Hitting the Whisky Trail & Another Castle

WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY August 29 & 30

Wednesday was another of those ugly weather days that seems to happen about every other day. We were not inspired to jump in the car and head out to another vista.  Instead, we relaxed at home and did a little local drive to Inveruie in search of a few groceries.  We found the local Tesco - which is a very big supermarket chain around here.  It was, indeed, huge - to the point of overwhelming compared to our Mexican supermarkets.  We didn't need much but we were in search of fresh salmon and we found it!  We purchased our dinner in the raw - lovely fresh salmon fillets which were on special and very inexpensive.  I prepared a simple dinner of sauteed salmon, buttered noodles and a chopped lettuce and tomato salad with Cesar dressing.  The entire dinner took about 30 minutes to prepare - my kind of cooking while on vacation. And, of course, a nice bottle of red wine (we didn't have any white).  The salmon was among the best we have ever had - the last good salmon we had was in Seattle and this was equal or better.  Naturally, I photographed it:

We spent the rest of the evening watching the Opening Ceremony of the Paralympics which was very impressive.  We stayed up long enough to watch the Mexican team parade in and they were by far the most colorful team and a lot of them.

Thursday morning we awoke to a day with promise weather-wise.  It was not perfect but a definite improvement over yesterday.  Our destination was to the northwest - Castle Ballinballoch.  However, as we studied the map, we realized that we were on the road to Whisky (yes, that is the correct spelling in Scotland) distillery country and right on the way was Glenffidich.  We certainly were not going to pass that up.  The roads, as usual were narrow and the signs were few but armed with a good map, we did quite well and after an hour or so of fabulous scenery, hills, greenery, sheep, forests, quaint villages and lively rivers, we arrived at Glenfiddich.  We were just in time for the next tour of just about 10 people.  We learned all about the MacPherson-Grant family who started the distillery in 1887 - building it on this very site stone by stone in one year.  Glenfiddich is one of the few Whisky companies who have stayed in the same family to this day.  The descendants are still running the company in the same location with the same ingredients.  The tour was interesting and at the end we sampled the 12, 15 & 18 yr old whisky - all quite different.  I had a little extra because John was driving. Tee-hee.

From there, we drove a bit farther looking for the castle.  Wouldn't you know it, we took another wrong turn and ended up not knowing exactly where we were until we pulled over and studied the map.  As it turned out, we were in pretty much the right area - just took a different road than we thought we took.  So, we found the castle and pulled into the parking lot.  The weather now was beautiful - blue skies and puffy sheep-like clouds.  This castle is one of the few that has been continually occupied by the family of the original owner.  In this case - the Grant family (no relation to the Glenfiddich Grants - I asked).  The castle is lovely and the grounds are magnificent - the immense lawn looks like a putting green.

We paid our fee (7 pounds concession for old folks) and were free to wander the rooms which were open to the public.  They were quite wonderful with amazing art and antiques throughout.  The rooms we saw are mostly used by the family outside of public hours.  The 2 lovely guest rooms we saw were currently in use by actual guests (so we were told by the attendant at the entrance).  The dining room was magnificent and she said they were going to be using this evening.  They had lots of family photos and pictures of the royal family who they know personally.  After our self guided tour - and there were only a half dozen other people there - we had a little snack in the Tea and Gift Shop before our journey back home.  On the way back we enjoyed the scenery again and only made a couple of wrong turns.  We agreed that Scotland gets a "D" for signage.  There are no speed limit signs except when coming into a village - there is no warning of an intersection coming up and there are no highway number signs other than at major intersections.  However, the scenery cannot be beat and there are no billboards or any other signs of advertising.

Now - here is a link to my photos from today - WARNING THERE ARE A LOT OF THEM but you don't have to look at all of them.  However, the scenery is really fabulous.  I put them all up there for me - permanent storage on the Internet.

Surprise - A Sunny Day in Aberdeen

MONDAY & TUESDAY, August 27-28.

One look out the window when we arose on Monday told us that this would be a good day to do the laundry and relax inside the house.  The sky was a solid gray and rain was imminent.  So we stayed home and took care of chores.  I watered Muriel's house plants of which there were many.  It rained on and off all day.

Tuesday morning we awoke to brilliant sunshine and blue sky - the prettiest day since our arrival in Scotland.  We had already decided that it would be a good day to explore some of downtown Aberdeen which we previously only glimpsed from the train station and taxi to our home exchange.

