Scottish trip 1

Day 1

We went to Falkland, Scotland on our first day. It's a charming and picturesque village with the Falkland Palace right in the town. Parts of the castle is in ruins, but a lot is in good condition. It's difficult to get a good photo because of trees, hedges, fences etc., but well worth walking around trying. The interior is worth paying to go in and see the various decorated rooms. If your hungry while your there, try Kind Kyttock's Tearoom or The Hayloft Tearoom, their both nice to get a small meal like Welsh Rarebit or a Toasty and the Cloothie Dumpling is excellent. The town also had some great little boutique stores. From Falkland we drove to Kirkcaldy and stopped at the Ravenscraig Castle, this castle is in total ruins, but well worth walking thru and numerous chances for photo opportunities. After several hours of taking photos we drove to Easter Aberdour and visited the Aberdour Castle, which parts of this castle date from the 1200's. When we finished photographing this castle we headed back to our room in Whitburn and we freshened up and than walked in town to get a fish supper.

Day 2

Today we drove from Whitburn to the little town of Culross and walked thru the town and photographed the Culross Abbey and the palace, which was very hard to get a good shot because it was closed, so you had to shoot over the wall. The town in general has some interesting small homes to photograph. We left Culross and drove to Dumfermline where we photographed the palace and abbey. Than we walked thru the town to look for someplace to eat lunch, but we gave up as it was too Americanized, every place was selling nachos, buffalo wings and burgers. We are more interested in eating traditional food when we travel, the other stuff we can get at home, so we hit the road. From there we drove to Inverkeifing and stopped at Burgh Arms. I got fish and chips and Sandy got scampi, which is different than American scampi. In this restaurant their scampi was chopped up fish in a batter and deep fried, kind of like fish balls or fritters. After lunch we headed for Queensferry, but i kind of made a wrong turn and ended up in Edinburgh and took an unplanned tour until i could get turned around. Queensferry is a quaint little town right on the Firth of Forth with a great view of the Forth Bridge. When we had completed all of our photo opportunities we continued on to E. Linlithgow to see The House of the Binns, but they were closed, so we only got to take a few photos from the outside. It was getting late, but we took a chance and drove to the Linlithgow Palace and Abbey, but they were also closed for the day. We took a few shots from the outside and than headed back to the apartment.

