Beyond whisky and haggis: Nikki's trip to Scotland
Aug 14th, 2008, 03:25 AM
#1
Original Poster
Beyond whisky and haggis: Nikki's trip to Scotland
When my daughter Eileen told my husband Alan in March that she was considering spending six months in Edinburgh after her college graduation, my older daughter Lauren said, “You know what this means- Mom and Dad will be going to Scotland this summer.” Alan reportedly said, “Why do you say that?” Right.
As it turns out, we all got to go. The timing became a bit crazy, as Alan and I helped Lauren move from Denver to California over the July 4 weekend, renting a Penske truck and driving that as well as Lauren’s Jeep through Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada. Spent a delightful day in San Francisco, helped Lauren get moved into her new apartment, then flew home to Massachusetts. A week later, Lauren flew to Boston and then on July 23 we flew to Edinburgh, connecting in Amsterdam.
Great people watching at the Amsterdam airport sushi bar. A group of ten or twelve men in colorful African garb, a guy sitting alone at the bar looking like Indiana Jones, a woman in a beautiful sari. Wyoming was nothing like this.
The flights are uneventful and we smile at the “Welcome to Scotland” sign in the arrivals area. Months of deliberation and tens of thousands of pounds went into the search for this public relations slogan, we are told. We take a taxi from the Edinburgh airport to the apartment we have rented for one night at the Harbour Apartments. We are going to return to this apartment complex for five nights at the end of our stay. These apartments are part of a large construction project at the end of a breakwater in Leith, the gentrifying dock area of Edinburgh. It is a bit remote from the center of things, but the bus line was recently extended to reach the area and there is a bus stop across the street.
We rented the apartment through lastminute at http://tinyurl.com/6dv7tg. It has two bedrooms and two bathrooms, as do all in the complex. The furnishings are sparse but the apartment has free wi-fi, a dishwasher, clothes washer and dryer, dishes and utensils and we are on the fifth floor and the view is fabulous. We look out over the Firth of Forth toward a lighthouse and see the tugboats guiding ships in and out of the harbor. We see an island, but the next morning it has disappeared in the fog.
Eileen is waiting for us at the apartment and it is great to see her, as she has been in Edinburgh for two months. We get settled in and rest a bit before dinner, then we go out to meet Eileen’s boyfriend for dinner at The Compass, 102A Constitution Street, in Leith. This is a great introduction to Edinburgh. Nice atmosphere, reasonable prices, good food. I don’t remember exactly what was in my seafood risotto, but I believe there were crayfish, among other things. After dinner, Alan, Lauren and I stroll toward the water and look into some pubs there, ending up at the King’s Wark, at 36 The Shore, where Alan tries his first single malt. We notice a good looking menu here too and plan to come back for a meal when we return to Edinburgh.
Friday morning we pick up our rental car and Alan bravely negotiates the streets while we keep shouting, “Keep left, no, not that far left!” The roundabouts are particularly challenging and there is a lot of construction for a new tram system. The weather is beautiful so we head for Holyrood Park. We park in the lot next to Holyrood Palace and go have lunch in the café at the new Scottish Parliament building across the street. I like this building but wonder what the asymmetrical bamboo poles are all about.
After lunch, we drive up into the park. It feels like a preview of the highlands right in Edinburgh: purple wildflowers, steep hills, lochs with swans and seagulls. We park the car by a loch and explore on foot. Alan and the girls head up the steep hill known as Arthur’s Seat but turn around before attaining the summit.
Our next stop is Aberdeen, where we are visiting Sheila and her husband Keith, with whom we did a house exchange last year (not in Scotland, where they live, but in the South of France. This is our first time in Scotland.) We hit the road and only take the wrong route a couple of times, arriving in under three hours. We have a date to meet Sheila after work at the Aberdeen Grammar School Former Pupils Club at 5:30, and we arrive exactly on time.
Sheila is waiting for us and joins us at a table. While we are the object of some discreet curiosity, we do not meet any of the other members, not even Sheila’s friends, who apparently are glued to their respective positions at the bar. I take in the scene, feeling like an anthropologist, and enjoy some drinks as a welcome to Aberdeen.
