Day Six – Auchentoshan, Sleeping Monkeys, and Dear Dear Friends

Our last full day in Glasgow was the first rainy day of our trip, but we didn’t mind at all since we had an outing planned. Last year Jan read about an excellently reviewed Scotch called Auchentoshan and

Jan at the Auchentoshan sign in Clydebank

put a bottle of it on his Christmas wish list. His wonderful sister got it for him and he loved it. We were amazed to learn that the distillery is just outside of Glasgow, and when we discovered we could get to the site by bus right from downtown, we jumped at the chance.

It was one of those happy chances when everything worked out to create something special. After a 35-minute bus ride (42 stops) in the top of a double-decker, we reached the last stop of the route in Clydebank. The driver asked if we were going to “get some Scotch” and happily pointed out the white distillery buildings just a ten-minute walk away.

Cute Highland Cows

We passed our first Highland cows on the way (they live next to the distillery and get to eat the barley mash left over after fementation! We got in on a tour led by our great guide Kieran that was interesting and thorough, and we found the process fascinating. Auchentoshan (“Akken-tosh-un” which in Gaelic means “corner of the field”) is Scotland’s only triple distilled whisky. They told us that doesn’t make it any better, but it does make it unique!

This is the mashing room--after the barley is hot-air roasted it's ground and mashed in here.

The tun room -- these are backwash tubs made of Oregon pine. Water and liquid yeast is added and the resulting "beer" is 8% alcohol and smells terrific!

Most Scotch whisky is distilled twice and ends up around 50-60% alcohol. Auchentoshan goes into the first copper distillation still at 8%. After the first distillation it is at 18%, after the second it's at 54%, and when it comes out of the final still it is at 81%, higher than any other in Scotland. It’s watered down to about 70% before it’s casked for maturation.Most of the whisky is stored in bourbon barrels from the U.S. Some is casked in sherry barrels from Europe, and a small amount is stored in red wine barrels from France. 

The smallest of the storage rooms. Barrels are used three times and then sold as planters or decorations!

First time use barrels have plain ends, second time use is yellow and third use is black.

I’m not a whisky drinker although I love the IDEA of it and even the smell. But at the end of the tour

This is exactly the kind Jan has at home.

Kieran posed with us after the taste-testing.

I drank my  sample plus two shots of their special drink “Auchy Ale,” a mixture of whisky, ale, and lemonade. THAT was a way I could drink whisky! It was also a great way to end a distillery tour since, lightweight drinker that I am, I slept the entire way back to Glasgow on the bus!

 

These adorable tin Auchentoshan mugs were our souvenirs. I managed to snag a set of four!

 Back in the city we climbed the steep slope up from the River Clyde’s level and found a restaurant

we’d heard of called “Where the Monkey Sleeps.” It’s a very small sandwich shop specializing in paninis and bagel sandwich creations. Once again the menu was light-hearted and irreverent. I had a “Wytchfynder” bagel and Jan had a “Beef of the Beast.” The atmosphere was very coffeehouse unchic, with several small rooms full of worn sofas and book nooks and people eating in groups. A total hoot—and excellent food!

Amazing lunch menu

In our little lunch room -- you can see how worn the couch was. Such ambience!

After lunch we wandered the pedestrian shopping again and took the last hour of our stay to visit The Lighthouse—an arts center in a building designed by Glasgow’s home-grown world-class architect and designer, Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Mackintosh designed many buildings in Glasgow and around the world, back in the late 1800s. He was a modernist at the time, his designs mostly straight and stark and functional, and not everyone loved him. Now, however, he’s highly celebrated in his home city. A bonus for going up the 130+ steps of the tall building was the proverbial bird's eye view of Glasgow!

Above one of the churches Mackintosh designed--and several of his clean-line chairs.

A balcony with a view!

Glasgow skyline

The spiral staircase leading to the top of the Lighthouse

We weren’t as sad leaving Glasgow for two reasons—we get to return once our hike and trip to Inverness is done and spend one more morning. We also knew that we were on our way to start a great adventure and meet up with wonderful friends we met on our last big hike in England. We were blessed to connect with Joy Miller and Andy Chisnall in 2012 and even more blessed to have remained in touch via Facebook for five years.  To our delight (and honor) Andy and Joy who are even more accomplished and avid hikers than we are, drove four hours from Liverpool to join us in Scotland for a night and walk the first day of The West Highland Way with us.

