Monthly Archive for October, 2006

It was a whirlwind week in Scotland for us. We left Toronto on Sunday evening and landed in Glasgow on Monday morning. The flight was uneventful, and I actually managed to sleep a little. The landing was the roughest I’ve ever experienced. From the minute we started decending until we hit the runway the plan was being tossed around like a ragdoll in a washing machine. Surprisingly, none of the passengers applauded once we landed. (This has happened on every flight to Europe I’ve taken!)

Upon arrival in Glasgow we made our way to the car rental desk. Of course, I’d forgotten the rental confirmation in Canada so with the help of a friendly Budget rental agent, we found our reservation at Avis. The car was a 2005 Volkswagon Passat TDI 5-Speed. Pulling out of the airport we were faced with morning rush hour traffic in Glasgow. This sucked so we decided that we should get off the highway and find our own way around. We did, and continued on our way to Kilconquhar. I didn’t bother getting directions from Glasgow to Kilconquhar – I simply looked at where they were in relation to one another and then wrote down the names of the highways that we needed to take, without any consideration for direction, etc.

This worked well for the first hour and a half of the trek. That’s when we took a wrong turn, and then another, and then had to back track. By this point, my back is killing me, and I am really tired, so we stop at a roadside parking lot (they have these all over the place.)

After another hour and a half of driving we arrived at our “castle.” The driveway was lined with big old trees, and the lawns were nicely manicured. As we got closer to the main building we realized that it was not a grand castle, as we had imagined, but rather a grand home. Nonetheless we were still excited to check it out. The next letdown happened when the woman at the reception desk told us that we were in one of the cottages. The cottages look like 1982 sidesplit bungaloes. Not what we had in mind at all.

We went in and were greeted by tacky furniture, stale air and lots of dust and must.

After showering and changing we made our way by car into Edinburgh to meet up with everyone at The Greyfriar’s Bobby Pub. It was Dana’s birthday and we were to surprise her. Sadly Trevor and Dana were early, and some others were a bit late so the surprise aspect was lost.

Tuesday we made our way into town by train and toured Edinburgh Castle with the group. It was interesting, but by the time we finished the tour Leah and I were ready to branch off on our own. We went shopping along Princes Street and had a meal at “Pret A Manger.” It was really good; I hope that Pret comes to Toronto.

Wednesday we decided to check out Glamis Castle and see a distillery, or two. It was raining. Hard. All day. That slowed our progress a bit so by time we arrived at Glamis it was already past noon. We toured the castle, and then had lunch at The Strathmore Arms in Glamis. The food and beer was excellent.

The ticket taker at Glamis gave us some 2 for 1 distillery coupons and gave us directions to Blair Atholl and Dewar’s World Of Whisky. We headed for Dewar’s and arrived just before 4pm. As we approached the desk to ask about a tour I saw a sign that said, “Silent Season.” At the same time the Dewar’s employee behind the desk told Yvan that the Silent Season meant that the distillery was closed for maintenance. She also said that the Blair Atholl distillery was open and that their last tour was at 4:30. Blair Atholl is 12 miles from Dewar’s so I drove like a rally driver and got us there in 18 minutes. Upon entering the distillery we were greeted by a friendly woman who informed us that they are on winter hours and the last tour was at 3pm. We hit the gift shop anyway and a very friendly and helpful Blair Atholl rep named Jeff Power offered us some samples and explained the entire process to us, and taught us the ins and outs of Scotch. We purchased a few bottles and hit the road for Kilconquhar.

As we neared home, the rain ended and the clouds parted revealing the most incredible rainbow. We were able to see it touch down on both ends! After taking a few photos, we realized that the hunger bug was biting all of us so we stopped in at The Gateside Inn in Gateside. Again we were presented with a fantastic menu, and the food did not disappoint. During dinner we chatted with a couple of locals who were sitting at the next table. They shared some local history with us, and told us where to go for the best fish and chips in Scotland: The Ship Inn in Elie. We made a note of this, and put it in our plan for Friday.

After dinner we made our way back to Kilconquhar and called it a night.

We woke early on Thursday – Leah and I went horseback riding around the property. She rode a horse named, “Bob” while I rode “Rosie.” We rode at a walking pace for most of the trek, but did get up to a reasonable trot a couple of times. Leah seemed to get the bounce rhythm much quicker than I did, but once I got it sorted out it was a lot of fun.

When we finished our ride, we raced back to the cottage, packed up our stuff and made our way toward Dalhousie Castle for the wedding. We had allocated 2 hours for travel, but it only took us one and a half, so we had some spare time that we spent having lunch at a pub called The Anvil in BonnyRigg. The first pub that we hit was more than a wee bit sketchy – and didn’t serve food – and the friendly barkeep spoke a version of English I’ve never heard before. I managed to pick up two words out of the 30 or so that he mumbled, and we made our way out and across the street. The food and drink at The Anvil was OK, but nothing special; our first batch of average food on the trip.

We finished lunch, had an extra pint, and then headed for the castle. Dalhousie Castle is a real castle. It’s what I thought our castle would be. We checked in, changed and made our way to the library for a drink with the rest of the wedding party. A piper (the Steward of Dalhousie Castle) arrived, introduced himself and welcomed us to the Castle. He then played a tune on his bagpipes, and led us through the Castle to the chapel for the ceremony.

The bride and groom were led into the chapel by the piper, and a fairly traditional wedding ceremony followed. As soon as the ceremony was finished, we headed out to the patio for champagne and photos. Dinner that evening was in the dungeon – not the actual dungeon, but a room that most people think a dungeon looks like – and it was excellent. The staff at Dalhousie certainly know how to make a group feel special.

Following dinner we retired to the library for more drinks. We sampled some Scotches and then were treated to a haunted tour of the Castle. Although it was a wee bit long for my taste, it was neat to hear the stories and see some of the back passages of the old castle.

It was late when we finally made it to bed, and the scheduled group breakfast the next morning seemed way too early at 9am! We ate with everyone, and then packed up and headed for St. Andrews. The drive took a couple of hours through countryside that we’d seen many times already – it started to feel like a stretch of the 401. The town of St. Andrews is quite lovely with old buildings, and large university, castle ruins, and a little golf course known at “The Old Course.” For the uninitiated, this is the home of golf, and the course is hallowed ground for a golf fanatic like me.

Before leaving St. Andrews we hit the beach and re-enacted a scene from Chariots Of Fire (I’ll post it to YouTube) and dipped our feet in the North Sea. The sun had set on our day, and we set a course for Elie and some fish and chips. We stumbled across the place by chance and enjoyed a fantastic meal before calling it a day.

Saturday we checked out and drove to Glasgow where we bobbed around town for a few hours before hitting our hotel – there is a story to tell about the hotel, but I’ll post it later.

Sunday we flew home. And then went to a taping of The Hour at CBC featuring The Hip. Leah went home for a well deserved rest. I went out with some friends to see Matt Nathanson perform at The El Mocambo.