The Speyside Trail Awaits

Hello Friends,
We arrived in Aberdeen sometime overnight. Joe and I disembarked from the Ocean Endeavor around 8:00 this morning, after saying farewell to some special new friends during breakfast (where there was a rousing chorus of "O Canada," for Canada Day, since most of the people on board were Canadians). Here's a photo of a couple of our new friends, Jonathan and his mom, Sandra:

Jonathan came in 2nd place last night in the "Create Your Own Whisky Label" contest. Congratulations, Jonathan!

Joe and I were delivered to the train station before 9:00 am. Since our ride wasn't due to arrive until 1:00, we took the opportunity to wander around the city:

We connected with our driver around 1:00, after a tasty lunch at Wagamama, and we made our way to Craigellachie, about 2 hours away. When we arrived, we learned that we were completely mispronouncing the name of this little town. In case you are wondering, it's Cray-GEL(hard "g")-lah-key.

Once we arrived at the small B&B where we are staying for two nights, the Craigellachie Lodge, we essentially just dropped our bags in our room and took off for our scheduled tour at the Macallan distillery, located just a few minutes away. The tour was good, with an excellent tour guide, Graham. But, we found Macallan to be a bit DisneyWorld-ish. It's a very modern, slick distillery, with a very branded vibe all over the place. The tasting included what seemed like the smallest possible amount of whisky. And, the products in the very large gift area were incredibly expensive-- like 8 pounds for a funnel for a flask.

Then, it was back to the lodge. We got ourselves cleaned up and then wandered down the lane a bit for dinner at the Highlander Inn, a small inn with a remarkably large array of whisky options, along with a dinner menu. After a dinner of haggis, for Joe, and steak pie, for me, Joseph and I enjoyed one of the many tasting flights they offered. We tried a flight that featured the lesser known Speyside whiskies. Excellent.

Now it's bed time. Tomorrow, we are off to the Speyside Cooperage and then we will walk to the Glenfiddich distillery in Dufftown.

We'll update when we can.

Slainte!
Susan