in Aberdeen and then went for a drive through the town, had dinner and then back to the room to book our next country.
Sunday & Monday 4&5/03/2012
Not very exciting, basically driving, stopping at Gateshead overnight, then onto London to drop off the car, get to Gatwick and fly to Ireland.
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TO: Message flagged Tuesday, 6 March 2012 3:58 AM Friday 24-02-2012Driving into Edinburgh is like driving into a medieval city (another one) but Edinburgh is only small and is almost surrounded by cliffs, but the most amazing site is Edinburgh Castle sitting proudly on its own cliff. We had found at the last minute a cottage in the city centre in a converted brewery, it was called Nether Craigwell and had arranged to meet the owner to give us the key etc. Susan was there waiting for us and showed us into the delightful 2 storey, 2 bedroom cottage, as she described it was upside down with kitchen/lounge/dining upstairs and bedrooms and bathroom upstairs, but it was just what we needed.
It was equipped with absolutely everything, so we took stock of what we needed and headed off to the local grocery store to buy supplies for our 6 nights here. Once again the only downside to the cottage was the double bed, and the fact that the bedrooms are at ground floor level and literally on the street (footpath is only a meter wide); combine that with a cobblestone road and cars traveling down it very noisily, we thought we would have trouble sleeping. I have found ear plugs essential, and once again they helped me get a good nights sleep.
Saturday 25/02/2012
We enjoyed an ordinary breakfast at home, even had Vegemite on toast, they stock here in Scotland for some unknown reason. Then we headed off down the road to jump on Edinburgh's 'Big Red Bus'. We did the city tour, and saw so many things we wanted to see, then jumped off that one and got on the Ocean Pier bus, which took us down to the Royal Yacht Britannia. This beautiful yacht was decommissioned in the 90,s because of political grand standing before an election. The royal family was copping it because they didn't pay taxes, the Brittanica needed refitting and that would have cost millions, so the decision was made to sack her. Apparently even Tony Blair now says it was the wrong move.
We toured at leisure throughout the decks with an audio guide, most of the furniture is still the original, but amazingly the engine (considered an antique) is still fully functional. They had recently moved her to another port for repairs, then sailed her back to Edinburgh, and the engine worked perfectly. Along side her is the Royal Racing Yacht Bloodhound, built in 1936, restored in 2004 and sold back to the royal family who lend it to yachting clubs.
We jumped back on the bus and made our way into the city centre and had a walk up the Royal Mile, this is the street that links Edinburgh castle to Holyrood Palace, the official residence of the queen when she is in Edinburgh, another must see.
We had seen so many things that when we got home we tried to work out a timetable for the next few days so we could fit it all in, but found we didn't have enough time; don't be silly we still have months left, so I emailed Susan to ask if we could extend our stay.
Sunday 26/02/2012
Today saw the 6 nations match between Scotland and France being played here in Edinburgh, hence why there were so many French people here. We decided it would be a good day to venture out of Edinburgh for obvious reasons. So we headed for Stirling and the famed castle. It was a wise decision as there weren't a lot of people here. Marty had a passion for this castle what with William Wallace and Robert the Bruce.
An hours drive found us at this magnificent castle which was the most important castle in the history of the battles between England and Scotland. The castle sits atop Castle Hill, an intrusive crag, which forms part of the Stirling Sill geological formation. It is surrounded on three sides by steep cliffs, giving it a strong defensive position. Its strategic location, guarding what was, until the 1890s, the farthest downstream crossing of the River Forth, has made it an important fortification from the earliest times. Most of the principal buildings of the castle date from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. A few structures of the fourteenth century remain, while the outer defenses fronting the town date from the early eighteenth century. Several Scottish Kings and Queens have been crowned at Stirling, including Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1543. There have been at least eight sieges of Stirling Castle, including several during the Wars of Scottish Independence, with the last being in 1746, when Bonnie Prince Charlie unsuccessfully tried to take the castle.
We joined a tour which gave us the above history of the castle in much more detail, then at leisure explored the many facets of the castle including the museum of the The Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders Regimental Museum, 2 floors dedicated to the kilt wearing regiment, the Stirling Tapestries, The Stirling Heads Gallery, The Palace Royal and so much. It was a great experience.
We lunched at an Inn just outside the castle, then made our way to Falkirk to see the wheel. The Falkirk Wheel is a rotating boat lift. It connects the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal. Named after the nearby town of Falkirk, it opened in 2002 as a tourist attraction. The two canals it serves were previously connected by a series of 11 locks, but they had become dysfunctional and obsolete so this wheel was constructed in their place. Unfortunately it was closed for the winter, so although we were able to view it, we weren't able to take a ride, not that we were overly concerned.
