Day 6 - Touring Scotland

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Hobbit Has A Code

We departed Orkney Island by ferry at 11pm, got to sleep a little after midnight and were awakened by a cheery Scottish voice on the PA system at 6am - gleefully announcing that breakfast was being served in the galley. Hobbit rolled over and announced, "I habe a code."
I got up, showered, dressed, went to the galley, got us coffee and oatmeal and brought it back to the cabin. En-route, several Scottish women expressed their envy that I was taking breakfast to my wife, presumably as they had been dispatched by their husbands to do likewise.


Hobbit After Breakfast


Hobbit Hidden Behind Our Mountain Of Baggage

We hoisted our baggage and left the ferry around 7am, heading into the bright Aberdeen morning. I was carrying two 44 pound bags of SCUBA gear (80+ pounds) and Hobbit had the two backpacks, one camelback and one satchel - about 50 pounds total.
We missed the train to Elgin by about 5 minutes, so we paid 5 pounds and left the baggage at the Left Luggage and embarked on a Sergeant Joost tour of the town. "Route Step, March! 1,2,3,4 ... Detail Halt! Right, Face! PhotoOp, Smile! -click- Left, Face! Double Time, March!"
We got photos at Robert Burns, General Gordon, Bonnie Prince Charlie, William Wallace, et al., visited the tourist info office, poked our noses into the maritime museum and returned to the train station in time to catch the next train to Elgin. I had fun watching the scenery and reading the TI propaganda and Hobbit grumpily ignored the scenery with her nose buried in a bad novel that she had brought along.


General "Chinese" Gordon


William Wallace


Robert Burns


Edward VII

"Gentlemen, you may smoke."
King Edward VII of England -- after assuming the throne. His mother, Queen Victoria, had previously banned smoking in court.

Welcome To Elgin

We arrived in Elgin to discover that the Left Luggage office had been removed and there were no lockers - the station agent took pity on us and let us stash a mountain of baggage in his office while went to find accomodations. We found an overpriced B&B through the TI office and repositioned our bags, then found the bus station and started our distillery tour.
Scotland`s train system is quick and efficient, however their bus system is VERY expensive - this is because anyone under 18 rides at less than half-price, pensioners over 60 get free tickets, etc. ad nauseum. When we got on our bus (about 20 dollars for a 30 minute ride) Hobbit opined that we appeared to be the only people (out of 20+ people on the bus) who had actually paid full fare to ride.

The Glenfiddich Distillery Tour

The Glenfiddich distillery tour was less detailed than the Highland Park tour, but virtually identical in design. We decided that sitting through an hour-long distillery tour for two small glasses of whisky wasn't a good way to spend our time in Scotland. We decided to bag distillery tours in favor of castle tours.
Outside the Glenfiddich Distillery, I was happy and warm despite the cold, wet wind blowing - two samples of Scotch and the world is nice, warm and mellow ... and maps are a bit difficult to open and orient.
Hobbit began doing her,"Impatient With The Delay" dance and asked, "What are you doing?"
I replied, "Trying to orient the map to find out what direction we need to go to get to Balvenie Castle."


Wendell Outside Glenfiddich Distillery


Each Distilling Vessel Holds 10,000 Gallons of Whisky


Hobbit Doing the Impatient Dance


Hobbit Points To The Castle

Hobbit pointed across the distillery roof to the hillside beyond and asked, "That castle?"
I looked over at Balvenie Castle and said, "Yes, that castle."


Balvenie Castle


Odd Corner In Balvenie Castle - I wonder what it's for?


You could sit in it, I suppose ...

But there's a hole in the middle of the seat and it drops down 30 feet to the outside of the castle. I expect that your backside would get awfully cold sitting there in the winter time.


Hobbit!


Hobbit Makes Friends With A Scottish Shorthorn

Outside the castle we visited a small herd of very bored Scottish Shorthorns.


The Whiskey Shop in Dufftown

The Whisky Shop was closed, however, so we couldn’t do any shopping. We’ve concluded that Scapa Whisky is the best Scotch whisky known to man and intend to order a case delivered as soon as we can find an importer.

How Scotch Whisky Is Named

Scotch Whisky names are either (a) a noise you make when clearing your throat (e.g. Lagavulin) or a little known internal organ ("I've got a terrible pain in my Balvenie.")

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