After driving to Sheila’s house in the countryside, we all go out to dinner at The Red Garth in Oldmeldrum (www.redgarth.com). I enjoy an appetizer of two types of smoked salmon, then Aberdeen Angus steak. We pass around a plate of sticky toffee pudding for dessert. This is a fun and festive meal, a great way to finish up the fine day which has been my birthday.
As it turns out, we all got to go. The timing became a bit crazy, as Alan and I helped Lauren move from Denver to California over the July 4 weekend, renting a Penske truck and driving that as well as Lauren’s Jeep through Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada. Spent a delightful day in San Francisco, helped Lauren get moved into her new apartment, then flew home to Massachusetts. A week later, Lauren flew to Boston and then on July 23 we flew to Edinburgh, connecting in Amsterdam.
Great people watching at the Amsterdam airport sushi bar. A group of ten or twelve men in colorful African garb, a guy sitting alone at the bar looking like Indiana Jones, a woman in a beautiful sari. Wyoming was nothing like this.
The flights are uneventful and we smile at the “Welcome to Scotland” sign in the arrivals area. Months of deliberation and tens of thousands of pounds went into the search for this public relations slogan, we are told. We take a taxi from the Edinburgh airport to the apartment we have rented for one night at the Harbour Apartments. We are going to return to this apartment complex for five nights at the end of our stay. These apartments are part of a large construction project at the end of a breakwater in Leith, the gentrifying dock area of Edinburgh. It is a bit remote from the center of things, but the bus line was recently extended to reach the area and there is a bus stop across the street.
We rented the apartment through lastminute at http://tinyurl.com/6dv7tg. It has two bedrooms and two bathrooms, as do all in the complex. The furnishings are sparse but the apartment has free wi-fi, a dishwasher, clothes washer and dryer, dishes and utensils and we are on the fifth floor and the view is fabulous. We look out over the Firth of Forth toward a lighthouse and see the tugboats guiding ships in and out of the harbor. We see an island, but the next morning it has disappeared in the fog.
Eileen is waiting for us at the apartment and it is great to see her, as she has been in Edinburgh for two months. We get settled in and rest a bit before dinner, then we go out to meet Eileen’s boyfriend for dinner at The Compass, 102A Constitution Street, in Leith. This is a great introduction to Edinburgh. Nice atmosphere, reasonable prices, good food. I don’t remember exactly what was in my seafood risotto, but I believe there were crayfish, among other things. After dinner, Alan, Lauren and I stroll toward the water and look into some pubs there, ending up at the King’s Wark, at 36 The Shore, where Alan tries his first single malt. We notice a good looking menu here too and plan to come back for a meal when we return to Edinburgh.
Friday morning we pick up our rental car and Alan bravely negotiates the streets while we keep shouting, “Keep left, no, not that far left!” The roundabouts are particularly challenging and there is a lot of construction for a new tram system. The weather is beautiful so we head for Holyrood Park. We park in the lot next to Holyrood Palace and go have lunch in the café at the new Scottish Parliament building across the street. I like this building but wonder what the asymmetrical bamboo poles are all about.
After lunch, we drive up into the park. It feels like a preview of the highlands right in Edinburgh: purple wildflowers, steep hills, lochs with swans and seagulls. We park the car by a loch and explore on foot. Alan and the girls head up the steep hill known as Arthur’s Seat but turn around before attaining the summit.
Our next stop is Aberdeen, where we are visiting Sheila and her husband Keith, with whom we did a house exchange last year (not in Scotland, where they live, but in the South of France. This is our first time in Scotland.) We hit the road and only take the wrong route a couple of times, arriving in under three hours. We have a date to meet Sheila after work at the Aberdeen Grammar School Former Pupils Club at 5:30, and we arrive exactly on time.
Sheila is waiting for us and joins us at a table. While we are the object of some discreet curiosity, we do not meet any of the other members, not even Sheila’s friends, who apparently are glued to their respective positions at the bar. I take in the scene, feeling like an anthropologist, and enjoy some drinks as a welcome to Aberdeen.
