Today's installment...Scotland part I
When last I left you we were on the ferry between Ireland and Scotland. We arrived at the port city of Cairnyarn at 10pm with the destination of Glasgow 2 hours away, so that got us in at midnight. I haven't mentioned much about the car rides themselves so far but a couple of thing on them. First, any road trip with this gang has some through lines. Going too fast, slow down, go this way, why are you going that way, Jesus!...the usual. This year for some reason, the complaining was at a minimum. I know that with advancing years I could not possibly be driving better, but perhaps slower? The roads this time were maybe a bit straighter or the remoteness of our routes meant there were fewer options to get lost. Whatever, it was good for me and by the lack of griping from the back seats, better for them too. Second, The Boy is an amazing co-pilot. Calm with the directions, aware of the drivers needs and going along with the music selections. Which brings us to the most amazing development in the car. I bring along a variety of devices to play audio for car trips. My phone has a ton of KEXP live shows and also loaded it with history podcasts that were pertinent to the areas we were driving. In addition, have a couple of iPods curated especially for ever changing moods. Doesn't matter where we rent or what type of car we get cause inevitably, one of the devices doesn't sync with the vehicle and this year, the only thing that worked in the Renault was the iPod (you'd think these cars would have figured shit out universally by this point). Anyhoo, the last two days on the road had played Yo La Tengo exclusively. This particular iPod has every Yo La Tengo song on it (358 of them) and played that playlist on shuffle. Skipped the noisy/skronky bits that few can appreciate but I didn't hear a single peep out of anyone complaining about the music the first day so rode it out for two in a row. Unbelievable. The rest of the time was filled with classic soul and no one hates that.
Since we are so far north in winter, we don't have a ton of daylight so we need to get moving with the sun. Hated to do it everyday, but other than some mild grumbling, everyone was up and ready at the appointed time. As with Belfast, made a conscious choice to not spend time in Glasgow. Would have liked to but you gotta make choices. We did spend an hour driving around early morning seeing a couple of their more prominent sites. We all agreed that the downtown core had the look and feel of downtown Seattle. With more time, this would be a nice place to spend a couple days.
Our destination this day was Inverness, which is almost directly north of Glasgow. Our route was to take us up into the Scottish Highlands and then along the Great Glen. Before our ascent, we had to pass Loch Lomond, which is Glasgow's summer playground. As you can see, the weather this day was looking good.
Was gonna make the city of Glencoe a lunch stop as there was some massacre history there, but it was kind of a dud and so we kept on truckin'. This is the point where you enter the Great Glen.
Quick geology detour...the Great Glen is a region of lakes in a long valley that is unnaturally straight due to it being along an extinct fault line similar to that of San Andreas. On one side of the valley is remnants of North America and the other side is Europe. They were connected in Pangea 400 million years ago and the region has been carved up by tectonic forces and glaciers ever since. One of the lakes here is Loch Ness, and if you have the slightest interest in it, suggest you dial up a documentary on it from the series 'How The Earth Was Made' on You Tube. One of my favorite TV programs ever, have watched the entire 2 seasons of it multiple times and watched this one on Loch Ness probably a 1/2 dozen. You'll feel better about yourself if you do and also understand why Nessie couldn't possibly be.
When planning these trips, I solicit requests from all concerned on things that they want to see. Cannot satisfy all of the requests and try to prioritize them by the expressed desire. A must see by Chiquita was to see the Highland Cattle. I didn't know about them myself but researched and found that they should be abundant in the areas we were gonna be the next two days. As soon as we hit the Highlands, see some in a paddock on the side of the road and slam on the brakes for a photo shoot.
They are pretty damn cute. We will run into them again tomorrow.
Stopped for lunch at the southern tip of Loch Ness in the lovely little town of Fort Augustus. Us Seattle types love ourselves some locks, and seeing locks between two lochs? Fuggetaboutit
We leisurely drove along the west bank of Loch Ness, which is 23 miles long. The natural stopping point is Urquhart Castle about 1/2 way up. We hit it just as the sun was dying and it made for a supremely gorgeous view with golden hour light for photo ops.
Before we left, watched the 8 minute movie they made about the history of the castle. 1000 years of Picts, Vikings and Christians taking turns slaughtering each other.
