Roll Out the Barrel, We'll Have a Barrel of Fun!

If it's Tuesday, it must be Pitlochry. We had a gorgeous drive through the hills of central Scotland.....sheep, woolly cattle, fields of every shade of green imaginable. Tom is doing a great job driving the car...driving on the left side of the road, manual transmission, roundabouts (traffic circles like the crazy one in Waco) and hairpin curves. Beth is a wonderful co-pilot, reading maps and signs and pointing out the turns Tom misses. Martha's job is to locate pubs and bathrooms and point out various sites for all to ooh and ahh over, and Jeff is just happy to not be driving.

Each quaint village we passed through seemed to have bigger and more lush hanging flower baskets than the last. As we neared our destination of Pitlochry, the scenery became more grandiose....huge hills and trees, more like a Scottish version of Colorado. We had lunch at The Old Mill Inn. The weather was very overcast and cool, but we managed to act like that didn't bother us. We toured the Blair Athol Distillery to see how malt whisky (that's how they spell it here) is made and stored in hundreds of barrels. It was an interesting experience, especially when Lucy and Ethel tried their first (and last) sips in the tasting room!

After exploring this storybook town, we enjoyed a coffee break at Fern Cottage which was as picturesque as it sounds. Jeff had a great time looking in the fly fishing and golf shops. Then we visited the "fish ladder" on the River Tay which is where salmon and sea trout are helped to make their voyage up the river. Jeff was a happy guy today!

We drove to Perth to have dinner in this beautiful, old city. However, our driver made a wrong turn in the middle of downtown Perth and we ended up in Dundee! Since Dundee wasn't such a pretty or interesting city (the only ugly place we've seen so far), we proceeded to wander through all kinds of scenic little country roads looking for a place to eat. This doesn't sound like such a hard task, but restaurants don't abound here like in the States, particularly ones that fit Martha's criteria of charming, good food and WiFi. The Scottish scenery was beyond beautiful and the company was entertaining, so a low tank of petrol and hunger pangs were not so bothersome. We did find a little town (Glenrothes) with a pub that fit the requirements, and we had a yummy dinner at The Golden Acorn. We filled up our first tank (3/4 tank) of gas for nearly $85 for 10 gallons....ouch!

Click here for today's pictures. Click on Slideshow, then click on Full Screen mode in upper right.