Well, as I write this our holiday is coming to an end. We have come almost full circle and are back in Glasgow for our last full day in the UK. Our plane leaves Sunday morning at 5:55am (that would be 11:55pm for you folks in Minnesota) and we arrive back in Duluth at around 2:00pm, assuming all goes as planned.
After leaving Orkney on Monday night, we arrived bright and early in Aberdeen on Tuesday morning. We walked around Aberdeen a bit, visited the Gordon Highlanders museum and ate at a place that has been voted the best Fish and Chips in both Scotland and the UK -- admittedly, the food was wonderful, but we'll have to eat a lot more fish and chips before we can authenticate their claim!
Tuesday night found us at the Highlander Inn in Craigallachie. We all highly recommend this B&B to anyone traveling on the Whisky Trail -- the showers and beds were a true treat, along with the food and the whisky selection in the bar.
Wednesday was Glen day for the group, as we toured Glenfiddich, Glenfarclas and Glenlivet. All good tours, Glenlivet is huge!
Thursday we drove to Pitlochery and the Moulin Hotel. Pitlochery is a bit touristy, but the area is beautiful. Friday morning we visited the Edradour distillery, which claims to be Scotland's smallest; a claim we believe. They still do much of the work by hand rather than using machinery, and we had a very nice tour and tasting there (given by a man that looked quite a bit like Bill Murray!) Steve and I relaxed and walked around Pitlochery on Thursday afternoon, while Karen and John toured Blair Castle and stopped by the Blair Atholl distillery. As Steve and I were walking back from town to our hotel, we caught the end of a lawn bowling game -- that was fun to watch for a while.
Friday found us back in Glasgow after a short drive. As I may have mentioned to some of you, we had tickets for the Van Morrison concert last night -- it was amazing!! The venue was the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, which seats about 5000. We had spectacular seats, and being Glasgow is currently Van's hometown, and it was his 62nd birthday -- it was quite a show!! We all enjoyed it immensely, Van the Man certainly hasn't lost his voice, or his ability to entertain!
Today we are all wandering around Glasgow, before we leave first thing in the morning. I think we are probably all ready to return to our home and routines (and our beds!) but we will certainly miss Scotland. It has been an amazing journey, truly the trip of a lifetime. Don't worry, we have plenty of stories I haven't taken the time to include in this blog!!
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Monday, August 27, 2007
Cheers from Orkney!!
Greetings - We are now on Orkney, an island north of the Scottish mainland. We spent the past couple of nights in Stromness, will spend most of today in Kirkwall, and then take an overnight ferry to Aberdeen.
Since I last posted we have covered a great deal of ground. From Islay and the land of peaty single malts (and for those inquiring minds, Islay Ales!) to Skye. Two very different islands - equally beautiful. Skye is home to the Cullens, volcanic mountains that rose out of the sea. We encountered lots of people there to climb the mountains, and managed not to feel compelled to do so at all. We stayed in a lovely family home there, and were awakened each morning by the bleating sheep. We had a very nice visit at the origin of Steve's favorite malt -- Talisker. The setting of the distillery is beautiful, and the stream from which they get their water runs down from the hills right beside the plant. It's probably a good thing that pottery is difficult to ship, because we found some gorgeous pottery throughout the island. We did have to buy small examples of the pottery painted to evoke the meeting of land and sea.
Two very disparate breweries exist on Skye -- one very small (Cullen Brewery) and the other small, but rapidly becoming quite a commercial success (Skye Brewing.) We had nice visits at each, but enjoyed Cullen a bit more because we just spent time talking with the brewer.
From Skye we went through Inverness and spent the night at the 2007 CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) Pub of the Year -- The Anderson. Guess I should probably explain that it is also a B&B, we didn't actually sleep in the pub! We definitely have to thank Don Hoag for turning us onto The Anderson. It was beautiful, comfortable and had amazing food. The owner is from Pennsylvania, and he and his wife moved to Scotland several years ago. Oh, did I happen to mention they have an amazing selection of Belgian beers, not to mention over 200 single malts? The managing director of Orval was there with his family the same night as us. We didn't speak with him, but helped make Jim Anderson look good by drinking Orval -- such a sacrifice!!
Orkney is yet again a very different island. For most of its history Orkney was a possession of Norway, so a bit of a change, although we were all expecting even a bit more Nordic feel. Yesterday we spent some time at a 5000 year old community that until the 1850's was buried beneath the ground. An amazingly well-preserved grouping of homes, complete with stone dressers and beds. Not much is known about the people that lived at Skara Brae, or why they left, but it was awe-inspiring to stand where people lived even before the Pyramids of Giza were built. After that we visited the Ring of Brogda, a perfectly circular set of stones built before Stonehenge. We got to walk the circle and touch the stones -- a truly magical place.