After driving to Sheila’s house in the countryside, we all go out to dinner at The Red Garth in Oldmeldrum (www.redgarth.com). I enjoy an appetizer of two types of smoked salmon, then Aberdeen Angus steak. We pass around a plate of sticky toffee pudding for dessert. This is a fun and festive meal, a great way to finish up the fine day which has been my birthday.
Aug 14th, 2008, 06:08 AM
#4
Original Poster
Saturday morning we set off to explore the countryside with Sheila and Keith as our guides. The haar (coastal fog) is heavy, but reports say it will be hot and sunny inland, so we set off prepared for all eventualities. In general in Scotland this appears to be a good plan, as the weather is changeable at a moment’s notice.
Our first stop is the stone circle at Loanhead of Daviot. The parking lot is full of cars, leading me to believe this will be a crowded touring experience, but the cars turn out to be for an event at the adjacent scout camp. Lauren and I reminisce about campsites from her girl scouting days, in the woods in Massachusetts with nary a stone age monument in sight.
When we get to the stone circle, we are alone. It is beautifully situated on a hilltop overlooking rolling farmland. Three wind turbines stand on a ridge across from our viewpoint, contrasting neatly with the old stone monuments before us, which date from approximately 2500 BC.
We drive from there to see the Maiden Stone in nearby Pitcaple. This is a large carved stone with Christian and Pictish imagery, dating from the eighth or ninth century. The carving of a mirror and comb near the bottom has been interpreted as an association with a girl or woman, and there is a legend that a girl who lost a bet with the devil was turned to stone here.
The countryside in Aberdeenshire is rich in such sites, and I get the idea that it would be fun just to drive from one to another for days. We have other things to see today, though, and we drive off to Huntly to visit the ruined castle there, the ancestral home of the chief of Clan Gordon. My mother has requested a scarf in the Gordon tartan, and I find it here, as well as a hat to keep the sun out of my eyes. I didn’t think I would need one in Scotland, but on this day (though not too many others) I do. There is a playing field attached to a school next to the castle, where a multi-generational group is playing cricket.
After visiting the castle, we go into the town of Huntly seeking lunch. We find it at the cafeteria in the visitor center for the Deans shortbread bakery. After lunch we browse through the store and pick up a few packages of shortbread seconds at a discounted price.
Next we are off to Dufftown, for the Dufftown Games.
Our first stop is the stone circle at Loanhead of Daviot. The parking lot is full of cars, leading me to believe this will be a crowded touring experience, but the cars turn out to be for an event at the adjacent scout camp. Lauren and I reminisce about campsites from her girl scouting days, in the woods in Massachusetts with nary a stone age monument in sight.
When we get to the stone circle, we are alone. It is beautifully situated on a hilltop overlooking rolling farmland. Three wind turbines stand on a ridge across from our viewpoint, contrasting neatly with the old stone monuments before us, which date from approximately 2500 BC.
We drive from there to see the Maiden Stone in nearby Pitcaple. This is a large carved stone with Christian and Pictish imagery, dating from the eighth or ninth century. The carving of a mirror and comb near the bottom has been interpreted as an association with a girl or woman, and there is a legend that a girl who lost a bet with the devil was turned to stone here.
The countryside in Aberdeenshire is rich in such sites, and I get the idea that it would be fun just to drive from one to another for days. We have other things to see today, though, and we drive off to Huntly to visit the ruined castle there, the ancestral home of the chief of Clan Gordon. My mother has requested a scarf in the Gordon tartan, and I find it here, as well as a hat to keep the sun out of my eyes. I didn’t think I would need one in Scotland, but on this day (though not too many others) I do. There is a playing field attached to a school next to the castle, where a multi-generational group is playing cricket.
After visiting the castle, we go into the town of Huntly seeking lunch. We find it at the cafeteria in the visitor center for the Deans shortbread bakery. After lunch we browse through the store and pick up a few packages of shortbread seconds at a discounted price.
