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I just bought my self a ticket to see the Yankees play the Red Sox on April 16th in Yankee Stadium! I feel like a 10 year old kid with a crush on baseball.
After this I will have been to see games (outside of Seattle that is) at Wrigley Field and Yankee Stadium. Fenway is next.
Photo courtesy of flickr member newyork808
Tuesday, March 20th 2007
Last night we decided to revamp our trip strategy to avoid the rough weather, at least for the short term. Rather than heading back North on the morning of the 20th, we made the decision to set out west from Pitlochry with the intention of over-nighting in the costal town of Oban. After checking the weather to confirm that, despite the warming weather, the road north was still blocked, we set out for the day.
Our route would take us on some smaller highways and country roads across heart of central Scotland, into the Western Highlands. Just as we hit the road and started to get up to speed, a detour presented itself. Without thinking it through or explaining what I was doing, I guided the car into an empty early morning parking lot at the Blair Athol Distillery.
We both knew that this would be a quick visit, just enough time to look around. It wouldn’t be fair to our timeline to spend more than a few minutes here at a distillery which neither of us had much personal connection to, at least not so early in the day. Nearly all of the whisky produced at Blair Athol is bound for Bells brand blended whisky, though they do bottle a few noteworthy single malts as well. The visitor centre is nice with some interesting information on the history of whisky making in Scotland and the local area, but didn’t present anything we didn’t already know. They offer tours all day, but we weren’t in a position to wait for a little over an hour to participate. We chatted with the shopkeeper a bit, took the photo (above), and were on our way.
Within only minutes of leaving Blair Athol, the few remaining clouds had parted leaving us with a gorgeous sunny morning. After an hour or so of driving along and enjoying the turn in the weather and the now visible scenery, we came across the Aberfeldy Distillery, just to the west of the town of Aberfeldy. Now, Aberfeldy isn’t one of our favorite expressions, and like Blair Athol earlier, the vast majority (98% or so) of what they produce here is destined for blends. In this case, it serves as the base malt for Dewars brand blended whisky. We decided that this might prove a good opportunity to witness the other extreme of Scottish whisky business, after having visited the tiny Edradour the previous day.
In stark contrast to the tiny vistors greeting room at Edradour, at Aberfeldy visitors first enter the large and modern “Dewars World of Whisky”. Inside is a large shop, a tasting bar, a museum and, as we found, a 40 seat movie theatre which guests enter to watch a rah-rah go us historical film about the Dewars brand. After looking around a bit with tepid entusiasm before embarking on our tour of the distillery itself. The onsite museum is well thought out, but not terribly interesting to a non Dewars brand fanatic. It did however include a few interesting elements. Most notably in my opinion, is a large circle with a dozen or so different “smell stations”, each of which emit a different odor when activated with a button. As a whisky enthusiast, I enjoyed the opportunity to test my nose by identifying different essential aromas which one expects to find in single malt. They also had a couple of non whisky odors in there which stank to holy hell.
Once we were collected by our tour guide and headed into the operating distillery next door, I was happy to learn that unlike any other distillery we visited in Scotland, Abefeldy does allow (non-flash) photography inside their facility. I never did get a proper explanation from any of the guides we visited with why photography was not (or in this case, was) allowed in the operational buildings. My best explanation has to do with the fact that the air in these buildings actually contains a relatively high percentage of highly flammable alcohol fumes. With so many visitors each year, they don’t want to take any chances of a fire. In any case, I wasn’t going to let this opportunity pass me by, I grabbed a few photos of the operation as best I could considering the low light conditions.
As expected, Aberfeldy is highly automated and is run more like a large scale factory than a small farm distillery like Edradour. The small number of workers man large computer consoles with LCD screens and keyboards rather than manually operating valves and burners. They have proudly embraced the advances that technology and transportation have brought to all aspects of the industry. Like most distilleries in Scotland today, all their barley is malted offsite and trucked in. At Aberfeldy, the casks are even trucked offsite to be matured in huge warehouses near Glasgow immediately after filling. It’s not as quaint and romantic of a view of the industry as one sees at an Edradour or Bruichladdich but when it boils down to it, this is how the vast majority of the Scottish whisky industry operates, and I’m glad to have seen it.
