The clock is ticking...

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!!