Day One - Glenkinchie, Gullane and North Berwick

Slept in today.....and slept well.  Jeff, Alan and I headed off to the Glenkinchie Distillery for a tour and some tasting.  Glenkinchie is the southern most distillery in Scotland and they make a sweeter, non-peated (not smokey) whisky....light, fruity, and very tasty.

We saw the old malt room, the grist mill, the washbacks, the copper stills, the spirit safe and the warehouse (where there were about 4,500 barrels.  At there off-site warehouse there are 4,000,000 barrels!)...then we moved on to the main attraction....the tasting room!  There we tasted two whiskies....their 12 year old and their Distillery Only Edition, which is aged for 12 years in American Oak Bourbon barrels, then aged for a further 4 + years in Sherry casks. Both were incredibly delicious!

After tasting, we were off....drove through Haddington on our way to Gullane for lunch with the ladies at The Old Club House where I had a luch of Haggis, Neeps and Tatties (sorry, no photo of lunch).  It was tasty (even though I know what haggis is....)

The Girls and the pub that we were at on this beautiful day

The Boys

Of course, I had to have a pint with lunch....so I opted for a Timothy Talyor.....mmmmmm.

After lunch, Alan Jette headed home, while we ventured off to North Berwick to see Tantallon Castle ruins.  A short drive and a long walk later we were there.

The walk up to the castle....

I was hoping to find this....but I couldn't. I guess I'll have to wait until tonight for another pint.

Bass Rock....it's white because....well, that's all bird droppings.

That's all I'm going to say about that!

My lovely bride of 25  years!!

I'd love to write more and tell about our dinner, but it's 1:40AM right now and we've got a full day ahead of us tomorrow. TTFN.

Leaving....on a jet plane

So....Gin, Annette, Jeff and I began our trip to SCOTLAND by hanging out at an IRISH pub in the airport.....

Our flight on Thursday night was great....on time, smooth flying....but hotter than heck sitting on the plane waiting to leave.  I was VERY glad to get into the air so the plane could finally cool down.  Flew to Amsterdam without any issues and landed around 1:30PM.  Layover was about 2 hours....grabbed a quick bite and a coffee - the three others drank beer - at a cafe.  We COULD have sat in Murphy's....another Irish pub, but thought it best to NOT do so.  Flight to Edinburgh was an hour plus....landed at 3:30PM.  Over cast and raining a bit, but nice to be on the ground.

It was a quick trip to the Dickson's home....Alan and Jette, where we were shown our room for the next few days/weeks.  A BEAUTIFUL home (I'll post photos later)....sat out in the conservatory and had a few pints of Belhaven's Best, then we were off to dinner at the club - the Wild Burgess of Edinburgh Golfing Society.  Jeff and I walked, while the others drove up there.  We ate in the bar and I had a Bacon and Black Pudding Pannin with chips.  VERY tasty....oh, and another pint of Belhaven's Best.  :)

After our walk home, we had a sat and planned our next two days, but didn't really come up with a plan.  That could have been due to the cocktails we had back at home!  We'll see what tomorrow brings after a good night's sleep....

Getting Ready....

Holy Hannah....it's 3:15 and I'm still not fully packed yet!  What the heck is my problem with this trip??  MAYBE it's the fact that we've NEVER planned or been on a trip that's going to last this long.  Leaving today and not coming back for THREE WEEKS.  YaWOO!!  I can't wait to get there.

Gotta run and pack, rack some beer and get ready to leave.  Toodles.