Scottish Highlands

We woke up in Aberdeen hoping for power in our electrical outlets for our electronics.  Amy had hoped for a hair dryer.  That was not the case, and the hotel was apologetic and gave us a free breakfast as they tried to fix the problem.  Today the haggis blood pudding were too much for my tastebuds.  The finally found the closet that likely contained the circuit, but could not find they key.  By this time, we needed to go.  They finally got the electrical working just before we left our room.  Having low power on our phones was a little bothersome, as I was using GPS to help navigate.

Luckily, the hotel staff was kind enough to print directions to our first destination, Oldmeldrum, a small town northeast of Aberdeen.  Our reason for visiting was to see a public art piece The Eternal Present by Janet McEwan.  Like the sculpture in Edinburgh, this sculpture is a large scale version of three carved stone balls.  It pays homage to three carved stone balls found nearby.  They are beautifully carved and are situated on a downtown corner.  We seemed to be the only people interested in them.  She has a nice blog about their creation.

Eternal Present by Janet McEwan

We decided to return to Glasgow via the Scottish Highlands.  The mountains were visible in the distance as we approached Oldmeldrum, so I was excited to see them.  It was a beautiful sunny day, a rarity in Scotland we have been told by many people.  We took a wrong turn, spun around and around a round-about or two, but finally got on the right road.

A view of the highlands from Oldmeldrum.

Malt whisky is one things for which Scotland is known.  Many of the distilleries are in the highlands, so we thought it would be fun to stop at one.  Glenfiddich was just off the road so we decided to stop there to stretch our legs and learn about their product.  We had a very nice tour with a great guide.  We finished with a sample to calm our nerves before continuing deeper into the Scottish hills.

The distillery.

An old delivery truck.

Pot stills.

One of about a dozen Ferrari's visiting the distillery.

Many malt whisky distilleries, including Glenfiddich, are within 25 miles of Dufftown.  On a mathematical note, the latitude of Dufftown is 57.4408° N, which is quite far north. It also very close to 1 radian, which  is 57.2957795°.  For you less mathematical, 1 radian of angular measure on a sphere corresponds to an arc that has the same length as the radius of the sphere.  This means that in Dufftown we are about as far from the equator as we are from the center of the Earth!  Could this be part of the magic of the area for making malt whisky?

We then took a road that had spectacular views.  It was also very steep, twisty, and narrow.  There were also domestic sheep grazing near the road, similar to cattle in some western US mountain areas.  The road was only one lane for a number of miles, with passing turnouts.  These were so you could wait for oncoming traffic to pass or vice-versa.  Frequently times the visibility was less than 100 yards.  I had to back up a few times to a passing area to let an oncoming car pass.  One place the road sign indicated a 20% climb.  It was an exciting drive, but we did not make great progress.  We could see snow in some of the mountain passes.

The highlands.

Mountain road.

Down and around we go!

Beautiful day.

Along the way, we stopped at Balmoral Castle, the royal home in that part of the country.  We did not get to see much, but the exterior and grounds were pretty fantastic.  The castle is on a clearing in some deep woods near a mountain river.

The Dee river near Balmoral.

Balmoral Castle

The gas gauge in the car had been getting lower, but I had only seen one gas station since leaving Aberdeen and that was in Oldmeldrum.  It was closed.  I thought we would see another one, but it was Sunday evening by now, and most stores were closed.  So we continued our drive.  The nearest big town was 60 miles and the gas range on the car said 60 miles.  I thought "this seems doable" and we pushed forward.  As we went along, we started climbing one final pass before leaving the highlands.  The range indicator went lower much quicker than we were making progress.  Soon our range had reduced to 30 miles with about 50 to go before getting to a large town.  At the top of the pass, there was a ski resort (closed) and restaurant that was open.  I asked about gas and they said the nearest gas was 22 miles in the direction from where we just came and 25 miles in the direction we were going.  I explained my low fuel and they were kind enough to say they would help if they saw me stranded, as they were heading that way in a few minutes.  Luckily it was mostly downhill, and we did not have a lot of fuel weight, so the car was lighter.  We got into town looking for the station, but did not see it, so we asked someone as we stopped at an intersection.  He pointed down the road in the direction we were headed and we took off.  Out of the corner of my eye I caught the sight of the gas station, but it was too late to turn, so we had to zip around the block.  I was glad the gas station was downhill, as the car was still running, but I did not know how long that would last.  Finally we got to the station.  We had made it!  That was a little close, but I was glad we had a little more excitement in our Scottish driving experience.

Once through town the road became a freeway and we had a relatively easy drive into Glasgow.  We only upset one drive enough to honk at us in town.  Our hotel was the same one we stayed at a few nights ago.   The hotel had parking behind the hotel, but it was full.  That means we would need to parallel park.  Now I am usually don't mind parallel parking.  I've done it with a 15 passenger van on a number of occasions.  This was the first time parking on the right and sitting on the right.  To make things more interesting, just as I started, one car then another came up behind me on the one-way street, so they got to watch me.  What I thought was a good job was actually pretty poor after seeing it from outside the car.  So I got in the car to improve the location.  Too bad the steering wheel wasn't on the side I had gotten into.

After checking into the hotel, we had dinner at a crepe restaurant two blocks away.  This time the hotel was full, so we were stuck with a small room without a bathroom.  It was only for the night and we were leaving early, so we settled in and were able to charge some electronics.  It was good to be out of the car!