Next we are off to Dufftown, for the Dufftown Games.
Aug 14th, 2008, 02:53 PM
#6
Original Poster
As we drive toward Dufftown, we pass through beautiful countryside, getting hillier and hillier. The farms are replaced by grazing sheep, and finally by treeless slopes covered in purple heather, just coming into bloom.
Dufftown is hopping with people who have come to see the highland games. A large field is ringed with booths selling ice cream and beer. On the field, several events are taking place simultaneously. Two groups of men wearing blue jeans and team shirts are engaged in an intense tug of war. Minutes go by while they remain motionless, straining at the rope. Kilted observers watch for any movement of the rope away from the center, while coaches for each team are down on their hands and knees, shouting at the contestants like drill sergeants, exhorting them to pull harder. When one team finally wins, they all take a break for a few minutes, then come back and start pulling again. They do this for hours.
A stage on the far side of the field is the site of a dance competition. Little girls in pinafores are dancing to the strains of a lone bagpipe. A massed band of pipers and drummers parades around the field. When not marching, the pipers are engaging in a piping competition off in one corner of the field.
Large men in kilts are throwing heavy weights around, spinning and leaping. There are races around the track for various age groups. The most entertaining race is the last one, in which people from the crowd step forward to compete and are placed in positions along the track according to their age and perceived fitness. The game older woman who volunteers is given a large handicap which turns out to be far too short, but she appears to have a good time nonetheless.
The final event is the throwing of the caber, an enormous log (think telephone pole). The object is to throw it so high that it turns end over end. The caber used in the Dufftown Games is so large that only one man succeeds this afternoon.
As we leave the games, I reflect that while the event was certainly exotic and outside my experience, the atmosphere is highly reminiscent of more familiar venues such as the Fourth of July in the New England town where I live.
After the finish of the athletic events, the massed band of pipers circles the field and marches through the town, followed by the crowd, creating gridlock among the cars attempting to leave the event. We manage to find a way out of town and drive back to Sheila’s house, where we enjoy a dinner that includes our first taste of haggis, as well as a dessert called cranachan, made from raspberries, cream, oats, honey and whisky.
This has been a wonderful day.
Dufftown is hopping with people who have come to see the highland games. A large field is ringed with booths selling ice cream and beer. On the field, several events are taking place simultaneously. Two groups of men wearing blue jeans and team shirts are engaged in an intense tug of war. Minutes go by while they remain motionless, straining at the rope. Kilted observers watch for any movement of the rope away from the center, while coaches for each team are down on their hands and knees, shouting at the contestants like drill sergeants, exhorting them to pull harder. When one team finally wins, they all take a break for a few minutes, then come back and start pulling again. They do this for hours.
A stage on the far side of the field is the site of a dance competition. Little girls in pinafores are dancing to the strains of a lone bagpipe. A massed band of pipers and drummers parades around the field. When not marching, the pipers are engaging in a piping competition off in one corner of the field.
Large men in kilts are throwing heavy weights around, spinning and leaping. There are races around the track for various age groups. The most entertaining race is the last one, in which people from the crowd step forward to compete and are placed in positions along the track according to their age and perceived fitness. The game older woman who volunteers is given a large handicap which turns out to be far too short, but she appears to have a good time nonetheless.
The final event is the throwing of the caber, an enormous log (think telephone pole). The object is to throw it so high that it turns end over end. The caber used in the Dufftown Games is so large that only one man succeeds this afternoon.
As we leave the games, I reflect that while the event was certainly exotic and outside my experience, the atmosphere is highly reminiscent of more familiar venues such as the Fourth of July in the New England town where I live.
After the finish of the athletic events, the massed band of pipers circles the field and marches through the town, followed by the crowd, creating gridlock among the cars attempting to leave the event. We manage to find a way out of town and drive back to Sheila’s house, where we enjoy a dinner that includes our first taste of haggis, as well as a dessert called cranachan, made from raspberries, cream, oats, honey and whisky.
This has been a wonderful day.
