Monday morning was a typical working day for Vicki, John and family. John's plan was to get away at 7:30 and take the kids to school and he would have achieved it if the kids had found all their sporting gear in time. Suzy and I left at 8am when Vicki left for work.
The Met Office web site said that the temperature was only 8C and so I decided to wear the new heavy coat that I'd bought a few days ago. At our first stop, it became obvious that even this heavily padded coat wasn't going to be enough to keep me warm and so I put on a jumper to wear under the coat.
We decided not to go through Aberdeen so as to avoid the peak hour traffic. Instead, we took a rural route to our first stop at Huntley to visit Huntley Castle. We arrived soon after the castle opened for visitors at 9:30am.
It started to rain when we reached the castle and so it was a bonus that much of this castle was undercover. Although it is a ruin, it is well maintained and partly restored. This castle had two spiral stone staircases and so it reminded us of other places we had visited in recent days.
However, unlike most previous sites, this castle wasn't overlooking the sea or on a hilltop. Instead, it was located close to the town at the end of long driveway lined with beautiful trees.
The next stop was the Glenfiddich distillery near Dufftown. It was one of the sites listed in a brochure that we picked up at Huntley Castle about the Malt Whisky Trail. This site appealed to us because it offered a free tour of the distillery.
We arrived in time for a tour that started at 12 noon. The tour, which lasted 45 minutes, started with a film about the history of Glenfiddich and then took us through each stage of the production. We stood next to the vats etc used to produce the whiskies. At the end of the tour, they gave each of us a sample drink of their whisky. It was a very impressive tour.
After the tour, we had lunch in their cafe. The atmosphere in the cafe was also impressive. It was a spacious cafe in one of the old stone buildings with great decor, nice food, nice coffee and great whisky.
Most tourist locations have a shop where you can buy products and memorabilia. The Glenfiddich shop was probably the most impressive one we had seen.
Overall, the Glenfiddich site was very impressive. They've done a first-class marketing job that matches the excellent reputation that their whiskies enjoy.
The next stop was at Elgin. Suzy spotted a cashmere visitors centre near the ruins of the Elgin Cathedral. She visited the cashmere shop and bought another cashmere cardigan while I went to the old cathedral to take photos.
Initially we had planned to visit another distillery but decided that we were now running out of time and we decided to continue on to visit Fort George which is about 12 miles from Inverness. We arrived there at about 3:45pm.
Fort George is hundreds of years old but is still a fully functional military barracks. The visitors stroll through the grounds while the soldiers go about their work. The fort is strategically positioned at the entrance to a beautiful harbour.
They do a great job of catering for visitors with various exhibits including a brilliant museum. It was almost 5pm when we got to the museum and it closes at 5:15pm. So we didn't have much time to look through it. To do it justice, you probably spend all day there.
The museum has three levels. It is cram-packed with military memorabilia such as medals, uniforms and photos. There is just one room after another of display after display. Although most of the displays are about the Cameron and Seaforth brigades, the fort is also affiliated with the Gordon Highlanders.
The highlight of the museum is an unassuming, understated display on the second floor containing 27 Victoria Crosses!! The display cabinet contains other medals won by the VC winners. Some of these men had a dozen or more medals apart from the VC. It just gave you goosebumps to see it.
We reached our B&B in Inverness by 6pm. After settling in, we went for a 10-minute walk into the centre of town to find somewhere for dinner.
The town which is next to the River Ness, was a very pretty sight in the evening sunlight. Inverness has a castle in the centre of the town near the river but it is not open for visitors.
We found a nice French restaurant for dinner overlooking the river.
Once again, this B&B has fast WiFi access.
Click here to see my photos for this day.
The Met Office web site said that the temperature was only 8C and so I decided to wear the new heavy coat that I'd bought a few days ago. At our first stop, it became obvious that even this heavily padded coat wasn't going to be enough to keep me warm and so I put on a jumper to wear under the coat.
We decided not to go through Aberdeen so as to avoid the peak hour traffic. Instead, we took a rural route to our first stop at Huntley to visit Huntley Castle. We arrived soon after the castle opened for visitors at 9:30am.
It started to rain when we reached the castle and so it was a bonus that much of this castle was undercover. Although it is a ruin, it is well maintained and partly restored. This castle had two spiral stone staircases and so it reminded us of other places we had visited in recent days.
However, unlike most previous sites, this castle wasn't overlooking the sea or on a hilltop. Instead, it was located close to the town at the end of long driveway lined with beautiful trees.
The next stop was the Glenfiddich distillery near Dufftown. It was one of the sites listed in a brochure that we picked up at Huntley Castle about the Malt Whisky Trail. This site appealed to us because it offered a free tour of the distillery.
We arrived in time for a tour that started at 12 noon. The tour, which lasted 45 minutes, started with a film about the history of Glenfiddich and then took us through each stage of the production. We stood next to the vats etc used to produce the whiskies. At the end of the tour, they gave each of us a sample drink of their whisky. It was a very impressive tour.
After the tour, we had lunch in their cafe. The atmosphere in the cafe was also impressive. It was a spacious cafe in one of the old stone buildings with great decor, nice food, nice coffee and great whisky.
Most tourist locations have a shop where you can buy products and memorabilia. The Glenfiddich shop was probably the most impressive one we had seen.
Overall, the Glenfiddich site was very impressive. They've done a first-class marketing job that matches the excellent reputation that their whiskies enjoy.
The next stop was at Elgin. Suzy spotted a cashmere visitors centre near the ruins of the Elgin Cathedral. She visited the cashmere shop and bought another cashmere cardigan while I went to the old cathedral to take photos.
Initially we had planned to visit another distillery but decided that we were now running out of time and we decided to continue on to visit Fort George which is about 12 miles from Inverness. We arrived there at about 3:45pm.
Fort George is hundreds of years old but is still a fully functional military barracks. The visitors stroll through the grounds while the soldiers go about their work. The fort is strategically positioned at the entrance to a beautiful harbour.
They do a great job of catering for visitors with various exhibits including a brilliant museum. It was almost 5pm when we got to the museum and it closes at 5:15pm. So we didn't have much time to look through it. To do it justice, you probably spend all day there.
The museum has three levels. It is cram-packed with military memorabilia such as medals, uniforms and photos. There is just one room after another of display after display. Although most of the displays are about the Cameron and Seaforth brigades, the fort is also affiliated with the Gordon Highlanders.
The highlight of the museum is an unassuming, understated display on the second floor containing 27 Victoria Crosses!! The display cabinet contains other medals won by the VC winners. Some of these men had a dozen or more medals apart from the VC. It just gave you goosebumps to see it.
We reached our B&B in Inverness by 6pm. After settling in, we went for a 10-minute walk into the centre of town to find somewhere for dinner.
The town which is next to the River Ness, was a very pretty sight in the evening sunlight. Inverness has a castle in the centre of the town near the river but it is not open for visitors.
We found a nice French restaurant for dinner overlooking the river.
Once again, this B&B has fast WiFi access.
Click here to see my photos for this day.
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