Pipes, Kilts, Whiskey and The Old Course

Scott and I headed up to Scotland for the bank holiday weekend in August. We ventured up on the National Rail East Coast Express and let me tell you it was standing room only. I don't understand why people would book tickets for a bank holiday weekend and not get a seat reservation. We arrived in Edinburgh Friday night, made our way to our hotel, had a drink at the bar and went to bed.

Saturday we took the city by storm and went to the Edinburgh castle first. The castle sits in the heart of the city perched on an extinct volcano. Within the castle there are the Crown Jewels of the Scottish Royalty dating back to 1540. The crown dates from 1540, is made of Scottish gold and is set with pearls, diamonds and other precious and semi-precious gemstones. The Sceptre is also made of gold, and topped with a large Rock Crystal (Quartz). The most treasured possession of Scotland is also located among the honours. It is the Stone of Destiny, otherwise known as the Stone of Scone, upon which the monarchs of Scotland are traditionally crowned. It had been taken to England and incorporated into the Coronation Chair in Westminster Abbey but was returned to Scotland in 1996 on the understanding that it be returned to Westminster for subsequent coronations. Here are some pictures on the way up to the castle and also a view from the top of the castle! It was gorgeous!!!

After touring the castle we were going to walk down the "Royal Mile" which is a street right outside the castle with loads of shops, cafes, etc. The Fringe Festival was going on so there are lots of comedian shows, artsy shows and musical shows that you can go to as well as lots of street performers randomly on the Royal Mile. Just a few steps outside of the castle was our next calling "Scottish Whiskey Heritage Center and Tour". The smile on Scott's face when we walked in was like a kid in the candy store. We signed up for our tour and in we went to start the adventure of Scottish Whiskey. We were given at the start of the tour a dram of The Famous Grouse, a dram is equal to a shot for anyone who didn't know. Well we were taught how to tell what type of barrel the whiskey was aged in, how to smell it and how to taste the first sip. I am not at all a Whiskey drinker so this was painful for me. Scott had to finish mine since I could not. Along the tour we learned what is considered a Scottish Whiskey and what is not, took a virtual tour of a distillery and learned the history of how whiskey came about.

Some key facts about Scottish Whiskey:

1. In order for a Whiskey to be considered Scottish, it has to be matured on Scottish soil for at least 3 years.

2. The #1 importer of Scottish Whiskey is France and #2 is the USA. This is the case since there are more Scott's living in France and hence they import more.

3. Most Scottish Whiskey is aged in American Oak barrels.

4. There are 4 regions in Scotland where Whiskey is from (Highlands, Lowlands, Islands, Speyside). They each have distinct flavorings due to their climate and region.

After the tour you end up in their bar and Scott's tour included tasting 4 more drams of Whiskey (one from each region). So that would be in total 6 shots of Whiskey. YIKES! He didn't like 2 of them but still found one new one that he liked while I on the other hand found a Dessert Whiskey that I loved. I know I am eating my words now that I am not a Whiskey drinker but I may have become a partial Whiskey drinker. It is called Amber made by Macallan. TASTY! If anyone needs a gift idea for me...that is one. Find me a bottle of that goodness! We then started stumbling our way down the Royal Mile further and ventured in shops after shops until we ended up at Parliament.

Here are two street performers during the Fringe Festival.

After watching a few street performers we found this:

At this point Scott's head was rolling down Pearce Street as he knew he was famous somewhere right..and why not is the land of Scotland.

Moving on.

On Sunday we started our day by waiting at the train station to take us up to St. Andrew's to visit "The Old Course". The first announcement said it was running about 10-15 minutes late and then the next was 30-40 and then the final announcement was that it hadn't made its way to Edinburgh Waverly station yet so they didn't have any further news. At that point we said screw it. So we ventured around the city and just meandered without maps and ended up wherever. We bought a few things, saw some sights and had a nice day! That evening we had a reservation to The Witchery which was recommended by a co-worker and it was an amazing ambiance as well as great food! We headed to a pub and had a few drinks and settled in for the night.

On Monday we tried to go to St. Andrews again and this time tried an earlier train (8:17am). We were successful! It was not a bank holiday up in Scotland so the normal commuters were on the train and therefore my assumption was that it was actually running that day. We made our way to St. Andrew's and decided to take the hour walking tour of the course. DH and I are both golfers and we both do enjoy watching some of the tournaments so it was definitely neat to see. We then hit up the pro shop for some goodies just in time for it to start pouring. Here are some pictures of the Old Course at St. Andrew's.

This is the 17th hole bunker. Imagine trying to get out of that. If you look really close there are two small holes in the sides of the bunker, that is where they put the cameras for the tournaments to get the good views.

Here are some pictures of Scotland at night:

We absolutely loved Scotland and wish we had more time to discover the countryside. The people were very friendly, the food was good and the country is beautiful!