Aug 14th, 2008, 03:12 PM
#8
Original Poster
Sure. I liked haggis. I ended up having it several times. I had expected something at least partially revolting after reading the descriptions and the jokes, but it was actually quite nice. Sort of like hash. Comfort food, often served with mashed potatoes and turnips (haggis, tatties and neeps).
Aug 14th, 2008, 05:55 PM
#9
Original Poster
Sunday morning we drive to the market in Aberdeen. Many of the vendors are from France, selling produce, cheese, olives, sausage, and prepared foods. I have a brief moment of wishing I were going to France on this vacation, but I comfort myself by buying olives and duck saucisson. Sheila buys cheese and wild mushrooms for supper.
Then we head up the valley of the River Dee, known in local parlance as Royal Deeside, to Crathes Castle. Unlike yesterday’s castle, today’s is intact and fully furnished. Some go inside to tour, but I opt to explore the gardens instead. There is a brass band playing outside the castle. As I emerge from the gardens, the conductor announces that it is very tiring for the musicians to play outside, so they are taking a break. I smile to myself (OK, maybe to everyone else too) at the reaction such a statement would provoke if made by the conductor of the community band in which I have played for thirty years. I hear no hearty guffaws from these musicians, however.
We drive on up Royal Deeside to the town of Ballater, but decide not to continue as far as Balmoral Castle (summer home of the royal family) since it is getting late and the castle is closed. Our last stop for the day is at a cemetery in Inverurie where there is a medieval motte-and-bailey and some carved Pictish stones. The motte-and-bailey is a form of earthwork fortification consisting of a high mound that was used for defence and a lower mound that served as a courtyard. This one is in a scenic location alongside the River Urie.
Over dinner and drinks until late at night we learn more Scottish history from our hosts, and we are sorry to have to say good-bye to them. But Monday morning we set off on our own toward our next night’s destination, Aviemore.
Then we head up the valley of the River Dee, known in local parlance as Royal Deeside, to Crathes Castle. Unlike yesterday’s castle, today’s is intact and fully furnished. Some go inside to tour, but I opt to explore the gardens instead. There is a brass band playing outside the castle. As I emerge from the gardens, the conductor announces that it is very tiring for the musicians to play outside, so they are taking a break. I smile to myself (OK, maybe to everyone else too) at the reaction such a statement would provoke if made by the conductor of the community band in which I have played for thirty years. I hear no hearty guffaws from these musicians, however.
We drive on up Royal Deeside to the town of Ballater, but decide not to continue as far as Balmoral Castle (summer home of the royal family) since it is getting late and the castle is closed. Our last stop for the day is at a cemetery in Inverurie where there is a medieval motte-and-bailey and some carved Pictish stones. The motte-and-bailey is a form of earthwork fortification consisting of a high mound that was used for defence and a lower mound that served as a courtyard. This one is in a scenic location alongside the River Urie.
Over dinner and drinks until late at night we learn more Scottish history from our hosts, and we are sorry to have to say good-bye to them. But Monday morning we set off on our own toward our next night’s destination, Aviemore.
Aug 15th, 2008, 12:55 AM
#11
Original Poster
Photos, you ask?
Aberdeenshire and Highlands:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=...localeid=en_US
Islay:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=...localeid=en_US
Edinburgh:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=...localeid=en_US
Aberdeenshire and Highlands:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=...localeid=en_US
Islay:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=...localeid=en_US
Edinburgh:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=...localeid=en_US
Aug 15th, 2008, 08:18 AM
#19
Original Poster
Our route Monday takes us up Donside, the valley of the River Don. We pass Kildrummy Castle and Corgarff Castle but opt not to stop and visit them. We stop for lunch at a store near Corgarff called Goodbrand Knitwear, which sells Scottish made clothing and crafts and has a tea room with an outdoor terrace. At Tomintoul we look into a store called “Whisky Castle” but Alan pronounces the prices too high to purchase anything.
