To Scotland and friends

After a non eventful Saturday we packed the car and headed North on Sunday morning.  It was a quick trip up the M6 to Moffat.  The plan was to stretch our legs there and find ourselves a nice tea room to enjoy, but it was lashing down with rain, so we made a split decision to go to Moffat Mill which had a tea room.  It probably wasn't as nice but we would have got drenched trying to find somewhere in Moffat.

We then drove along the A701 through some very lovely countryside (in the driving rain) to the outskirts of Edinburgh.  We went to South Queensferry from where you can see the Forth Bridges.  We were lucky in that it just stopped to rain as we got there so we decided to go for a stroll.  It was very very windy but for once Tom didn't really mind.  In fact he even went to stand by the railings to see if he could get splashed by the sea???!!!  (Very out of character, but nice to see).

The Forth Bridge

Cold but not raining

Once refreshed we got back in the car and headed across the Forth Road Bridge to Dollar where we were staying the night with Neil, Sharon and Rory and Lewis.  It rained the whole way there.  Oh well, Lewis and Rory were waiting for us when we got to their house and Tom was made at home immediately (except he was scared of their very old cat, meaning it took a long while for him to get on the floor and play with the very many toys on offer).


The children were playing so well with each other that we were able to have adult conversation.  We were just telling Neil about the story around Max (his girlfriend being the best friend of an old school friend of mine) when a FB photo went up of Helen, Max and Isobel in Stirling!  Too good an opportunity to miss so we decided to meet up Monday morning.

Neil made us a very very good stew and that with some wine and an evil chocolate pudding meant that we were more or less comatose on the sofa that evening.

Monday morning, Tom and I walked with Rory and Lewis to school (their half term was 2 weeks ago) then Neil drove us into Stirling to meet up with H, M & I.  Neil was also in their chemistry class

A motley crew...

so was also curious.  We had coffee and cake in a strange cafe (lots of staff, we were the only customers, they couldn't rustle up a menu and took an age to get our order to us - a touch of Tavistock Pasty House) and caught up again.  Helen was as easy company as before.  Turns out we both did Geography degrees - she has actually had a run of geography related jobs including her current one at Transport for London which makes a nice change to the usual teacher or something completely unrelated (cake decorator for example!).

We said our goodbyes (they were off to Loch Lomand for the afternoon) and Neil drove us back to Dollar.  We then quickly repacked the car and headed North.  First stop was Perth and Tesco for lunch and food shopping.  We then headed up the A93 via Braemar through the Cairngorms.  This was a fantastic route - the roads were great: nice and smooth and very very empty.  Unfortunately it did rain the whole way, but that didn't matter - the views were good even with the rain.  We passed through ski areas (no snow yet) and many glens.  The scenery is quite similar to the Dales, but bigger and higher.  When the heather is out it must be glorious.

Our distillery for the week

Despite the weather, we made good time and got to the Speyside area quicker than we thought.  We saw Glenlivit distillery in the distance and decided we had time for a quick visit before heading to our cottage.  We passed a field full of good looking Highland Coos before parking up.  The distillery was handsome, the shop interesting and the cafe full of good looking cakes (we took 2 home including a very lovely whisky fruit cake).  Matt made his first purchase: a Glenlivit 18 year old.  We then headed back on the road and within 10 minutes had found our cottage (in the grounds of another distillery - Tormore).

A good, sturdy cottage - very well kitted out, 3 big bedrooms, we will be very comfortable here.

Then it was a case of unpacking the car, trying to the get the central heating to work (got there eventually) making tea (burgers - nice and quick) then bath and bed for the boy, with us following not long after.