We stopped for the night in Inverness, which is on the northern extreme of Loch Ness. A neat little town, we tooled around the main section looking for a place for dinner. Probably should have done more dinner reservation pre-planning as like most other nights, the places we wanted to eat were inevitably full. We did find some space at a place called Ivy and the food was good. What made this stand out was the staff were all very Eastern European and the lady that served us had a glazed over look and demeanor that made us think she was doped up and part of some human trafficking ring like the movie Taken. Starting in Glasgow last night and all throughout the rest of our time in the UK, it was readily apparent that a vast majority of the people that do the menial labor, such as the housekeeping staffs, are Eastern Europeans. As best I could discern, Polish mainly. As part of all the Brexit talk, these types are said to be stealing the locals jobs and was a main driver of the "Leave" campaign. Sound familiar?
Made a (partially drunken) comment at the end of dinner when we are ordering up desserts and how I typically don't like booze in my cake. "I like my alcohol in a glass and my cheesecake on a plate". That struck a nerve with Chiquita for some reason, maybe because she had been served as well. She found some gin drink that she liked by this point so now knows what to order. I heard that line repeated at the end of every subsequent dinner.
As we were walking back to the hotel, we saw a couple of "ladies" walking and one of them was wasted. Leaning up against a wall, bobbing and weaving when she walked and talking at the world in a way the truly drunk do. We were enjoying walking behind her and admiring the spectacle when another passerby saw the scene and commented, "she's walking the tightrope". Love that term.
The next morning we were up and out early again and had been personally looking forward to this day most of all as we were headed to the Spey whisky region. A lot of the major whisky distillers are here (Macallum, Glenfiddich, etc.) and a ton of small ones too.. They use the water of the Spey River in the process and the barley and peat used in their distilling is nearby. There is a well marked trail and you can hop around the different ones much like one does wineries in Napa.
We had planned to be in this area regardless but as I researched which ones we wanted to tour leading up to our trip found that they close for the holidays. Not just on Christmas and New Years, but they shut down for the whole two week stretch. All of them. Was getting a bit nervous that it was gonna be a total washout but held out hope and contacted many by email to see if their websites weren't entirely accurate. There was one in particular that I had interest in called Cardhu. Was not familiar with their product but in reading about them learned that they were the only distillery founded and run by women and thought that as we had young ladies in our group that they would be able to get some inspiration in hearing about how strong women in the 1800's were able to overcome the odds and be successful during a time when there were little opportunities for them.
Emailed with Cardhu and laid on the above desire and they got back saying they would come in just for us and give a tour. How awesome is that? We show up about 15 minutes early and said we could look around the gift shop while we waited. Driving in, we spotted some Highland Cattle in a field near the shop and asked if we could go see them. Not only could we, but they were pets of the owner's daughter who named them Treasure, Fluffy and Thistle and said they like biscuits and we were welcome to feed them. Score.
We grab a bag of cookies from the car and head over. The three of them hear the bag rustling and walk over to the fence to see us...
The distillery tour had something for everybody. I liked it all of course. The Boy liked the mechanics of the operation and the girls liked trying to discern the varying aromas and how all of the by-products of production are used in other areas or industries. They even use the old barrels to make furniture and it was our guide Lorraine's intention to build a hot tub out of them when she retires. I won't go into a description of the process but the tour hit all the right notes for us. One thing to mention is that while Cardhu makes their own product, they are owned by Johnnie Walker, who bought them in 1902 to ensure consistency of his blends, and the majority of their production goes into the Walker bottles. I've always liked Johnnie and now feel even better about drinking it.
We did a nice tasting there but I could only smell (with open mouth of course) as we had a few hours on the road ahead of us and didn't want to disrupt the positive car vibe we had going. They were nice to bottle mine up for me to enjoy later and broke those bad boys out on New Year's Eve. We bought a lovely 18 year old to bring home but have yet to crack the seal. Look at that beautiful caramel coloring....yum.
Lorraine is a third generation employee and we were off to the side smoking a butt together and she tells me about how her dad passed away recently. His deal in life was that he would have a shot of gin in the morning, a sherry at lunch, and a dram of whisky before bed. When his health was failing and mind was going, the people in the nursing home still let him have his wee dram at bedtime...they preferred giving him that over a sleeping pill. By the end, he didn't recognize his wife but he never forgot to ask for his whisky at the end of the day.
