Friday, July 12

We had decided that if the weather held, we would walk The Birks of Aberfeldy - its a walk through the woods and it starts just a few feet down the road from the resort. The brochure said it was a 2 hour walk but didn't say anything else. Very shortly after we start, the trail splits at a Y. The posted map shows its a circle around a stream. Its also obvious that there will be some walking up grades. We take the left fork because it looks easier. We quickly find that its the harder with lots of steps. But at the end of the hike we decide it was better to go up the steeper grade at first and then walk down on the gentle side.

Robert Burns (Scotland's renown poet) named this place and wrote a poem about it. We ask a Danish couple (thinking they might be Scot) if they knew what Birks meant. After looking at the trees, comparing English and Danish words we came to the obvious conclusion that it meant Birches. Dumb, dumb.

Going up, there was a bench with a carved figure of Robert Burns sitting on it. Later, there was an inscription from his poem that showed the view where he was inspired to write the poem. We continually stopped to take pictures of oddly twisted trees, different views of  the stream and other streams feeding it, bare rocks and a frog. All of this with the sun shinning at different spots and creating interesting shadows. We got some beautiful pictures.

We finally came down the other side with burning legs, but within the 2 hours allocated. We were hungry but decided our bodies needed help first. After changing into swim suits we spent some time in the jacuzzi and the  pool. That revived us. Then we drove down to town and ate lunch on the sidewalk. A dark bitter, sausage and mash and Yorkshire Pudding for me and roast beef and mash and Yorkshire Pudding for Linda. Both came with peas and carrots. Not mushy peas, just the regular sort.

Then it was time to continue down the road for 3 mins to the Dewars Distillery. We had half price tickets from the resort and got another 1 pound discount for being old. We took the self-guided tour after watching a video and then had samples of the whisky. Boy, that stuff is strong. Linda had a single malt and I had a 12 year old blended one. She liked the single, I liked the blended. We needed an espresso and a little sweetie after that.

A very Scottish young woman dressed in her blue and green plaid skirt took us on a tour of the buildings and walked us through the process from fermenting the barley, blowing air over the peat, pouring increasingly hotter water over the mash, heating it, cooling it and storing it in oak barrels that come from the States. When you distill bourbon, the US dictates that new barrels are used for aging. In Scotland, used barrels must be used - sooooo, what do you think happens? Perfect recycling strategy. And, the barrels can be used 3 or 4 times and each time may be for as many as 21 years. We bought some samples and 2 special Dewars drink glasses. I'm sure we can use them for other liquids too.

Back at the apartment we needed to pack to get ready to move to another unit tomorrow.