After leaving Aberfeldy we picked up our pace a bit as the road seemed longer than it had before our mid day stops. Another 2 and a half hours of lovely highland driving brought us past Loch Tay and along the river Tay which feeds it. As it was earlier in the morning, the weather was very favorable for a drive through the countryside and that happy we’re in scotland feeling kept a smile on our faces as the miles flew by.
It was mid afternoon by the time we first approached the west coast of Great Britain, and our destination of Oban. As we were unaware of the availability of tours of the Oban distillery, we made a beeline for the heart of the town where it’s located. Fortunately for us, the last tour of the day was just over an hour away which gave us time to walk around town a bit beforehand. The first thing that struck me about Oban after reading about it and seeing photos in the past was how large it actually is. My mental image was of a sleepy little fishing villiage which, my city standards it is, but after spending two days out in the countryside of Scotland it seemed quite large. I knew that the distillery was very centrally located in town, but it was again a bit of a surprise to see it set in such a densely populated space. It’s one of the few distilleries in Scotland where one has to find paid street parking before entering.
Inside, we were treated to a nice tour which actually presented a little more information on the barley malting firing and milling process than we had seen elsewhere. The tour guide was the same woman who we had met first upon entering the visitor’s centre, and she clearly has a passion for the distillery and it’s product. After the tour had completed and the rest of the group had headed out into the gift shop, Mrs. Fall-line and I hung back and had a very nice conversation with her and another employee. In this way, just by starting a dialogue and mentioning that we are not just casual whisky tourists, we were often able to get a little special attention and learn some interesting facts that others didn’t. In this case we were offered a generous taste of the Oban 14yr Distillers Edition which is finished in a Sherry cask for 8 months after maturing. This is something that, due to the limited capacity of the distillery is not exported out of the UK so it was a treat to enjoy a dram with them while we chatted. Of course we brought home a bottle, which I gave to my sister for her Birthday.
As the day wound down, we were happy to be where we were. An enjoyable dinner was had in a local restaurant within walking distance of the B&B we chose to settle down in for the night. The night sky was clear and despite the lights of the town, the sky was bright with stars. We took our time as we walked back to enjoy the surroundings, our bellies full of good food and excellent whisky. It was starting to really feel like vacation.
Pitlochry to Oban:
Oban:
More photos:
http://flickr.com/photos/fall-line/sets/72157600032138777/
Tags: Aberfeldy, Distillery, Oban, Scotland, whisky
Monday, March 19th 2007
After an outstanding gourmet breakfast at our Edinburgh guesthouse, we left the city behind us in the morning and headed north on the A9 freeway. The last remaining bits of uncertainty about driving on the wrong side of the road where fading as we crossed the Forth Road toll bridge. Immediately we started to feel a change in the landscape around us. Rolling hillside pastures rose on the horizon where just a few minutes ago had been city buildings and streets. It was about this time when we really started understand what we where about to do. A feeling of unbridled excitement came over us which intensified with each mile we put behind us. I stopped to check the GPS and the map to make sure we all knew where we were headed. Check. We’re off to Dalwhinnie.
According to the GPS, we were only just over 2 hours drive away from our destination. This realization served to drive home the understanding of how small Scotland really is. With the entire country fitting into a space just under the size of the State of Washington, it’s pretty easy to get just about anywhere from anywhere else.. weather permitting. Within a few minutes of this realization the landscape began to change yet again from lowland rolling hills to what would be come the Cairngorm mountains of the central highlands. The weather that had ben improving in Edinburgh gave way to a cold overcast with traces of snow as the road continued upwards in both latitude and elevation.
With an estimated hour to go before arriving at Dalwhinnie there was no doubt about it; it was still winter in the highlands of Scotland. The snow that had been intermittent became constant. Wind picked up deposited snow from the sides of the roads and the beautiful (we imaged, if we could have seen them) hillsides all around us bringing the visibility down to dangerous distances. This we thought, is what we get for coming to Scotland in March eh? I was beginning to get discouraged when I realized that we were there.
The village of Dalwhinnie lies on a sleepy side road off the A9 at the Drumochter Pass. Just above the village is the famous Dalwhinnie distillery. By elevation it is the highest in all of Scotland and it felt like it. As we pulled into the visitor’s centre parking lot, a young kid was bundled up shoveling snow in a futile attempt to show weary tourists like ourselves where to park the car. Not surprisingly, ours was the only vehicle in the lot when we pulled in.