Shortly after this, we veer off onto a single track road toward Nethy Bridge. Every time a car approaches, Alan starts swearing. At some point he starts asking, “Are we there yet?” Eventually we reach the main road in Aviemore, and we turn south toward Loch Alvie to find our hotel, the Rowan Tree Country Hotel (www.rowantreehotel.com). This is an old coaching inn that is beautifully renovated with nice public spaces inside and out. Our room is under the eaves, and after hitting his head on the ceiling next to the desk only three times, Alan learns that it slopes down in that corner.
We take a ride into Aviemore, which is a ski town in winter. Lauren, who has spent three years in school in Denver, says it has exactly the same stores as the ski towns in Colorado. Back at the hotel, we go walking in the fields out back toward a small loch. The weather is beautiful and the location is peaceful. Dinner at the hotel is excellent. It begins with a drink in the bar while we look at the menus; then when the first course is ready, we move into the dining room. We find this pattern at a few restaurants, and I like it. Unfortunately, I do not remember what I ordered here, but I do remember liking it very much. The hotel appears to be owned by the chef, and we are all glad we decided to have dinner here.
Breakfast is equally good, and we take off afterward for a morning at Loch Insh, a wide area of open water along the River Spey. There is a center here offering boat rentals (www.lochinsh.com) and Alan and the girls rent kayaks while I go on a wildlife cruise. The weather, which was very rainy early in the morning, improves dramatically for us. I see an osprey nest and not far from it an osprey on a branch. We see ospreys on Cape Cod regularly, where they have been encouraged to build nests on telephone poles set out on the marsh for them. Evidently they reached the brink of extinction in Scotland but have been making a comeback.
The river here was used by the logging industry for transporting timber down the river during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. According to the captain of the boat on which I am cruising, there was a lawsuit brought in the seventies by the landowners downstream attempting to keep boaters from the Loch Insh center off the river where it ran through their lands. The House of Lords ended up deciding the case based on the right of access as exemplified by the historical logging activities, and today there is a free recreational use of the river by canoers and kayakers.
Back on terra firma, the kayakers in our party change into dry clothes and we resume our drive.
Shortly after this, we veer off onto a single track road toward Nethy Bridge. Every time a car approaches, Alan starts swearing. At some point he starts asking, “Are we there yet?” Eventually we reach the main road in Aviemore, and we turn south toward Loch Alvie to find our hotel, the Rowan Tree Country Hotel (www.rowantreehotel.com). This is an old coaching inn that is beautifully renovated with nice public spaces inside and out. Our room is under the eaves, and after hitting his head on the ceiling next to the desk only three times, Alan learns that it slopes down in that corner.
We take a ride into Aviemore, which is a ski town in winter. Lauren, who has spent three years in school in Denver, says it has exactly the same stores as the ski towns in Colorado. Back at the hotel, we go walking in the fields out back toward a small loch. The weather is beautiful and the location is peaceful. Dinner at the hotel is excellent. It begins with a drink in the bar while we look at the menus; then when the first course is ready, we move into the dining room. We find this pattern at a few restaurants, and I like it. Unfortunately, I do not remember what I ordered here, but I do remember liking it very much. The hotel appears to be owned by the chef, and we are all glad we decided to have dinner here.
Breakfast is equally good, and we take off afterward for a morning at Loch Insh, a wide area of open water along the River Spey. There is a center here offering boat rentals (www.lochinsh.com) and Alan and the girls rent kayaks while I go on a wildlife cruise. The weather, which was very rainy early in the morning, improves dramatically for us. I see an osprey nest and not far from it an osprey on a branch. We see ospreys on Cape Cod regularly, where they have been encouraged to build nests on telephone poles set out on the marsh for them. Evidently they reached the brink of extinction in Scotland but have been making a comeback.
The river here was used by the logging industry for transporting timber down the river during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. According to the captain of the boat on which I am cruising, there was a lawsuit brought in the seventies by the landowners downstream attempting to keep boaters from the Loch Insh center off the river where it ran through their lands. The House of Lords ended up deciding the case based on the right of access as exemplified by the historical logging activities, and today there is a free recreational use of the river by canoers and kayakers.
Back on terra firma, the kayakers in our party change into dry clothes and we resume our drive.
