The Drive to Inverness

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A last-minute change to the itinerary, the original plan was to combine a castle and scotch tour on our way to Inverness our next city on our tour. Instead, we opted to drive along the northern coast of the top of Aberdeenshire to explore a few more potential villages for retirement summers. It was a good decision.

It was another beautiful day in Scotland, we are beginning to believe it really doesn’t rain here. Before heading out of town we picked up our laundry that we had dropped off when we first got her, much cheaper and better service than our cleaners in Rhode Island. Then we drove to the Bridge o’Balgowine, up until 1827 the only northern route out of Aberdeen was over the river Don on this single-arch bridge.

The first burgh as they appear to be called on the norther coast, was Banff. The drive to get there was through mostly farm land, with a castle (not that you can see them from the road) dotted here and there. It was a nice drive not a lot of traffic so pretty stress free. We did not stop at Banff, but drove through, it is definitely a contender right on the North Sea, with some nice sandy beaches very nearby. Considerably bigger than Stonehaven and a bit harder to get to since there is not direct train service.

Just down the road a bit is the village of Cullen, smaller than Banff, but also very much a contender. No train service here either, but it is the birthplace of Cullen Skink. It is smaller than Banff but bigger than Stonehaven.

We had two timed events today, the first was lunch at Gordon Castle Walled Garden Café. As you might imagine from the name, it is a café inside the walled gardens of the Castle. You can’t really see the castle as it is a bit further down the road. It is aloes a combination of a private residence and hotel, the only way the Earl can afford to maintain the estate. There were solid signs to the castle so we relied on Goggle, and while we got there, we took the back farm entrance so were going over a few miles of dirt road. Leaving, was all paved.

The gardens are quite expansive and an extra charge to visit which we did not have time for today. The café is small and small but good menu, including tea. Most of the seating is outside, but it was all in directly sunlight so we ate inside. We had a pretty simple meal; Jerry had a BLT and I had a Coronation Chicken Sandwich. What is coronation chicken you ask? Well, it is a chicken curry salad created specifically for Queen Elizabeth II coronation. What could be more appropriate to have for lunch on her Platinum Jubilee. We both all had a coup of Cullen Skink with our sandwiches. This was much different in style, perhaps more original since we were only a few miles from Cullen, it was thicker and definitely made with cream, the others seem to be made of milk as they were much thinner

After lunch we were off to our one and only Scotch Whiskey tasting at Benromach Distillery . Benromach is in the village of Forres and has been there for 124 years. It was completely shut down for a 20-year period when Scotch Whiskey was not popular. Now it is operating at full capacity and makes small batch Whiskey. They also happen to make a gin. It was an interesting tour with a tasting at the end of course. The nice thing here is that they provide you small bottles to put your taste in (primarily for the drivers) so you can taste later. We both opted for the small jars to taste later. We are now in Glasgow and still haven’t tasted them.

That is pretty much the day, there was no dinner because my stomach was acting up, there is something here that is not agreeing with me, and we haven’t figure it out yet. The drive in to Inverness was pretty easy, found the hotel easily.

Jerry did go down to the hotel restaurant and have a Caesar Salad he also sent me up a bowl of butter linguine, about all my stomach could handle, thus no dish of the day.

Inverness is not a city we will return to; it is party central especially if you’re in the city Center. It is quite noisy and our room was on the street side. Another travel trip, don’t stay in Mercure Hotels, they are dirty and not well maintained. In Aberdeen the room had mold and made Jerry sick got a better room by the last night. In Inverness, the room was falling apart and all furnishings needed to be replaced.

Tomorrow Loch Ness in search of Nessie

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