Inside we found a friendly lady with an strong highland accent, appropriate to our surroundings. From her we discovered that not only was the weather much more severe on the northern slope of the pass, the road was in fact closed along the route we were intending to take later that afternoon. Ok, we’re a day in and we have our fist set back.. no big deal, it’s Scotland in March. At least we can have a nice tour of the Dalwhinnie distillery for our effo…….”sorry” she says, “all of the crew have gone home before the close the rest of the roads an I’m afraid you we can’t offer tours at the moment.” We bought the first of what would be come many whisky tasting glass and took a few photos and headed back South.
As disappointing as being turned away from our first distillery tour was, we actually took it really well. Something about this trip was truly satisfying in the way that even when things didn’t go our way, we were just happy to be there. After a few minutes of consulting our excellent customized printed guide we set sail for Pitlochry, a town which we reluctantly passed by earlier that day in the interest of trying to save time. Later we would come to understand that this about face would be the best decision we made on our trip. As is common when one travels back along a route that had previously been unknown to them, the miles flew by and before we knew it we were heading off of the freeway and towards the sleepy little town. As we exited the freeway the weather cleared and our spirits improved. This would be the last we’d see of a dual carriage-way (freeway) for nearly a week.
Pitlochry itself is a small, picturesque town of a few thousand people. It’s accessibility to Perth and Edinburgh mean that there is an emphasis on tourism in the local economy, but being a snowy weekday in mid March, the town was fairly quiet. As it was still early in the and we were not ready to admit traveling defeat for the day just yet, we drove right on through town and on a little road which lead up into the hillside above. I still don’t know exactly what guided me along that road other than the curiosity of finding out where such a quaint lane lead. Just at about the time I would have stopped the car to figure out where we were going I saw a sign ahead that pointed to the Edradour distillery down a long single track lane through sheep pasture. I’d read about this distillery, the smallest in all of Scotland but hadn’t planned on visiting due to time constraints. Since we were in the area, we made a b-line for their visitor center and headed in.
The friendly and quirky folks behind the bar inside welcomed us with hot tea, biscuits and a small but impressively distinguished selection of single malts from their distillery and all over scotland. When I probed them on the selection I discovered that Edradour is owned by the well known and respected Andrew Sygmington, who is also the founder and owner of the Signatory bottling company. He buys rare and interesting casks from distilleries all over the region to bottle independently. Later that day I would actually purchase a Signatory bottled 1993 Caol Ila from Andrew himself. Meanwhile, we were interested to know more about Edradour and it’s products. While we waited 10 minutes or so for the next tour to commence I sampled their product.
The standard Edradour 10 year is the only expression that can be easily obtained in the United States. It’s actually a very good value in it’s price range, but not terribly exciting. Where we stood however, an entire range of official and one of a kind bottling were available. I went with a 18 year old cask strength which did well to warm me up after a cold Scottish morning.
While on a great (and free) tour of the establishment we saw what equates to an operational artifact of a older time of the scotch whisky industry. They do thing the old fashion way at Edradour. A crew of three people operates the distillery 5 days a week. All the processes are done by hand and the produce a meager 3500 liters (14 barrels) a week. This is a very small operation. Compared to the moderately sized BenRaich distillery which produces over 38,000 liters per week, or Glenfiddich (the largest) which produces over 192,000 liters per week, it seems downright tiny. The stills are large compared to say, the teakettle I use at home, but the are miniscule compared to those we’d see later in the trip. It’s small size allows an attention to detail and tradition that has been lost at many other distilleries in Scotland, and it shows in the final product. Again, not my favorite style of whisky, but very fine none the less.
We were not allowed to photograph the inside of the operating distillery, but I did find someone’s else who did on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/73875442@N00/tags/edradour/
After our visit through the distillery, and a stop at the shop to buy a tasting glass and that bottle of Caol Ila from Andrew, we headed into town for lunch and to find a place to stop for the night. As luck would have it we found a great pub with good food, local beer, and a table next to the wood burning fireplace. After lunch we again consulted the invaluable lodging guide from http://flickr.com/photos/fall-line/sets/72157600032138777/
Tags: Dalwhinnie, Distillery, Edradour, Scotland
Sunday, March 18th 2007
After night filled with jet-lag induced broken sleep patterns and anxiety about getting to Gatwick airport in time the next morning for our Easyjet flight to Edinburgh, we were up and on our way out of the hotel. The morning was bright and crisp and London seemed much more appealing in the fresh morning air. Even so, we were eager to get to the plane and head north to Scotland.