When they knocked on our hotel door in Milngavie (more on THAT name later!) there were squeals and excited hugs and even some disbelieving tears. We picked up talking as if we’d seen each other the day before. It was a true joyful reunion. 

Andy, Jan, Me and Joy!!

We ate fish and chips and drank good beer and cider at the Burnbrae pub, and had a hard time saying goodnight even though it was going to be mere hours until we started our walk. It was a wonderful night and we are so thankful for these wonderful people who are in our life!   Tomorrow the adventure begins! Eight days hiking in Scotland.     

Day 3: Arthur's Seat, The Castle, and a Funny Pub Tour

 
Day three was our first full day in Edinburgh, and what a spectacular day we had. After a breakfast of pancakes and maple syrup we had to buy some change for the bus at a nearby tiny grocery store. Then we climbed on the #33 double-decker bus for downtown Edinburgh. Our first sight was the impressive and imposing Scott monument. Sir Walter Scott is beloved here (along with Robert Burns & Robert Louis Stevenson--and all thepoets and novelists of Scotland!) We walked half of the Royal Mile--aka High Street, which runs from Edinburgh Castle to Holyrood Park and Palace (the Queen's home in Scotland).

Once in the 600+-acre park, we took the steepest of several paths to the top of Arthur's Seat--a hill in the very middle of the city. There we got the most beautiful bird's-eye view of Scotland's capital. At 822 feet, the summit was not that hard to reach, but it gave us a work-out. I was very proud of Jan, who is not fond of heights, for climbing to the highest point. On the way back down we took a short side-trip to the ruins of St. Anthony's chapel. Very impressive and, actually, quite beautiful.

 

 

We headed back to the Royal Mile via Holyrood (pronounced Holly-rood) and took pictures of the

Queen’s palace. A lovely gentleman who worked at the palace gift shop (oh, yes, there is one!) told us how everything shuts down when the Queen visits once a year—but they love that she comes.

We took another bus to the middle of High Street and found a wonderful Scottish pub called The Royal MacGregor.  We both had fish and chips, which are nothing like what you get in the U.S. Here they are giant pieces of crispy-fried haddock with thick chips (French fries) and our favorite mushy peas (just what they sound like!)

Jan also had a flight of whisky—his first Scotch in Scotland.And I had cider--my favorite alcoholic drink. Only mine was Swedish-- well done me!

 One of the crazy things that goes on in Edinburgh in August is the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. I’ll do a whole post on this but for now, know that the crowds are State Fair sized!

This lovely Fringe Festival lady was so demur--until you dropped a coin in her bucket. This was for Jan :-)

 We wove through the shoulder-to-shoulder walls of people to Edinburgh Castle, where we purchased tickets and got to take a tour with Janice—a very fun and knowledgeable guide. The castle is really a fortress that was used far more for military housing than as a royal residency. It was besieged many times and was the site of a dinner party surprise murder that they say was the inspiration for the Red Wedding massacre scene in Game of Thrones. The whole fortress is amazing.

Our tour guide Janice.

McBrain (aka Hazel) doing Mr. Hyde from Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde,

Our final tourist activity of Tuesday was joining up with a Literary Pub Tour at a pub called The Beehive. Two wonderful actors (Paul and Hazel) played “Klart and McBrain” – a couple of literary know-it-alls who who argued from pub to pub about what truly influenced Scotland’s beloved poets:  was it the down and dirty life of the everyman in pubs and lower society? Or was it the wealthy high society that loved and supported them?

Klart (Paul) trying to prove it was the ladies who inspired Robert Burns.

 There was no answer except that it was mix of both, and we had a truly entertaining and intellectual night!

We capped off the day by eating at Milne’s bar—our last stop of the pub tour. Jan had gammon steak (cured but unsmoked pork) and I had Scottish sausage. Without a doubt, in this case I won! Gammon is way funnier tasting than haggis! Tired but impressed, we headed for Amar Agua ready for sleep—and Day 4 tomorrow!

Days 1 and 2: Edinburgh via Car, Plane, Plane, Taxi, Train, and Schlepp!

