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August 28,2015
Oh, oh. Looks like another delay. It will probably be later this afternoon before we get this week's entry posted. Please check back then.
August 21, 2015
IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!
Well, here we are, another week has gone by on our wonderful trip.
After leaving Windermere, we made our way to Dumfries, Scotland and met up with Dave's cousin, Raymond for a few days. We arrived two days earlier than expected, but he welcomed us with open arms. We needed a couple of days to stay put, get caught up with laundry and visit with Raymond.
One of the sites Raymond took us to visit while in Dumfries was the town of Lockerbie where terrorists had set a bomb aboard a passenger plane that had crashed there, killing everyone aboard and local residents as well about 25 years ago. They had placed a memorial there in remembrance. Before that, Lockerbie was known as the sheep capitol for sheep production and auctions, more than 30,000 sheep would be sold in a day there.
On Monday, we then took Raymond with us and we headed to Applecross which was five hours away in northwest Scotland. We were glad we had Raymond along or we would have had a hard time finding the roads. In fact, there weren't any roads shown on the GPS once we started up the Bealach na Ba. This was a narrow one-way road, with hair-pin turns road and with passing places every few feet for when you met another car coming the other way. It was only about 11 miles but with grades of 20%, barely enough room to hold the car on the road and hundreds of feet looking down from the edge (but a spectacular view), but it felt like more miles than that. It used to be a cattle trail and they made it into a road! Dave did a great job maneuvering the big car we had rented over to the other side into Applecross and should have received an award for getting us there safely.
Applecross is a small village on the edge of The Minch Bay which flows in from the Atlantic. Most of the residents are either fishermen or innkeepers and rely on the tourist industry during the summer months. Car rallies flock to Applecross because of the Bealach, so that they can boast the accomplishment of driving over it! Dave's cousin, Raymond has a daughter, Alison and she and her husband live there. Raymond doesn't get a chance to visit with them very often, so it was a treat for him to come with us.
We were wined and dined while at Applecross. We had dinner at the Wall Garden Restaurant, where one of their sons is a chef. We also had lunch at the Applecross Inn and since Ali is a fisherman, he caught dinner for us the last night and then he prepared Thai squat lobster curry with rice in which his freshly caught lobster was the star attraction. Ali is also a great photographer and with all of the beautiful scenery in Applecross, he does a wonderful job capturing it. He writes beautifully as well. Google "Applecross Life" for his blog.
On Wednesday, we gathered one of their sons, Neill and his fiancee, Rachel who were also visiting Applecross and needed a ride as far as Inverness. Raymond wanted to catch a train in Inverness too, so the car was full. We dropped everyone off at the train station in Inverness and headed further west to Elgin. Elgin is where Dave's grandmother was born and he wanted to see where he might have been if she hadn't migrated to America. We also went to Pluscarten Abbey which is near Elgin. This is where his grandmother's family lived and cared for the Abbey. It is still there and is occupied by monks.
After searching for a couple of hours, we finally arrived in Grantown-on-Spey and found a B&B (again, the last one in town). Grantown-on-Spey is on the edge of the Cairngorm Mountains so the town was busy with holiday hikers and fishermen. We were up in the highlands and the heather is just starting to bloom.
It was off on the Whiskey Trail on Thursday. Scotland is well known for its scotch whiskey distilleries and since Dave is a fan of single malt scotch, he especially wanted to tour the distillery in Dalwhinnie. It was an educational tour and we learned a lot about making scotch. They even gave us a wee taste with a piece of chocolate. I loved the chocolate but was not too keen of the scotch, but Dave enjoyed it.
Yesterday, we traveled to Falkirk, Scotland where we will visit the famous Falkirk Wheel later today. This is another bucket list item for Dave. Falkirk Wheel is a wheel that transports narrow boats from one canal to the another and it is quite an engineering feat. However, you wouldn't catch me on it!
We are winding down our fabulous vacation, spending the last part of this week in Scotland and England before we turn in the rental car and catch the train to Exeter to visit with my sister before we fly back to Amsterdam to catch our plane back home. The trip has been fantastic, but I am getting a little homesick and tired of living out of a suitcase these past few weeks.