Sunny Day at Broomhead Cottage

We found our way to a Park & Ride lot about 1/2 way to Aberdeen, and took the bus into the center of downtown.  We found relatively few people compared to other big cities we have been in and the traffic wasn't bad either.  We found the Tourist Office where we secured a map and headed towards the harbor for a look at the Maritime Museum which I found just o.k. but probably my father, who had been in the Chilean Navy and the Merchant Marines, would have loved it.  There was a lot of information and displays having to do with offshore oil rigs as well as historical displays about fishing.  Outside the museum there was a large oil rig supply ship from Norway and a huge ferry which goes to the Orkney Islands.  If we had more time and nice weather, this would be a nice excursion, I'm sure.  But it is an overnight on the ferry and wouldn't be much fun if the weather turned. 

 Judicial Building in downtown Aberdeen

From the museum we walked around town and stopped in at another little museum: The Tolhouse Museum where prisoners were kept in the 17th & 18th centuries next to the courthouse - it was small but interesting.  Both museums were free.  We then stopped in St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, took a look and chatted with a nice lady who told us about the church. She was interested to hearing about our travels also. They are trying to raise money for restoration of the church but it didn't really look to me like it needed a lot of restoration.    

We were starting to get hungry and were surprised to see that it was already 3:00 - well past lunch time.  After checking in with several restaurants, we found that most kitchens were closed even though the facility was open (just for coffee).  After quite a lot of walking and looking we had just about decided to head back home when we saw a sign for a Hungarian Restaurant up a narrow pedestrian street and were delighted to find that it was indeed open for lunch even though we were the only customers.  What a pleasant find! It was very authentically Hungarian in every way down to the beautiful dishes and decorations.  The hostess/server spoke heavily accented English and we heard the staff chatting away in Hungarian in the kitchen.  I ordered the Beef Goulash and John had a pork tenderloin in a creamy mushroom sauce (wonderful different mushrooms with so much flavor) - accompanied by an authentic Hungarian beer.  We lingered over a long lunch/dinner and then took the Park & Ride bus back to the parking lot and home.  We didn't have to eat again after our huge late lunch. CLICK HERE TO SEE THE REST OF MY PICTURES OF DOWNTOWN ABERDEEN.

Authentic Hungarian Restaurant in Aberdeen

Dunnottar Castle

SUNDAY - August 26
After checking the weather forecasts from various sources, we decided that today would be better than tomorrow for an outdoor activity (as I write this on Monday, I can say that we were right).  Our destination: Dunnottar Castle - less than an hour away.  It lies on a cliff overlooking the North Sea just south of the town of Stonehaven, which  is south of Aberdeen.  Our exchangers recommended this as a "spectacular location" and when we arrived, we totally agreed.

Looking towards the castle from the path

Getting there was not too bad - we only missed 2 or 3 turns.  Oh well - we're getting used to that.  In our defense, there is usually no warning that you are coming up on an intersection so it is very easy to go past if you are a foreigner.  The first one we missed even as we went by it and ended up going into Aberdeen and catching a different highway down to Stonvehaven.  Oh how I wish we had brought our Garmin with us!  

At the castle, we found a parking space on the side of the road and entered the property.  The castle looked pretty far away - actually - it was 2600 ft of trails and stairs (182 of them) to the top.  It didn't seem too bad though because it was a gradual slope most of the way.  As we started up the trail, I could hear the faint sounds of bagpipes.  Eventually, we arrived at the source of the sound - very fitting!

We finally arrived at the "Keep" - the entrance tower - slightly weak kneed from the climb but it was well worth it to see this stunning site.  The castle ruins are mostly from the 1600's but the site, it is believed, has been used as a fortress since the Dark Ages.  And, what a view!  We walked around the several acres of ruins along with other tourists - but it was far from crowded.  The history of Dunottar is quite interesting so you can read about it HERE if you are interested.  We wandered for an hour or more and after exploring every corner, we headed back down - which really was quite a lot of up along with the down.  

After all that climbing and walking it was time for Sunday afternoon dinner so we headed down along the coast toward the town of Cutterline and the Creel Inn, recommended by our exchangers (however, they did say it was tricky to find).  We managed to find it with only a bit of uncertainty turn even though quite a bit of the way was on single lane roads (I will have to call these "C" roads).  The village was right on the sea but the restaurant did not have a view - it was a block or two off the coastline.  We each ordered one of the daily specials - I had the Sunday Roast - leg of lamb in a red wine sauce, roasted potatoes and veggies.  We also divided an order of crab soup.  John, who needs to remain kind to his implants, ordered the whole plaice, a mild white fish similar to sole.  Both of our dinners were excellent.  

