Got up early to sunshine and cool temps.
We are so close to the Tattoo that we have
heard the fireworks at 11PM every night.
This has been a wonderful trip and our location has made us familiar
with areas of Edinburgh we were not familiar with.
But we are ready to leave the city noise
behind us.
Same breakfast buffet but
they have added a strange sausage that is dry and like saw dust.
Obviously we didn’t eat it.
On the bus.
The driver allows us to put extra luggage in the hold as long as we
handle it ourselves which really helps.
We drive north east out of Edinburgh over the Forth Bridge.
We parallel the Firth of Forth train bridge
which is still an awesome sight, constructed in the Victorian age.
A fellow passenger tells us that her great
grandfather worked on the bridge.
We
enter the Kingdom of Fife of ancient history and ancestry.
We drive out of the sun and into the black
clouds.
The countryside is one field
after another of potatoes, turnips and barley.
The are hills building all around
Had no idea of the impact of agriculture in this area.
Farms are large and have big silos to hold
grain.
Lots of cows and sheep. We enter
St Andrews under clouds.
The bus is only
stopping here for an hour and is parked outside the town center.
We walk along the historic golf course and
enter the town.
We find the West Port,
the remnants of the medieval wall that surrounded the city.
It begins to rain.
We only have a short time to walk to the town
center. Pat drops quickly into 2 of the numerous charity shops, no luck. It’s
getting miserable with heavy drizzle and wind.
We at least get to see the street of Kathleen and John’s house where we
stayed some years back on the Lade Braes.
The neighborhood pub is still there.
We have to walk quickly back for this short stop.
Not only is this the center for golf but it
has a long history including the University of St. Andrews.
This is Prince Williams School and where he
met Kate.
We pass the coffee shop where
they had their early dates.
We drive by
Abbey ruins which we have viewed in the past.
We pass the restaurant we dined at in the past with a glass deck over
the sea.
The golf courses are busy and
the rain doesn’t stop it at all.
There
are wind surfers on the water.
This is
the beach where Chariots of Fire was filmed.
We drive into sun and clouds through rising hills and more farming.
We pass through Dundee over the wide Tay
River.
Annie Lennox is from here so they
play some of her music.
There is a large
drilling rig sitting in the Tay, non-operational.
We enter a deep and step valley of ferns and
hardwood trees on a very narrow road. We arrive at Glamis Castle, the royal
home of Queen Mum, the Bowes-Lyons.
It’s
a beautiful grounds with shaggy red highland cattle grazing.
There are 5 calves and a large bull among the
cows. They are interesting beasts with big horns, but they are very ornery as well.
We walk the grounds and see huge old trees of
various species all around.
The copper
beaches are particularly spectacular.
We
take the tour of this old castle. It is said to be haunted and we are told
stories supporting it. This is where Shakespeare wrote MacBeth (the play that
shall not be named).
It has passage ways
and secret doors and lots of stone walls. The rooms that are refined with
furnishing and draperies are spectacular.
We have a brief meal in the restaurant.
They have adapted the kitchen into a dining room. The huge stoves and
ovens and long line of various sizes of copper pots are intact.
The food is delicious; Scottish smoked salmon
sandwich and Cullen Skink ( smoked haddock, potatoes and leeks in a cream base.
The outside of the castle looks like a
fairytale with turrets and openings for weaponry.
Taking a back road to Pitlochry. The road is so narrow we have no idea how
this huge bus is making it past other vehicles including trucks. It also twists and turns with blind
corners. We are sometimes in a tunnel of
hedgerows and stone walls. When we go
through villages the front doors of the houses open with one step and narrow
sidewalk to the street. We joke we could
reach out the window and take fruit right out of the sidewalk stands. We are officially in the highlands as we entry
Pitlochry. The mountains are rising
around us and the quaint town is the home to heather gemstones and Bell’s
distillery. This town is one of the
stepping off points for ‘walkers’ to begin their treks and overnight in
hotels. Our hotel is old and sits on the
high street, Fishers. There’s one lift
for the whole hotel and we must use old style room keys. We walk around the town with many cute shops
and lots of flowers. The Old Mill hotel is off the main street with a working
wooden mill wheel operating off a little burn (creek). We try out a couple Scottish ales at the Auld
Smitty and McKay’s. There must be an air base nearby, supersonic jets are
flying low back and forth. Back to hotel
for an included dinner. We have haggis with Drambuie sauce, steak and ale pie,
veg and mash, finished with rhubarb crumble.
The hotel is very large and the large group dining areas are comfortable
and nicely decorated. There are multiple
tours coming and going along with us.
Lots of chat with fellow travelers, we are getting to know each other
better. The Winnipeg couple had to drop
out due to illness and we hope they can meet up with us. Our room is down a long very narrow hallway. A small but adequate room with a double bed
and ensuite with windows overlooking the courtyard and rising hills off the
main street. Should be much quieter.
Heading to Inverness tomorrow, moving deeper into the
highlands and making our way to Inverness, the capital of the highlands and
largest city north of Aberdeen.
Nighty Night.
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