Hello all,
as promised some more pictures of Scotland. As I told you before it was an amazing trip. We drove 2400 km in total, on our farthest tour (that Saturday) 450 km. The highlands have been great – sometimes I thought I would have been in Canada, sometimes at home. Landscape was completely different but really nice or better aaaaaawsome. On our way from England to Scotland we came to the border, where a bagpipe player stood and played several Scottish songs. Suddenly he changed to “Rock around the clock” and different other hits. We had a lot of fun. We went further and had to go through the highlands. We didn’t meet any living soul for more than an hour and came to the filling station we wanted to fill up our bikes. “Out of order” was the short note. Please keep in mind that we have not been travelling by car where you can go 600 km or more with one filling. I usually fill up my bike after 250 km at the latest. So we had no other choice than to go ahead through the middle of nowhere. Fortunately it worked out and I came with the last drop of gas to the next filling station after nearly 300 km.
Dufftown is really a small town, nice to visit for some days but if I would have to live there I surely would go insain. From there you can go to 7 of the most famous distilleries of Scotch Whisky by feet. In the whole area there are more than 60 distilleries. Glenfiddich, Glenfarclas, GlenGrant, Macallan, Aberlour, GlenLivet, Mortlach, Strathisla…. Just to name a few of them. Some of them offer tours to theis factories, so we took 4 in total. At Aberlour, which was the best, we had to drink 6 drums of Whisky at the end. A Lady at our table had to drive so we got her portion as well. So we had 9 in total each and to be honest I/we have been completely drunk. We came by bus and wanted to go back by feet in order to take a walk on the Whisky trail. So this decision was right. It took us more than 3 hours to come back to Dufftown and after that hike I felt much better.
We also visited a factory called Speyside Cooperage where they manufactured casks. It was absolutely exciting and interesting to see how hard these guys have to work. Not sure if you know that by American law a cask to make Bourbon can be used only one time although you could use it 4 or 5 times. So most of the casks come from the states and costs only 25 pounds p.p. A cask of Sherry costs 4oo pounds p.p.
We have been at Loch Ness as well but unfortunately didn’t see Nessie. So enough stories for now – enjoy the pictures.
Cheers
Holger
