Glengarry - Scotland

Our next stop on our Scotland trip was Glengarry castle - we love this place! This was our room.

This is a view from our room:

The food was excellent and we love the library which had a fireplace.  We spent an entire day just relaxing in front of the fire while it was raining. One day we took a drive to the Isle of Skye and visited Dunvegan Castle which had incredible grounds.  This is a photo of Sammy in the walled garden.

Here's a photo of me walking around the grounds - I couldn't believe how big this plant was.  Sammy took a photo of me next to it so we could see the scale.

On the way back from the Isle of Skye I had to have a photo of the purple heather which seemed to be everywhere making the hills look like they were a soft velvet.

And we saw a rainbow right before we arrived back at the manor...

Beautiful end to a beautiful day!

Scone - Scotland

After Edinburgh we went driving up to Invergerry and on the way we stopped at Scone Castle where they have crowned the kings of Scotland for the past...well at least since 1306 when Robert the Bruce was crowned. And the castle is still being lived in which I find really interesting, wouldn't it be a kick to live in a castle!?

Here is a replica of the stone where they were crowned the original was said to be carried off by the English in 1328, although some think that the Scots buried the original and a fake was sent in its place.

There were a lot of peacocks at the palace too.

After we left Scone we drove for a while, the scenery was really beautiful - this is one of the stops we made.

Next stop - Glengarry Castle.

Stirling Scotland

Sammy and I took a break from the sun and sand and went to Scotland. We stayed in Edinburgh the first few days and went to Stirling Castle.

The Swiss Army band was playing on the grounds and they were really good. There were a lot of military bands in town because the Tattoo festival was going on.

Here's a photo of me and Sammy enjoying the music, sunshine and sand free day!

And another one! We had a really good time at the castle.

The next day we had a walk around Edinburgh and the views were incredible. This fountain in the park I really liked and although we never did make it into the castle it did look good.

Self portrait Edinburgh...next stop Scone.

The Whiskey Trail

Scotland...the land of milk and honey...oh I mean Whiskey! Sammy has a project in Aberdeen and so I hopped up for the weekend. We booked a driver so we could go to a few of the distilleries and do some whiskey tasting.

The driver showed up to the hotel at 9:30am (yes, I actually got up early on a vacation day!) and we started off. About 9:35am I decided I needed some coffee - and so we were off scheduled. We were suppose to get to the 1st distillery at 11:00 for the tour then tasting, but because of coffee we arrived at 11:30, missed our tour and had to wait for the next.

The delay was great because it gave me and Sammy a chance to have a drink in front of a roaring fire on a cold rainy day. Very romantic. We were at the Glenfiddich Distillery (http://www.glenfiddich.com/) which is family owned and sells excellent Whiskey. In front of the fire, Sammy tried the 18 year reserve (nice) and I had the 30 year (better!).

Glenfiddich Distillery

After the tour we tried their 12 year and their new Liqueur and ended up buying a small 30 year and the Liqueur. Note to all: Don't buy the Whiskey at the distillery unless you want to pay an arm and a leg. The full bottle of the 30 year at the shop was £150 and the same bottle at the airport was £95.

After we left Glenfiddich we went to Delgatie Castle and had lunch. For the last 650 years the Hay's have owned this castle. It was a beautiful place where the proprietress knew the last Hay (who passed away 9 years ago) and was able to tell us stories about him, his life, and how he restored the castle. If you ever get the a chance to go I reccomend it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delgatie_Castle

Delgatie Castle

I wanted to spend more time at the castle because this has been the only one where you basically have run of the entire place instead of only a few restored rooms, but Sammy wanted to push on and get to the next distillery.

I can't remember the name of the next place we went - I didn't like their whiskey as much as Glenfiddich's. It was too smokey for me.

On Saturday we slept in (surprise! surprise!). Well, actually I slept in Sammy still got up at what I consider the crack of dawn! We rented a car and drove out to Dunnottar Castle.

(http://www.castles.org/Chatelaine/dunnottar/).

It's one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. The castle ruins... the sea... my photos don't even come close to depicting the beauty of the place. Incredible. I had been there once before with my friend Sandra and I was so happy to be able to share that with Sammy.

Dunnottar Castle (yes this is a photo I took!)

After Sammy and I explored the castle and horsed around a little... 

Dunnottar Castle Self Portrait

we walked on down to the sea to check it out. Sammy took this photo of me which I thought turned out pretty good.

Me on the North Sea

And I took this one of him after he took my hat and struck a pose for me!

The love of my life!

Next Trip...Atlanta? Belgium? France? Stay Tuned!