Day 3
We got a late start today,because we decided to have a leisurely breakfast. Our destination today is Moffit, a lovely little town with shops, restaurants and a gourmet cheese store. By the time we got to Moffit, it was almost 2:00, which is when lunch stops, so we ran right away to the Annadale Arms Hotel and into their restaurant. They hesitated for a minute as to whether or not we could get lunch and finally seated us, but the couple that came in a minute after us were were told lunch was over and that they were closed. They are very strict about the eating times in Scotland, more than once because we're someplace shooting photographs, we've had to grab a snack someplace to tide us over for dinner. For our lunch Sandy got a pea soup as her starter ( always good, but too ordinary for me ), i got Stilton cheese and bacon fritters with a Cumberland sauce. Sandy's entree was a beef and ale pie with chips, my choice was a cottage pie ( venison, pheasant, pigeon and hare ). All of the food was excellent, we've eaten here before and the food has always been better than just good. After lunch we walked thru the stores and bought a bunch of stuff and finally stopped because it was not that long before it would be getting dark and the road signs are hard to see in the dark in Scotland, specialty in the small rural areas, they don't have a lot of lights like in America. For dinner tonight we just walked a couple of blocks into the town and got fish and chips, which is always great for me. I could eat that everyday of my life, which would considerably shorten my life, because of fried food. Luckily for me i don't think the fish and chips taste as good here in America, so my cholesterol is normal.
Day 4
Today is a day off from traveling, it's a day of taking Sandy's Mom to the Bathgate flea market. After the market we went to lunch and had a really bad meal at a bad restaurant. Fortunately i don't remember the name.
Day 5
Today the weather was pretty nasty and i decided that i didn't think it was wise to be driving, so we decided to catch the bus into Edinburgh ( only an hour drive ). We walked Princes Street and looked in a lot of shops and walked into some, this street is quite expensive. Along the way we found a nice place to eat at, Haddrian's Bistro. Sandy and I both got langastino bisque for our starter. Sandy's main course was lamb shanks with parsnips and a whiskey sauce. I got haggis with neeps and tatties. After the food, since we're not driving, but on the bus, we got drinks to end the meal. Sandy got Gayva and i got Drambuie. Our next stop was the Royal Mile, this street runs from the Edinburgh Castle at the top of the street to Holyrood at the bottom near Arthur's seat. From one end of the street to the other you will find shops, restaurants, pubs, historical buildings, bakeries etc. Finally we had to make a mad dash for the bus stop, we just made the last one, but there's always the railroad to Bathgate and than the bus or taxi from there to her Mom's house.
Day 6
On the road early today, leaving Mom's house to head for Aviemore. We'll be staying overnight and attending a trade show, for me to buy products for my gift store. We arrived and checked in at the Aviemore Inn and than walked up the street to the Hilton Inn to eat lunch at the Hilton Bistro. We both got the cream of vegetable soup, with garlic bread. After lunch we spent the rest of the day walking thru the trade show buying stuff for my store. After that we went back to the hotel to freshen up and than walked to Hilton Inn bar for happy hour. We stayed for a couple of drinks , than walked about a block or so to the Cairngorm restaurant. The Cairngorm i s a very nice casual restaurant that serves excellent food and they also have a nice bar area. For dinner my wife got grilled pears with stilton cheese and a port wine sauce, i got a game terrine with toast and salsa. The main course for my wife was local broiled salmon with a cream sauce and i got venison and pheasant medallions with a raspberry sauce and wild berries. For our end of the meal beverage we got hot Scottish tea with Glenmorangie scotch. We took a leisurely stroll thru the town and than called it a night.
Day 7
We got up early and walked a block or so into town and went to the bakery and bought a cheese scone and a sausage roll and a cup of tea of course, walked back to the room and split everything. After checking out we started toward Kingussie and cut off the main road to photograph the Ruthvens Barracks, which are in ruins, but still impressive. After getting our fill of photos, we got on the road again heading toward Fort William. Once there we walked thru the stores and along the water taking more photos, until we wanted lunch. We decided on Crannog restaurant, it was a boat docked at the waters edge ( permanently ). We decided to order several things and split them. We got Cullin Skink ( a haddock soup named for the town of Cullin ), a trio of smoked salmon ( one was oak smoked, one was gravlox and one was regular smoke, what ever that is ) and also a cheese board with 4 kinds of cheese and gooseberries. After lunch we stayed in the area until late afternoon, than headed for the coastal town of Oban. We didn't have reservations and couldn't get a room in town, so we had to go back out to the edge of town and got a room at the King Knolls. It was a nice place, a little small, which is not unusual for Scottish accommodations, because their all quite old, but they had a rule that you had to leave your room key with them when you went out, which i didn't like. I don't like the idea of people having access to my stuff, because the keys are all hanging in a place were anyone