Scotland

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We arrived at Kingston on Hull in the morning and caught several trains, travelling through northern England, into Edinburgh and then past the beautiful Cairngorms National Park to Inverness, then onto Elgin. Elgin is in north Scotland and is at the start of the Malt Whisky trail, where over half of Scotland's malt whisky's exist. We spent a day exploring the town and then caught a bus to the coast (5 miles away). We visited the town of Lossiemouth which is also an RAF base and pilot training area. Fighter jets frequently flew overhead.

Scotland treated us to beautiful sunny days. We took a bus to Dufftown and walked a 12 mile circuit over a forested mountains to Aberlour, along the Spey River, then along the Fiddich River back to Dufftown. Aberlour is home to several distilleries as well as Walkers Shortbread. On our walk we saw lots of wild flowers, hares, rabbits, many birds and a real treat was to see a wild deer in the forest. At the end of our walk we toured the Glenfiddich distillery and sampled a wee dram.

Next stop travelling south was Aberdeen on the north east coast of Scotland. It is the administration centre for the North Sea oil rigs. We visited the Maritime museum that had a wonderful exhibit on the oil rigs that included a 1:30 scale model of a oil rig. We explored the city area and walked to old Aberdeen which has one of Scotland's oldest bridges.

We travelled down the coast in foggy weather to Edinburgh. We caught up with Sam's niece and partner, who had just moved to the city and started work. We saw as much of Edinburgh as we could through the fog, visiting the castle and walking back into the city down the Royal Mile. The next day was bright and sunny as we caught the train to England

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Photos

Dufftown
Dufftown countryside

Edinburgh Castle
In the fog