Edinburgh, Scotland
We didn’t spot Nessie but our trip to the Scottish Highlands and Loch Ness was still worth it.We didn’t spot Nessie but our trip to the Scottish Highlands and Loch Ness was still worth it.
The day started pretty early with the group meeting at 7 am to walk to our tour meet up spot. We took a big purple bus to our first stop for breakfast and a distillery tour at Deanston distillery in Doune. Josh skipped the tour and went straight to breakfast with about half the group.
The distillery tour came with a whiskey tasting and I love whiskey as much as the next girl – but not at 10 am. This part of the tour would have been enjoyed much more at the end of the day.
Nevertheless, the tour of the scotch whiskey making process was quite enjoyable. My favorite part was all the different smells. Each room in the tour was another step in the fermentation process. At first the rooms smelled of wet barley then the alcohol was really strong and by the end – in the former mill house turned barrel storage room – we could smell the American Oak barrels stacked for decades in the cool dark.
To be scotch, a whiskey must be made from barley, made in Scotland, aged for at least three years in an old oak barrel. It’s the re-used oak barrels that give scotch it’s character. Old Kentucky whiskey barrels and Spanish wine barrels are favorites and commonly used.
After breakfast we headed to my favorite stop of the day, a tiny little farm where we got to see Hairy Coo. Coo is the Scottish word for cow and these are the hairy little brown cows I wrote about previously. Wee Coo are a miniature version of these cows and we, unfortunately, didn’t get to see any of those.
The Hairy Coo were so cute. My arms weren’t long enough to reach through the fence and pet or feed them, but some people were and the cows were just eating right out of their hands! If I could bring one home with me, I definitely would.
From there we started up the winding roads among the beautiful scenery of the Scottish Highlands.
It was really stunning to see the rolling hills and snow-capped mountains. Most of the mountains we saw, including Ben Nevis, were part of the Grampian mountain chain. This chain of mountains is basically like the sister mountains to our own Appalachian Mountain chain m, as they were formed at the same time before the continents split apart.
Josh, sadly, was prevented from seeing any of this due to motion sickness on the bus. He was pretty much out of commission for the whole winding ride through the Highlands. I took lots of pictures for him, though.
He was at least able to enjoy the boat cruise down Loch Ness with the group. It was pretty chilly on the boat, but the view was great. The surrounding town was nice too, and we had a little time to explore and try some scotch pie (it was like a sausage patty wrapped in a flakey biscuit) and chips with beans (literally fries with warm, canned pork-n-beans poured on top. . .).
The ride back to the hotel has been much smoother and less curvy – so Josh hasn’t been feeling as sick. Tonight is our last night in Edinburgh – so I hate to waste it once we get back around 9:30, but we will have to wait and see if anyone (myself included) is up for a night on the town – if the town is even still up when we get back. It seems everything closes down around 10:00 here – which has been super shocking given the extended daylight hours they have.
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