A friendly cab driver who the hotel summoned for us offered to drive us all the way to Gatwick, what amounts to over an hour of driving for £45 ($89). In retrospect this was actually a very good offer, but being as how this was an unlicensed cab, and I’m incredibly stubborn in times like these, I asked him to go ahead and take us to the train station. The ride was short and the fare was reasonable for a London taxi ride, at £9 ($18). We headed down the stairs and immediately hopped on the crowded train bound for Gatwick. The only two seats available we could find were opposite a young couple who had to be persuaded to move their jackets and things so that we might sit with them. Once seated, I remembered how much I love trains, but hate riding in the backwards seats on them.. I was longing for the £45 taxi.
The train ended up costing us £29 for the two of us so after saving a whopping £7, and at least half an hour over the taxi, we were in Gatwick… with two hours to spare before we could check in for our flight. Still, spirits were high as it was now only a matter of hours before we arrived in Scotland. I was getting downright giddy.. or I would have been had I have been able to stay awake.
Easyjet operates a budget airline service in western Europe that can best be equated to the US carriers Southwest or Jetblue. All things considered, they do a good service. Our flights to and from Edinburgh were each under £15 ($30) per person before taxes, and on each occasion we were on time and our luggage arrived safely. You have to deal with the hassles you’d expect from a budget airline, but at a 50% money and 70% time savings over the train, we were happy.
As we approached Scotland from the south, we were informed by the pilot that we may expect a bit of snow and ice when arriving. This of course was discouraging as the plan had us hopping in a rental car and taking off for the mountains the next day. Through the broken clouds we could see sunny pastures and snow covered hillsides of the lowlands from above. Descending into Edinburgh brought views of the city and surrounding areas. It looked cold, but very pleasant. We weren’t even on the ground, but I could already begin to see the Scotland of countless books and films I’ve seen rising up to meet me as the plane dropped closer to the runway.
Our hopes for good weather were briefly dashed when the plane’s doors opened and we descended the stairway onto the tarmac before heading into the terminal. As the pilot suggested, we were met by snow and wind that chilled our climate controlled bodies immediately. By this point, we really didn’t care about the weather. We were on the ground in Scotland, and that was all we cared about. A big smile came over me as we walked into the terminal to claim our bags. For the rest of the time we were there, that feeling never really left.
From the airport we headed to pickup our rental car which was waiting for us nearby. To our delight the snow had stopped and the sun was peaking through the clouds when we were presented with the keys to a brand new Vauxhall Astra with 8 miles on the clock. Sure it’s a GM brand, but it’s designed, and built in the UK so we were fine with it. At least it wasn’t a Ford. The first few minutes of driving on the left were, as expected, a little interesting. It was initiation by fire though as our first route took us deep through the heart of Edinburgh, Scotland’s capital and second largest city.
After a few minutes of gripping the wheel pretty tightly, I grew more comfortable with the surroundings, and was able to just drive. There was a little remaining confusion on the meaning of all of the street markings, traffic signals and roundabout protocol. Fortunately, I was able to observe enough of the other drivers behavior that by the time we arrived in the central city, I didn’t have to learn anything the hard way.
Edinburgh is an absolutely beautiful city that we were amazed by at every turn. I really feel like every american city dweller should go visit an old european city from time to time so that they might remember how much more there is to the world, and it’s history. The historical significance of this town, combined with it’s picturesque streets and quaint buildings made for a very enjoyable afternoon of walking.
We visited a selection of restaurants, bars and shops. Mostly we just walked and enjoyed the atmosphere. It was very cold with a bitter wind and as usual, I was stubbornly underdressed for the weather. It didn’t matter though, we were loving every minute of it. We stayed out on the town for as long as we possibly could muster while still in a highly jet-lagged condition. I think we made it to 7 o’clock before retiring to our B&B for some rest. The city was very welcoming and we were determined to spend some more time here on the way back through. Meanwhile, I was eager to get out into the open spaces the next morning.