That was the days travels and we headed home for another home cooked meal
Monday 27/02/2012
We were hoping the French may have gone home after their victory against the Scots but this day proved they were staying a little longer. We rugged up and walked to what is called Our Dynamic Earth, only to find it was closed to the general public for a function, grrrrr, will tell you more about that if we get to see it. Change of plans and headed to The Palace of Hollyrood which is the official residence of the monarch when they are in Scotland. The palace stands at the bottom of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, at the opposite end to Edinburgh Castle (our cottage was one street down and 500 meters from the palace). Queen Elizabeth II spends one week in residence at Holyrood Palace at the beginning of each summer, where she carries out a range of official engagements and ceremonies. Queen Elizabeth II spends a week in here at the beginning of each summer, where she carries out a range of official engagements and ceremonies including knighting people, can you believe Gordon Ramsay received an OBE, they must give them out to anyone.
We then made our way to the other end of the Royal Mile and signed up for the Scotch Whiskey Experience, a tour through a virtual distillery, explaining the process of making scotch whiskey, it was ok and at the end Marty got to try 2 whiskeys, his and mine and we got 2 whiskey glasses, which we will probably leave at the cottage.
We wandered down the road and found The Real Mary Kings Close. This is a difficult one to explain, but basically the centre of Edinburgh is made up of main streets with little narrow streets running off it called closes. In the 1700's their existed several closes that ran down steep inclines to the river and had buildings on either side that started at the top of the hill with 2 stories, and ending at the bottom with buildings up to 14 stories high. They had hundreds of families living in these buildings with no sanitation, water or services, so we're plaqued with disease and crime. Eventually after one serious plague in 1644 the closes we're abandoned and the top layer of the buildings destroyed, the bottom layer being used for foundations for the existing buildings.
Those underground buildings were virtually forgotten about until rediscovered last century, and is now a tourist attraction, where we climbed down into the old closes and saw the buildings as they were hundreds of years ago. It really was an experience and where I learnt that the "Old Town of Edinburgh" was heritage listed, which explains why there are so many extremely old buildings there in perfect condition (although dirty), Marty also surmised that Edinburgh probably didn't get bombed in the war, another reason why they were in such good nick. I assumed that the reason they don't clean the buildings is that the cleaning process would probably damage them, either that or it's too expensive.
Anyway, we kept strolling down the Mile and eventually found the Museum of Children, which had been highly commended, 2 stores of children's toys and games etc, interesting, but not thrilling, by this time it was late afternoon, so we headed home. Couldn't be bothered cooking tonight so found a Thai restaurant and enjoyed a very nice dinner.
Tuesday 28/02/2012
We had planned on walking to Arthur's Seat, (the top point of the crags behind Edinburgh), but didn't think the view would be as good as Calton Hill, and I think we were right. At the top of Calton Hill is the Nelson Memorial, so after climbing the hill, we climbed to the top of the memorial and had the most amazing views of the old town and new town to the port.
Took lots of photos, and Marty suggested we get a planking photo of me on a concrete marker, I gave it a go, but unfortunately the tummy muscles just weren't up to it, but we had a good laugh.
We then headed back down and over the Waverley Bridge back to the Royal Mile to find Gladstone's Land, a tenement building showing how people lived in the 17th Century, but guess what? Closed for renovations, oh well, off to the Scottish National Museum. We spent a couple of hours exploring the wonderful displays and then found the Surgeon's Museum and explored that as well.
Wednesday 29/02/2012
We had dedicated the whole day to Edinburgh Castle and it was well worth it. The first thing we did though was walk to full length of the Royal Mile to get to it, no mean feat when one is as unfit as us after 8 weeks of holidaying and eating.
The first thing we noticed was that the courtyard out the front was no where near as small as everybody says it is, however what did surprise me is the extent of the slope, never noticed that on the tele before. Also they seat 8000 people, no idea where.
We joined the free tour and learnt a lot about the castle from a wonderful young guide Sid, then explored the castle on our own including the infantry museums, one of the most beautiful war memorials I have ever seen (it is situated on the highest point of the castle, as a sign of respect for the soldiers and has some of the volcanic rock exposed where the unknown soldier lies to show this); the prisons, the crown jewels (which we both felt were better than the British Crown Jewels, but then they stopped using them about 300 years ago, so it is to be expected). Placed next to the Crown Jewels is a white rock, this rock was used prior to crowns and decorative apparel for coronations. The upcoming monarch would sit on this rock as the representation of his coronation. It was stolen many monarchs ago by the British and the throne that is used today for coronations was built around the rock; many monarchs have sat on this including Mary Queen of Scott's and QEII. The Queen gave the rock back to Scotland in the 1990's but it will be returned for the next coronation, whether that be Charles or William.