Tonight we are spending the night on the Ferry as it goes from Kirkwall to Aberdeen. We have reserved lounging chairs, so it should be another adventure!!
Well, that brings us up to speed for now. Thanks to all who have responded with comments. I will post again as soon as I can!!
Since I last posted we have covered a great deal of ground. From Islay and the land of peaty single malts (and for those inquiring minds, Islay Ales!) to Skye. Two very different islands - equally beautiful. Skye is home to the Cullens, volcanic mountains that rose out of the sea. We encountered lots of people there to climb the mountains, and managed not to feel compelled to do so at all. We stayed in a lovely family home there, and were awakened each morning by the bleating sheep. We had a very nice visit at the origin of Steve's favorite malt -- Talisker. The setting of the distillery is beautiful, and the stream from which they get their water runs down from the hills right beside the plant. It's probably a good thing that pottery is difficult to ship, because we found some gorgeous pottery throughout the island. We did have to buy small examples of the pottery painted to evoke the meeting of land and sea.
Two very disparate breweries exist on Skye -- one very small (Cullen Brewery) and the other small, but rapidly becoming quite a commercial success (Skye Brewing.) We had nice visits at each, but enjoyed Cullen a bit more because we just spent time talking with the brewer.
From Skye we went through Inverness and spent the night at the 2007 CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) Pub of the Year -- The Anderson. Guess I should probably explain that it is also a B&B, we didn't actually sleep in the pub! We definitely have to thank Don Hoag for turning us onto The Anderson. It was beautiful, comfortable and had amazing food. The owner is from Pennsylvania, and he and his wife moved to Scotland several years ago. Oh, did I happen to mention they have an amazing selection of Belgian beers, not to mention over 200 single malts? The managing director of Orval was there with his family the same night as us. We didn't speak with him, but helped make Jim Anderson look good by drinking Orval -- such a sacrifice!!
Orkney is yet again a very different island. For most of its history Orkney was a possession of Norway, so a bit of a change, although we were all expecting even a bit more Nordic feel. Yesterday we spent some time at a 5000 year old community that until the 1850's was buried beneath the ground. An amazingly well-preserved grouping of homes, complete with stone dressers and beds. Not much is known about the people that lived at Skara Brae, or why they left, but it was awe-inspiring to stand where people lived even before the Pyramids of Giza were built. After that we visited the Ring of Brogda, a perfectly circular set of stones built before Stonehenge. We got to walk the circle and touch the stones -- a truly magical place.
Tonight we are spending the night on the Ferry as it goes from Kirkwall to Aberdeen. We have reserved lounging chairs, so it should be another adventure!!
Well, that brings us up to speed for now. Thanks to all who have responded with comments. I will post again as soon as I can!!
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Hi 'ya from Scotland!! I apologize for the huge break in posts -- Internet Cafe's are a bit hard to find (I guess no one needs them with laptops!!) Ok, I'll attempt to fill you in on what's been going on...
LONDON -- The Great British Beer Festival was amazing, over 400 real ales, and lots of people. Unfortunately, there were no volunteer spaces open for pouring beer, so the four of us did less glamorous tasks. John and Karen had the hardest jobs -- they worked the entrance/exit foyer -- there were numerous tasks, including ensuring people went the correct way upon entry, stamping those who wanted to exit and return, and then at the end of the night, making sure that everyone finished their drinks and had bags for their glasses. Speaking of glasses, that's where Steve and I were stationed. This festival is a little different than we are used to -- the cost was £6 to enter, then you bought either a 1/3, 1/2 or pint glass, then paid for the beers individually. The glasses area got crazy at peak times, but it was fun! The two 12-hour shifts on consecutive days was a bit much, but we met wonderful people, drank delicious beer and had a great time overall.
GLASGOW -- Last Saturday evening we headed to Glasgow for five days. What an amazing city!! Glasgow is a city of contrasts, all types of architecture and culture. We went to some wonderful museums and galleries (not to mention some terrific pubs!)
ISLAY -- We picked up a car in Glasgow and headed to Islay last Thursday. We took a two hour ferry ride into Port Askaig. Quite a change from the hustle and bustle of London and Glasgow. Lots of idyllic little villages -- and I believe the brochures that indicate the cows and sheep outnumber the people!! We managed to visit most of the Islay whisky distilleries, with wonderful tours at Bunnahabain, Bowmore (also the name of the village where we stayed) and Laphroig. We took many, many pictures that we will download to this site upon our return. The landscape is indescribably beautiful.