Touring around the Spey region felt similar to a Napa experience and would say this is a must see place. Lorraine gave us some tips on what to see on the rest of our drive. Down the road was a town where we could walk to the old bridge over the Spey River..
Lunch was next and Lorraine told us of a place in nearby Aberlour (The Byre Grazing) that had sandwiches and such. We found it and it was filled with locals who gave us a sideways look when we came in. The group of old timers next to us had a look like we just took their Grey Poupon and poured it down our pants but I gave the oldest bat a big smile and she smiled right back and we became fast friends. I got a bad RBF I know, but if there is one thing I have found in all of these years traveling around is that other people have RBF too and they are all looking at the weird strangers coming into their turf just like you would do. It is a no brainer of course and is easy to forget, but a nice smile with some eye contact is always immediately responded to in kind every time everywhere.
At this lunch is where I had a life changing experience. Haggis! Betty wanted soup (she always wants soup) but as today was their last day open before they went on holiday, they were all out of the Cullen Skink (which is a Scottish fish and potato soup that has the hilarious name of skink). So Betty and I shared a haggis sandwich and I fell hard for the stuff.
One of my earlier schoolboy recollections is hearing how haggis is organs cooked in a stomach, being grossed out and making the usual assumptions about how crappy it was and how the people that ate it must be demented.. Lisa Simpson once said "as usual, the playground has the facts right but missed the point entirely." I knew we were gonna have to try haggis on this part of the journey but purposely hadn't researched what it was in fear I may lose my nerve. Eating the juicy meat of this sandwich, it hit the receptors in my taste buds, and my soul, in just the right way. It became an obsession to try as much of it as possible while we were in Scotland. They served it in the breakfast buffet at the Hampton Inn we'd stay at this night and it was even good there.
Will relate the ultimate experience of eating haggis later, but in the meantime, here is the definition:
a
traditional
pudding
made
of
the
heart,
liver,
etc.,
of a
sheep
or
calf,
minced
with
suet
and
oatmeal,
seasoned,
and
boiled
in
the
stomach
of
the
animal.
Had to look up suet. It is:
the
hard
fatty
tissue
about
the
loins
and
kidneys
of
beef,
sheep,
etc.,
used
in
cooking
or
processed
to
yield
tallow.
Gross, but soooooooo good. Pudding and loins are both very sexy words.
Drove by the cooperage on the way out of Speyville.
We drove into Dundee that night. Along the way, saw an inordinate amount of signs for falconry centers. Scots must be into falconry I suppose. As we are driving, the subject of cockroaches comes up, which gave me a chance to tell my cockroach story/gag. I posted it here a couple months ago and hope you remember it. This afternoon, I gave the extended version and really elaborated on the beauty of the creature's evolution and added some other anecdotes about cockroaches in Taiwan. Before I could get to the punchline, the folks in the car took the conversation away from me and didn't get to deliver it. Waited a few minutes and quietly asked The Boy to bring up the cockroaches and ask what I did with it at the end. Boy makes a big scene and announces that "my dad wants me to bring up the cockroach story again" and they all make fun of me, so I refused to tell them the rest.. The end of that story isn't really great anyway so it was way better not telling them and torturing them with not knowing what happened to the little fella. For the rest of the trip someone would ask occasionally "so what happened to the cockroach." These little moments are what make road trips so great.
Dundee was just a place to stop for the night. We learned that it produces the best jam (and jelly?) in the UK. Sadly, as with all of the places we visited so far in Scotland and Ireland, all the shops close at 5pm, and as the next day was Sunday, they weren't open so we didn't get to buy any of the good stuff. Think I am gonna have to find some of that shit on Amazon.
Not much to say about Dundee other than it is described historically as the Jam, Jute and Journalism capitol of the UK (jute I learned is a fiber used to make ropes). They also decorate their statues creatively.
Following morning we were heading to Edinburgh but popped into St Andrews for breakfast. The town was dead, mainly for the holidays, but it is most renowned for its golf courses and University, both of which are off for the season, so was virtually empty. Was pretty to walk around the campus and old cathedral area for a bit.
Debated whether to finish off Scotland now or make another post, but since there was a lot to Edinburgh, decided to make a Scotland part II. See you there.
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