can grab them, so i always sort of left when they weren't looking. But of course they kept saying something to me when i got back ( sorry i forgot ). It was about a 4 to 5 block walk to town, so we walked in and checked everything out and we saw a really neat place in the distance, so we walked down and it turned out to be a pub, so we decided to stop in for a drink. There were two doors and Sandy was wondering, which one should we go in, i told her that i think they both go to the same place. When we got in, the bar was only half the size and she was right they didn't go to the same place. We got a seat and i was about to go up and order and i noticed the bartender walk thru an opening in the wall and disappear, so i walked down to that spot and waited for him to come thru, but i could see another whole bar with people on the other side. This seemed a little strange to me, so i asked, and he told me this side was for Protestants and the other side for Catholics. Somewhat amazed, i walked back to my table with my drinks and told my wife and we both agreed that we would finish our drink and go, that kind of prejudice is unacceptable to us. W e walked around some more and found another bar and we could see that it was just one big place for everybody, so we went in and got another drink. We talked to the bartender about that and he said that on the west side of Scotland  they still had a lot of places that kept separate sections. After we finished our drink, we walked to the fish shop and got fish and chips to go ( Sandy got haddock and i got cod ). We took our food and walked down to the dock area and sat on a bench and ate our food while battling off seagulls, who apparently like fish and chips as much as i do. We walked back to our room and called it a night.
Day 8
When we got up and got ready, we walked in town to the Nevis Bakery and got a Scotch pancake ( small compared to American, but thicker and more cake like ), which a lot people eat cold with either a little butter, clotted cream or jam or both and we also got breakfast pie ( quiche ) and we split that for our breakfast. After checking out of the hotel we drove north to the Dunstaffnage Castle and photographed the exterior which is mostly in ruins and also photographed the boats docked at the water near the castle. After that we headed down a long narrow road to the Ardchattan Priory and took a few photos, than headed to Barcaldine Castle on a road that was even more narrow. From there we drove to Stalker Castle, it's on an island out in the harbor, looking very mysterious and we were lucky enough to have sheep in the foreground of the pasture where we were taking the photos. By this time it was almost lunch, so we drove back toward Oban and stopped at a place called the Frog restaurant, hotel and marina, it actually looked out over the harbor to the Dunstaffnage Castle. For our lunch Sandy got char grilled trout with chips and i got beef stew with puff pastry and it came with a got sized portion of grilled vegetables. After our lunch we drove back into Oban and walked to the gourmet food store and got some Orkney ice cream ( this is the best ice cream that either one of us ever had ). When we finished our ice cream we walked back to the gourmet store and bought some stuff to put in the cooler to take back to Mom's for our dinner. We got some Guinness and stilton pate, several kinds of cheese, one was Orkney cheddar and the the other was lochlober ( or something like that ), some crusty bread and some crackers. We left later than i wanted because it wasn't too long before the light would be going down and we have a 4 hour drive thru secluded woods and mountain roads that are narrow. As fate would have it, it started raining and i mean heavy. I had a hard time seeing, but luckily Sandy is an excellent navigator. We got in late, i was exhausted and tense from the drive, we got a got shot of Glenmorangie and than broke out the pate, cheese and tried to unwind.
Day 9
Today we're heading to the east side of Scotland. We drove thru Paddington, but didn't stop and continued to Aberlady, were we stopped to take photos of the church. From there we headed to Dirleton to see the Dirleton castle, we walked around the castle and inside taking a lot of photos of the ruins. After we had explored every angle, we got back in the car and headed to Tantallon to photograph their castle, but unfortunately there were scaffolds around the castle doing restorations, so we headed for North Berwick. After parking the car we walked to the harbor and took a few photos, than decided to walk into town and look for a place to eat lunch. We stopped at a nice little place called the Grange, the interior was decorated and very inviting. Our appetizers we decided to split, we ordered a soup, celery and Stilton and a mackeral salad. The soup was just ok, but the salad was very good. The entrees were a venison stew for Sandy and for me salmon with a sweet and sour sauce, both were good. After lunch we continued exploring North Berwick for more photo opportunities, than checked out a few of the stores. We headed back to the house a bit early, because were taking Mom to dinner tonight. We decided on Croft Mollich Lodge, it's a short distance from the house and it's also a very nice restaurant. I ordered garlic bread, which i shared with Mom ans Sandy ordered a pear and prawn salad. For the main courses, Mom got a fillet Mignon with a baked potato, Sandy ordered lamb chops, which came with a very rich sauce and a baked potato and i ordered the steak Orkney, a rib eye with a creamy mushroom and Orkney cheese. Everything was very good. After dinner we headed back to the house for a night cap.