Scotland!

Last week, we took a week off to go up to Scotland. It was Mike's 30th birthday on the Tuesday so it was a good excuse to get everyone together to catch up. From London, we drove up to our cottage which was very close to Tomintoul (pronounced Tom-in-toul) which is the highest village in the highlands - it's the first to get snow. We stayed in a little cottage in the middle of nowhere which was great and there was a hairy cow farm just down the road!

Coming from London, we were all astonished at how generally _nice_ everyone was. We're so used to getting bashed into on the tube that it comes as a bit of a shock these days! The drive up was about 12 hours and over the weekend we managed 1900 miles, so we certainly made the most of it.

On Sunday, we all jumped in the car and drove to the Isle of Skye. It was about a 4 hour trip, but we broke it up by dropping in on Nessie at Loch Ness. They have a great gift shop there which Angie loved, and we learned that it's the largest inland body of water in Great Britain. Just down the road we stopped in at Urqhart Castle which is on the bank of the loch and took a few photos, as you can see. Further along are some of the mountainous regions we went through - it's very dramatic landscape! The distillery tour was OK, but we went on a better one later on...

Monday we decided to go and see the Simpsons movie. Of course, because we were in the middle of nowhere (and even the possibility of withdrawing cash was difficult, let alone mobile phone reception was out of the question) we had to take a trip to the nearest centre - Aberdeen. We got VERY lost co-ordinating multiple cars but once we were all together it was a relaxing day to see a funny movie.

While most of us were in the cinema, Clair was out buying decorations for....

Tuesday - Mike's Birthday! We started the day early and headed to somewhere really close for a change! Just around the road for clay pigeon shooting... We had to shoot in pairs because there were only two shotguns among 4 boys. Alex set an early pace but we all ended up remarkably even, with Al just pipping us at the post. Because we ended up with a spare box of shells, the girls had a go! Angie and Clair both had a go and while Angie did not manage to hit the bird, Clair scored a point. Once again, the people we SO NICE! Afterwards (not before!) we went back to Tomintoul for a pub lunch (which included some haggis) and the boys settled in for quite a few pints while the ladies went back to the house to decorate! When they came back 5 hours later, we had a "civilised" dinner at the local restaurant(which was amazing food at very reasonable prices), and only mildly made ourselves look silly. After we returned home there was the surprise decorations and cake from the girls, but we were all so full we crashed out pretty early - it was a big day.

Wednesday was a split day, with the girls heading off to see Kildrummy Castle ruins and Lodge. Angie and Clair were so excited when they came back. They had afternoon tea at the lodge on Wedgewood china in the gardens overlooking the ruins - apparently it was just like Monarch of the Glen! I would have like to have seen it too, but we were off to Abelour distillery for a whisky tour and "guided tasting." On the way we made an impromptu stop at Glenfarclas, which is the largest independent distillery. Once we had the extended tour of Abelour, which included tasting and smelling all the stages of the brewing and distilling process, we went and had 6 (5 drinkable) drams of whisky. Afterwards, Mike liked the single cask ones so much he bottled one of each (bourbon and sherry casks) of his own.

On Thursday, Al and Lea had to go and do their own thing with some friends who were on holiday too, so Angie and Clair went to a village near Balmoral and found a lovely bakery that had nice cakes and was cheap too! They were the official bakery to Balmoral. Gregg, Mike and I went to play 9 holes of golf. Mike plays frequently, Gregg sometimes, and I prefer to think I intimidate the ball around the course with the ferocity of my near misses. We had plans for fishing that afternoon, but there is an open niche in Scotland for rod hire, which meant we couldn't go. Angie and Clair were very disappointed as they were looking forward to wearing the galoshes. In the end we went out to dinner again for a much more sober event but it was very nice to end on a quiet dinner together.

Friday morning saw Alex and Lea, and Mike and Clair leaving. That just left Gregg, Angie and I in the flat. We ended up having a quiet, relaxing day. We had a short trip back to Loch Ness to do the tourist thing (we did the abominable tour at the visitor centre) and had some lunch before heading back to watch TV and have naps!

Saturday morning was the return of summer to England, with a 30 degree day, which we celebrated by spending 12 hours in the car. Fortunately, Sunday was the same so we used the crappy 50p badminton set in the park and enjoyed the day!

Photos