Friday 29 March 2002
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No! No! Don't make me go back to the U.S.! I'm having far too much fun for that ...
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Glen Coe. More pictures here. |
Crumpets for breakfast, then we all got in the car and drove up to Glen Coe in the Highlands. Frank says the Highlands are so devoid of trees because they were cleared for firewood, timber, and space for sheep farming. About 1% of the original wooded area still exists. Why it didn't grow back, I don't know. It's beautiful and very hilly. The big hills are around 1000 feet in elevation - several still had snow on top. We found a park and settled in for a very nice picnic courtesy of Frank - bread, pate, sausage, cheese, fruit, wine.
We drove to Oban after a walk around the park. A very busy port town, a lot of ferries leaving for the isles. I dragged them into the Oban distillery, but since we arrived at 1630, we were too late for the last tour and just looked around the store.
We went across the street to a tea room, had snacks and tea and coffee. Just before our order arrived I went back across the street and bought Michael Jackson's Malt Whisky Companion. The funny thing is the one bottle I've bought so far (Lagavulin 16 year old) appears to have received the highest rating he gave, 95/100.
I think my other bottle will be a Talisker Distiller's Edition. Jackson's rating for both it and the "regular" Talisker that Catherine bought for herself is 90. Not that that's all you should go on, obviously.
The drive back was long and very mildly nauseous for me as I tried to read the book early and we followed a lot of windy roads.
We had fish and chips for dinner tonight from a nominally Italian place. Frank says it's the best of the three local places. We had some squid from them too, and it was excellent.
We watched some British TV they like, "Father Ted," and "Black Books." Then "Frazier," but that's American.
I want to write an "Essence of Edinburgh" as I did for the India site. I don't approve of stereotyping, and I feel that's kind of what I'm doing. But it's also something I really enjoy and it helps me focus on what stood out, what is unique.
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