Incidentally I asked Sid about how the people of UK felt about who would be next King, she said a lot of people believe that Charles will abdicate because of his age, and apparently it is nothing to be ashamed of if he does,so fingers crossed.
That took up most of the day so we cooked our dinner and had a quiet evening at home, as we do most nights.
Thursday 01/03/2012
WOW March already!
We left early, bad move, peak hour traffic is a bit later than we are used to at home, we forgot that most people don't start work till about 9.30 - 10.00. But eventually we made it to Glasgow, there wasn't anything in particular that we wanted to see here so we got to the town center and then had a drive around. Much different city to Edinburgh, although the largest city in Scotland. Many many more modern buildings and lots of high rise, which you don't see in Edinburgh. Stopped for a lovely coffee at Costa, then off to Loch Lomond.
We didn't expect to see anything open at Loch Lomond, because obviously it is a summer tourist attraction and we weren't disappointed, but had a bit of a look around the loch, then decided to head to Doune Castle. You may ask why, well I will tell you. Marty is one of many Monty Python fans, and as most of you will know, he can recite almost all of The Holy Grail off by heart. Doune castle was where the movie was filmed.
We stopped at a pub on a diversion that we were directed to take and had some lunch then headed for the castle. It was of course closed but Marty asked me for the camera to take some photos, and it was at this time I realized I didn't have my bag (with camera, wallet, credit card and drivers license). We tried to work out where I could have left it, but I couldn't remember taking it in to either the pub where we had lunch or the coffee shop in Glasgow. The worst part was we couldn't remember the name of the pub or place where the pub was.
We managed to find our way back but it wasn't at the pub, fortunately after a long drive back to Glasgow through peak hour traffic, we found the costa coffee shop and the bag with all the contents was there. Our first mishap in 9 weeks.
Late night home, so had takeaways delivered.
Friday 02/03/2012
We left Edinburgh and our lovely home away from home and headed to Inverness. These couple of days were basically dedicated to whiskey distillery's, Marty's wish list while in Scotland. On the way to Inverness we found the Dewars and Bells distillery's, had a tour and tasting at Dewars and tasting at Bells.
Our accommodation in Inverness was in a lovely B&B called Furan Guesthouse. We had a great chat with the owner Janice, who was widowed young when her husband had a heart attack at just 43. I must admit I was flabbergasted when she said how lucky we were to have such lovely weather, to me overcast and dull and raining does not constitute lovely weather, but apparently overcast, dull and raining is good in march as opposed to snow!
The weather lulls you into a false sense of security just about every morning, the sky is just about clear, there is mostly blue skies, and you think 'great, a nice day and hopefully not too cold' but within about an hour its totally overcast and freezing.
Saturday 3/3/2012
Strange people the scots, I can understand that a lot of things are closed during the winter months, using the quiet time to do renovations and repairs, but I can't understand why a lot of the attractions are open Monday to Friday but closed on weekends, seems to be a bit back to front to me.
Anyway we had a lovely breakfast with Janice (we were the only guests that night), I had haggis and black pudding, yummmmo.
Our morning took us driving through some of the most beautiful countryside, firstly to Loch Ness, then across the Highlands to Aberdeen. As I explained before, the satnav was set for the fastest route, so we once again drove off highways in the country and saw the real Scotland. Sheeps every where and lots of wild Grouse, much like a small pheasant. Castles are abundant, some in excellent condition but most ruins, beautiful churches in just about every town, far too many to stop and look at all of them. I decided that to date Scotland is my favorite country.
First we stopped at the Glenfiddich distillery, this one was free and by far the best tour we had, they even gave us free drams of their 12, 15 & 18 year old whiskeys.
Next Glen Garioch (Geerie), another full tour but this time 2 drams of whiskey.
Found our accommodation in Aberdeen and then went for a drive through the town, had dinner and then back to the room to book our next country.
Sunday & Monday 4&5/03/2012
Not very exciting, basically driving, stopping at Gateshead overnight, then onto London to drop off the car, get to Gatwick and fly to Ireland.
- comments
jocelyn plumb Hi Ruth and Marty, Sounds very interesting and lots of fun. We have a 2 days stop over in Edinburgh so I am taking notes! Joss
Anne hunt Well Edinburgh is my old stomping ground and Peter and I are taking our new son-in-law and his Bathurst family for a tour there in 5 weeks time .enjoy Ireland watch out for the little peoplexxxxxxxxxxxA