After a very pleasant dinner with friendly staff (and of course, they wanted to know where we were from), we took a quick look at the harbor which was beautiful and rugged.  Then we headed home - missed a couple of turns again, but arrived safely and without encountering any rain.  Actually the sun came out for a while. 

As an aside, John is doing quite well driving on the left side of the road as they do in all of Great Britain.  The last time we had to do this was in 2008 when we home exchanged in Ireland.  And then when we were in Australia and New Zealand.  The first two days were a little "nervous" but now he's more relaxed and in the groove.  Fortunately, we have not had a lot of traffic to deal with.  

Well, that's all for today and if you would like to see more of my pictures from yesterday, you can CLICK HERE.

The weather is kind of ugly today so we are hanging out in the house, doing laundry and just being lazy.

Green, Gray and Getting Lost

GREEN AND GRAY
Thinking about the landscapes of Scotland (well, at least the parts we have seen so far) I visualize green and gray.  Our first look at Scotland was when we arrived in Edinburgh - taking the bus from our airport hotel into the city to catch the train.  The city is entirely constructed of granite.  It should last just about forever.  Then when we arrived in Aberdeen we saw that it too is constructed of gray granite.  Our taxi driver informed us that Aberdeen is also know as the Granite City.  A large quarry at the western edge of Aberdeen produced millions of tons of high quality granite for the city, was closed down in the early 70's and is now filled with water.  Recently it went up for sale at auction and it is rumored that it sold for something like 30k pounds sterling.  (about $45,000 US) and could be turned into water rec use or drained and used for rock climbing. Sounds like cheap property but expensive development.  Here's what it looks like on Google maps: Quarry

The rest of what we have seen so far seems to be painted in shades of green - dotted with white (sheep). It reminds us of Ireland (we did a home exchange in Galway a few years back).  Between the green and the gray, it is quite a contrast with our home in Mexico.  Oh, and did I mention the gray skies here?  Yes, they are primarily gray with occasional and sudden swipes of blue suffused with a few puffs of white.  Today, though, it was pure shades of gray.

So, what have we done so far in our explorations?  Yesterday, we ventured 2.1 miles from our house to Castle Fraser.  There seems to be a huge number of castles in Scotland - many are private, but this one is fully open to the public and owned by the National Trust for Scotland (they own 26 castles plus many other properties).  Here is a picture from the web (I have my own pictures on the camera but can't download them yet due to a malfunctioning card reader).

Castle Fraser

The castle had many rooms to explore and all were a mixture of original furnishings and copies of originals.  There were very few tourists there and we had a leisurely stroll through the castle and a couple of chats with docents.  The Frasers finished the castle around 1636.  It remained in the family until 1921 when it was sold at auction to the First Viscount Cowdray who gave it to his son Clive Pearson.  This family was very wealthy and enjoyed restorations and castles so they restored the castle and in 1970's, a daughter and her husband gave the fully restored Castle Fraser to the National Trust.  After touring the castle, we enjoyed a stroll through the walled garden on the grounds.   As an aside, the docent told us that Clive Pearson, a civil engineer, was responsible for draining the swamps around Mexico City and also discovered Mexico's largest oil field while building a railroad across Mexico in the 1890's.  

GETTING LOST

Today, Saturday, we ventured a bit farther out to the town of Ballater.  We wished we had brought our GPS with us and downloaded Scotland, but we didn't.  So, we have to resort to Google Maps and conventional paper maps.  I started out by printing instructions to Ballater from Google Maps - seemed quite simple and straightforward.  However, the roads here are not signed very often and turns are easy to miss.  There are A highways and B highways - and totally unmarked roads.  The major highways are "A" and the secondaries "B".  The main difference seems to be that the "A" highways have a marked center line - the "B" highways have no markings. Both are two lane roads with no shoulders.  

"A" Highway

"B" Highway

Somewhere along the way we turned right when we should have turned left and blundered on for a while until we realized that all was not well.  As we came into a village and pulled over to look a little closer at the map, I simply asked a gentleman on the sidewalk if we could possibly be headed in the wrong direction.  Yes, we were and so we turned around and headed in the right direction.  It wasn't too long before we drove into Ballater.  This is a small cute village and is known because it happens to be only a few miles from Balmoral Castle - the Royal Family's home in Scotland.  We did not visit the castle because it is closed during August and September.  That is the time that they are most likely to be in residence and since they only have about 50,000 acres I guess they want their privacy.  Several of the shops in town are used by the family to obtain their supplies. There was quite a nice looking butcher shop that had the royal seal of approval.  I was trying to picture the queen stepping up to the counter to buy some lamb chops. 

