Above is our guide Isabel who walked us around the plant. We were shown the malted barley (even were allowed to taste it), the huge tanks for the water (very special spring water...this being one of the main contributors to each distilleries whiskey's distinctive taste) and the giant copper stills...ending up in the sampling room tasting their fine product (and being given a lesson on "how to drink single malt whiskey). I was totally hooked and bought a bottle (not the last) of their 15 year old here at the source...wonderful stuff!

Back out onto the road...below is the obligatory "road shot" just to give you a feeling for highway travel in Scotland. The roads were clear for most of our journey but here we still had snow on the hills (although less and less of it as we continued south). Surprising to me was the relative lack of trees, especially of any size in Scotland. We are from Northern California you know...used to mighty redwoods and such.

Eventually we arrived at our destination of Pitlochry. We had decided to "wing it" during this part of the trip and had made no reservations for lodging in advance, something that would come back to bite us later on but in this instance worked out quite nicely. We had heard that Pitlochry was a lovely place but can be quite a bustling, tourist town in mid-summer. Things weren't quite opened up for the season yet and we pretty much had the run of the place. After a bit of searching we stopped off at a likely looking B & B, "The Well House" (picture below) and found it to be a delight! Charming owners, charming rooms, charming location, great price...highly recommended! It now being late in the day, after settling into our rooms we walked the few blocks down to the town's high street scavenging for food. Most of the restaurants were still closed for the season but we found ourselves some yummy Indian food (love that Indian food even though Becky usually has to order for me because I don't know what anything is). Back to the B & B for much appreciated showers (hadn't had an actual shower in 3 days...just wash ups) and threw ourselves, exhausted into our comfy beds and succumbed to the arms of Morpheus.

Thursday, March 8

The next morning found us enjoying yet another wonderful FSB. Daniel sampled the "kippers" while Becky and Awanna tried the Scottish oatmeal (a wee bit salty to our American tastes). We drove to a local "car park" (see picture below of Awanna fumbling with her stuff next to our rental car) and took a morning walk to aid in our digestion and to see a bit of the local landscape during the daylight.

The foot and mouth epidemic had claimed most of the walking paths. We did find open paths along the River Tummel which bisects Pitlochry and were able to view (and use) the lovely suspension bridge to get across, walked up the far bank for a mile or so then back across via a dam (picture below).

We found ourselves deposited back near the center of town (that's Daniel crossing Pitlochry's main street) so we took the opportunity to do a bit of shopping...what wonderful deals on woolen products here! Daniel found himself an oilcloth hat (the skies were still drizzling), the ladies bought woolen scarves and I managed to get ridiculed (in a nice way) by the cute young, Scottish shopgirls in the kilt store for my reluctance to try one on and show my legs...they even went so far as to taunt me with a "don't be such a coot!" At the local mercantile we encountered a product unknown to us here in the U.S..."tablet." It's a homemade, then sold to local stores, candy made of butter, sugar, milk and whatever "secret ingredients" the individual maker deems necessary. A bit sweet for my taste but interesting...I find I rather like these relaxed health codes.

Back at the B & B we stuffed all our things into the back of the car as best we could, checked out and said good bye to the owners (picture below is of Daniel and I "chillin'" in the main room). Daniel pointed our silver Fiat back out onto the highway and we headed off south towards the Scotish/English border.