Photos of Edinburgh on the 18th
More photos:
http://flickr.com/photos/fall-line/sets/72157600032138777/
We stayed up most of the night before leaving for the airport on Friday morning in an attempt to get ourselves adjusted to GMT before even leaving Seattle. It’s unclear if it helped the cause, made things worse, or somewhere in between. What is clear is that our trip started off on a negative note.
After arriving at the airport nearly three hours before our domestic flight to San Francisco, we encountered our first setback while trying to check in. It seems that when I bought the tickets I had used our full names for the travel documents. This of course would be correct except for the fact that Mrs. fall-line’s passport is still under he maiden name, and consequently did not match the name on the tickets. This is why you don’t by plane tickets at 11pm online in haste without fully thinking things through, I remind myself now. Of course this problem was my fault at the core, but United really fell all over-themselves to handle it in the worst possible fashion.
Nearly and hour went by and we were still watching a very unhappy and unfriendly lady in United Airlines customer service half fix our problem, and half throw a tantrum about fixing our problem, we got what we needed and headed to the plane. I really thought we were going to have to give this lady a juice box and a blankie to get her to help us before we missed the flight. We made it with 5 minutes to spare. (-3 to United.. this is a trend that will continue)
Once onboard, the travel from Seattle to London via San Francisco was fairly uneventful, thankfully. We even received some nice service from the flight crew of the SFO -> LHR leg. (+1 to United)
We arrived in London at a few minutes to 7 in the morning on Sunday, the city was quiet and peaceful. After weighing our options for travel from Heathrow to the city, we hopped on a coach which took us to within a couple of miles of the hotel for only £4 ($9) each. This hour long ride gave us a good opportunity to sit back and observe the city in a way I haven’t seen it before. 15 hours after leaving Seattle, we were exhausted from our traveling but excited to be on the ground in the UK.
Upon locating the hotel and dropping our luggage for the day, we headed out to see the city with the little time we had. We walked along the Thames, saw the sights and visited a few of the cities hot-spots during the daylight hours. I was particularly impressed by Westminster Abbey after experiencing the great multitude of British and world history quite literally interred within.
For the rest of the day and evening, we tried to keep ourselves awake by walking…and walking… and (as Mrs. fall-line will remind me with a scowl)… walking some more. Our shoes and our dress were not appropriate for a 4 mile night time walk through London (in March), but in retrospect I’m glad to have had the experiences we did that evening. London is incredibly expensive (especially with the weak dollar we have at the moment), the people aren’t terribly friendly, and it’s noisy and dirty. Pretty much what you would expect from a global population center. We were eager to get on the plane the next day to Edinburgh.
London on Sunday, March 18th 2007.
More photos:
http://flickr.com/photos/fall-line/sets/72157600032138777/
Scotland, Travel
After an unfortunate overnight delay in Chicago on the way home from London, we are home and rested after the trip. Scotland was amazing. We enjoyed every minute of our journey around countryside and all of the experiences we had.
In the coming days I will be making individual posts creating an ‘ex post facto’ daily travel journal.
Meanwhile, photos are here:
http://flickr.com/photos/fall-line/sets/72157600032138777/
Most of these photos have been placed on a map as well:
http://flickr.com/photos/fall-line/sets/72157600032138777/map/
After one week of successfully ignoring the internet, we’re making contact from the east coast of the Isle of Skye, Scotland.
It’s been beautiful here, when the weather has permited. Even when it hasn’t the snow and rain haven’t been too much trouble. We’re off to Loch Ness this afternoon before making our way back south to Edinburgh.
Many photos and details to come upon our return.
I’ve been having a lot of fun playing around with Google Earth while planning possible options for our upcoming road-trip around Scotland. As I’ve mentioned before, it’s important for me that we leave our options open for spontaneity, but there’s nothing wrong with a basic plan… right?
We’ll have 5 days to cover a lot of ground. Each region and town that we encounter will provide a nearly infinite number of opportunities for side trips and exploration. In most cases, we’ll have time to partake in these options as time permits.. There are a few points of interest that I absolutely must see however, so there will be a few long stretches of driving to be had.
A few Highlights:
Here’s the proposed route.. hopefully it’ll change as we go along.
Tags: distillery, Google Earth, Scotland