The skies were threatening rain but never really did more than a few drops (we noticed there were 4 umbrellas in the car just in case).  We walked to the old train station where there was a restaurant with fish and chips and that is what we had for lunch - very nice fresh and perfectly cooked haddock.  Afterward we strolled past the 2 blocks of shops and I found a memory card for my camera that is accepted by my laptop for downloading pictures so I am back in business photo wise.  We did not get lost coming home but did miss one turn and had to turn around.  Oh well.  We're not in a hurry.  

I wonder what tomorrow will bring?

Getting There

The downside of doing home exchanges across the pond is getting there.  Here are the many steps it took before arriving in our first home exchange in Cluny, Aberdeenshire, Scotland:

Sunday 11:15 a.m. - taxi to San Miguel bus station
Sunday 12:00 p.m. - Bus to Mexico City Norte bus station
Sunday 3:30 p.m. - Taxi from bus station to Mexico City airport
Sunday 9:45 p.m. - Flight on KLM non-stop to Amsterdam - 10 hr flight
Monday - Arrive Amsterdam around 3:00 p.m. their time - Hang out in airport
Monday - 9:40 p.m. - 1 1/2 hr flight on Easy Jet to Edinburgh
Monday -  10:10 p.m. - Hilton Hotel shuttle from airport to hotel - 5 min. - Collapse into bed.
Tuesday - late morning shuttle back to airport.
Tuesday - Airlink bus to Edinburgh Waverly Train Station
Tuesday - 12: 45 p.m. First ScotRail train to Aberdeen - 2 hrs
Tuesday - 3:15 p.m. Taxi to home exchange - 30 min.

Not surprisingly, we were very happy to arrive at our "home away from home" and really, we had no problems along the way.  We had a little sleep on the plane but it is very difficult to sleep in those tiny airline seats.  We had the opportunity to upgrade at a hefty price but decided it was not worth it - plenty of time to recover upon arriving at our final destination.

Our home "Broomhead"  is a very old granite "cottage" with 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, open kitchen, dining and living room plus a lovely bright solarium overlooking lush gardens with no neighbors within view.  The sound of a babbling brook across the road is soothing.  The house has been completely modernized and we felt quite at home from the first day.  Our hosts had left us enough food to get started and a nice bottle of wine.

WEDNESDAY,  August 22

Unfortunately, John experienced some problems with his dental implants just before we left Mexico and while his Mexican dentist made some temporary adjustments, we knew there could be problems on the trip. Well, the first evening, the dentist's adjustment loosened so we knew he'd have to find a local dentist.  We received a recommendation just a few miles from the house, called and got right in to see him.  144 lbs (that's British Pounds Sterling) later, he went home thinking all would be well for the duration of the trip.  Wrong.  The cement fell out during dinner.  Bummer.  No sightseeing yet, but we did buy a couple  few things at Costco (lamb chops and wine) after visiting the dentist.

THURSDAY, August 23

Another call to the dentist to see if he had a Plan B.  Again he got right in to see a dentist (different one in the same office) who admitted that he did not have the right tool to tighten the implant but he phoned a dental surgeon in Aberdeen that he knew and drove us there.  This time, it is looking good so far.  We took a taxi back to our car at the other dental clinic and then did some shopping at Marks & Spenser - a wonderful store - lots of high quality food - many items partially prepared in servings for two - just pop them in the oven. Wonderful items that don't require a lot of preparation but taste home cooked - perfect for vacation.

By the time we finished all the above, it was too late to do any sightseeing other than a little walk down the road.  However, the roads are very narrow in the country (we are definitely in the country) - so it requires much caution - especially on curves.  There are no shoulders - you just have to step into the abundant greenery.

I prepared a simple dinner from Marks and Spencer ingredients and along with a nice bottle of Australian wine and no more dental disasters, we are optimistic about tomorrow.

Weather:  So far, the weather has been pretty decent for Scotland.  We were prepared for cool, cloudy and rainy so have not been disappointed.  However, we have actually had more sunshine than we expected - a bonus.  The weather seems to change in a matter of minutes.  During the day it is in the 60's - just right for a light jacket.

Taxi Drivers:  We had nice experiences with the taxis.  The driver who brought us here from Aberdeen was very talkative and well versed in many topics:  history, geography, politics, etc. and had lots of questions for us - quite entertaining.  Our other taxi driver was also talkative and had many side trip recommendations.  Both taxis had meters - not cheap but certainly good service and very pleasant.

It is now Friday morning and we have made our first sightseeing plans:  Castle Fraser - I will report in the next blog post.  Unfortunately, no pictures to post yet - my memory card reader isn't working and I'll have to find another before I can download pictures to my computer.  Stay tuned.