Today we took the ferry back from Islay to the mainland, and I'm posting from Oban. We will be heading on from here to Skye, after a stop at Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Scotland. We are having an amazing time, although the extremely narrow roads are quite an adventure!! John is doing an excellent job driving, Steve is proving to be a good navigator, and Karen and I are keeping the back seat driving to a minimum, so all is well.
Hopefully I'll be able to find somewhere to post again soon!
LONDON -- The Great British Beer Festival was amazing, over 400 real ales, and lots of people. Unfortunately, there were no volunteer spaces open for pouring beer, so the four of us did less glamorous tasks. John and Karen had the hardest jobs -- they worked the entrance/exit foyer -- there were numerous tasks, including ensuring people went the correct way upon entry, stamping those who wanted to exit and return, and then at the end of the night, making sure that everyone finished their drinks and had bags for their glasses. Speaking of glasses, that's where Steve and I were stationed. This festival is a little different than we are used to -- the cost was £6 to enter, then you bought either a 1/3, 1/2 or pint glass, then paid for the beers individually. The glasses area got crazy at peak times, but it was fun! The two 12-hour shifts on consecutive days was a bit much, but we met wonderful people, drank delicious beer and had a great time overall.
GLASGOW -- Last Saturday evening we headed to Glasgow for five days. What an amazing city!! Glasgow is a city of contrasts, all types of architecture and culture. We went to some wonderful museums and galleries (not to mention some terrific pubs!)
ISLAY -- We picked up a car in Glasgow and headed to Islay last Thursday. We took a two hour ferry ride into Port Askaig. Quite a change from the hustle and bustle of London and Glasgow. Lots of idyllic little villages -- and I believe the brochures that indicate the cows and sheep outnumber the people!! We managed to visit most of the Islay whisky distilleries, with wonderful tours at Bunnahabain, Bowmore (also the name of the village where we stayed) and Laphroig. We took many, many pictures that we will download to this site upon our return. The landscape is indescribably beautiful.
Today we took the ferry back from Islay to the mainland, and I'm posting from Oban. We will be heading on from here to Skye, after a stop at Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Scotland. We are having an amazing time, although the extremely narrow roads are quite an adventure!! John is doing an excellent job driving, Steve is proving to be a good navigator, and Karen and I are keeping the back seat driving to a minimum, so all is well.
Hopefully I'll be able to find somewhere to post again soon!
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Cheers from Across the Pond!!!
Hi all! We made it safe and sound, albeit a little tired from the plane trip. As may be expected, we walked around on Monday a little dazed, but still managed to find some fun pubs. On Tuesday, John and Karen slept in a bit and ran some errands in the morning while Steve and I took in the Tate Modern Art Musem. It was amazing; we viewed some Cubist and Impressionist paintings, and some very interesting mixed media pieces.
We met up at the River Cafe for a late lunch (I have a couple of cookbooks from this restaurant) Food and company were both wonderful. Next stop was the Great British Beer Festival to check in for work on Thursday. We hung around for a while and sampled some brews. We'll be back there Thursday for our shift.
Today K&J are planning to visit the British Museum today and take in a play. Steve & I are visiting bookshops and some other fine British institutions (Harrod's for example -- the food court was phenomenal - some very interesting foods we don't get to see very often.)
Well, that's all for now, I'll check back in after our 2 days of pouring British beers -- gee can you believe we have to work on our vacation?
All our best!!
We met up at the River Cafe for a late lunch (I have a couple of cookbooks from this restaurant) Food and company were both wonderful. Next stop was the Great British Beer Festival to check in for work on Thursday. We hung around for a while and sampled some brews. We'll be back there Thursday for our shift.
Today K&J are planning to visit the British Museum today and take in a play. Steve & I are visiting bookshops and some other fine British institutions (Harrod's for example -- the food court was phenomenal - some very interesting foods we don't get to see very often.)
Well, that's all for now, I'll check back in after our 2 days of pouring British beers -- gee can you believe we have to work on our vacation?
All our best!!
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Friday, 8/3
Hi! We just got the blog set up, and I'm testing it out. We haven't started packing yet, but I feel like we are ready -- now if I can just manage some sleep over the next two days!
Look for more exciting entrys after we are "across the pond on holiday"
Laurie
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