What a magical introduction to Scotland we’ve had! Our only complaint is that there simply isn’t enough time to fit in everything that would be fun to do. But then again, what traveler doesn’t have that complaint? Two days in Edinburgh didn’t even scratch the surface of activities on our wish list of sights. On the other hand, we had two phenomenal weather days with blue skies, puffy white clouds, and T-shirt temps. We’ve been told this was very lucky since it had rained at least a little while every day for the past month. Thank the Lord for many blessings!

Evie with our suitcases and backpacks!

We left home at 7:00 p.m. Sunday, chauffeured by Adam and sweet Evelyn Grace, and with a stop at Jen, Ben and Riley’s house for bon voyage hugs. We had no troubles until the traffic jam at the airport where it took 10 minutes to go a quarter mile. On the other hand, by a stroke of luck we had TSA pre-check tix, so we buzzed through security without even having to remove shoes. (Big smiley face!)

Our Minneapolis to Amsterdam plane.

We are so used to domestic flights where nobody feeds you on a plane anymore, that it didn’t dawn on us we’d have two meals on our flight to Amsterdam! So, we ate at a fairly nice airport seafood place. Surprise! We had lasagna and chicken Kiev on the plane. A lesson in how to feel unhealthy before you even get to your destination.

Following a medical emergency (concerning an elderly lady who wasn’t breathing but ended up all right), watching The Zookeeper’s Wife on the seat back screen, getting an hour or two’s

worth of sleep and then eating again for breakfast, we landed in Amsterdam.

Leaving Minneapolis at 10 p.m.

The coast of Greenland.

The coast of the Netherlands.

Interesting juxtaposition: windmills next to oil storage.

Schiphol airport is huge and crazily fun. Check out the Man-in-the-Clock clock we watched at one of the shopping and eating plazas!

The man fooled us--he isn't truly there. But every single minute he erases the minute hand and repaints it one tick down.

I loved these sumo guys--but this guard took one look at me posing with them and photo-bombed us.

KLM to Glasgow!

Tulip stores and duty-free shops abound. Fun sculptures and
friendly guards are everywhere!  After a two-hour layover we boarded a plane once more and arrived in Glasgow just over an hour later. It almost seemed too easy for getting 5000 miles from home and we didn't even feel too jetlagged! Only the bags under my eyes showed I was sleep deprived.

First view of Glasgow & the River Clyde

We caught a cab with “Jim” who gave us a lovely tour of Glasgow and even drove us past the hotel we’ll be staying in come Wednesday. He told us to hit the pedestrian shopping area, George Square, Kelvingrove Park and a pub called “Pot Still.” But with his (wonderful) accent we heard that as “Pot Stau” and it took us a long time to look it up on the web!

The train trip from Glasgow to Edinburgh takes 55 minutes and we did snooze away a few minutes of jet lag. Still we were “refreshed” enough to think we could walk to our B&B, which turned out to be approximately 1.7 miles from the train station. It’s a testament to the accepting nature of the Scots that nobody looked twice at two semi-bedraggled foreigners dragging their suitcases along Dalkeith Street and through throngs of people attending the August Edinburgh Fringe Festival. (Way more on that in a later post!) We probably looked like some of the wacky festival performers!

Amar Agua B&B

We arrived at Amar Agua B&B not knowing exactly what to expect. 

We were thrilled to find an almost luxurious home! 

Kuan was our host and took literally twenty minutes to give us a full orientation to the B&B and to Edinburgh. We learned bus routes, places to exchange money, times to hit the sights, and all kinds of fun facts. The best advice was for a dinner venue. He sent us to The Salisbury Arms—and we didn’t regret it for a second. The atmosphere was classy but homey and the food was different but delicious. After my dinner of a butternut squash/beetroot tart and Jan’s of a prawn/chorizo sausage linguini—we were sold on Scotland’s ability to feed its guests! 

The Salisbury Arms. Above--prawn linguini and squash/beet tart!

Finally, after a very long trip using four modes of transportation, including our own feet (warming up for the coming hike), we got to sleep in our lovely room beneath our four poster canopy, under a snuggly down comforter. Tomorrow we truly start the vacation! It was an amazing welcome to Scotland—we can’t believe we’re here!