Ystdy we (Missie and I) were tourists for a day and did a bus trip up to The Highlands with the NessBus. We were the first picked up and as we were travelling as just one person, so helpful not having to pay for Missie as people don't count here as a person, we got to sit right up front next to the driver, best seat on the bus!! Woot woot hehe. After collecting the rest of the peps who were coming with us we left Edinburgh and headed north. Dougie (our driver) kept us entertained with stories about Scotlands history pretty much the whole way and when he wasn't telling us stories he played Scottish music, aka music by Scottish artists so some pop some traditional some rock etc. I learnt all about Rob Roy, William Wallace, the Bruce brothers, a bit about Mary Queen of Scots, quite a few English kings (most of who seemed rather stupid trying to come up and take over Scotland and thinking they could do better than the ones before, though some sounded like they actually succeeded, for awhile atlas). We also learnt a bit about buildings and stuff like some of the castles, and the Firth of Forth Bridges. Also learnt I still don't like seatbelts, at all.
We drove past the back of Stirling Castle on our way to Deanston Distillery which is just outside of Doune (where we saw the castle that is used in the Outlander series). At Deanston Distillery we did a tour and learnt lots. Like they use Jim Beam casks as in America you are only able to use a cask for one lot of bourbon so they are real cheap and can be used for 2-3 lots of whisky and makes the whisky taste good, or so they say. Also learnt that its fun and a lil hypnotic watching the spinny thing go round in the Mash House mixing all the evil barley with water. Learnt what the different shaped stills do, short and fat ones are for heavy not sweet whisky (yup I forgot the technical word they used lol), the high skinny stills are for lighter more sweet whisky. Deanston has the high skinny stills. We learnt that the whisky needs to be locked away from the moment it is put in a barrel else they have to pay tax on it from then, also learnt that the storage hall was awesome and would make a fun party hehe. Then we had a tasting, that in itself was highly entertaining as there were a few Americans on the tour and they were saying how it was only 10 in the morning how could they have an alcoholic drink lol they so haven't lived if they aint ever had a drink at or before 10am. I had two tastings, one was their standard whisky from a Jim Beam cask which I did not really like, sweet whisky is weird and disappointing. The other one I had was one that had sat in a Jim Beam cask for a while then stored in a brand new oak cask to give it a spicy flavour and this one was much nicer.
After the distillery we kept driving north (well obviously hehe) and passed some real nice lochs, took some pics of Loch Lubnaig from the bus so not the clearest (far too cold to even think about unwinding a window, same applies for all the bus pics I took). We then stopped for a photo stop at the Glen Coe range, which so many people were saying were real nice and blah blah and all I thought was is that them, they aint very tall. For everyone who has ever said that The Highlands are like NZ and in particular the Sth Island, I just wanna say it is like NZ but like the Nth Island in my opinion, not dramatic or gorgeous enough to be like the Sth Island. In fact most of the trip felt more like driving to bro's than anything. After saying that though did get some nice pics of the Glen Coe range :)
Then back on the bus to head to Fort Augustus and Nessie :) along the way a hairy coo was spotted just off the road so we stopped and all got off the bus to take pics and say hi. It was a friendly hairy coo and came over to the fence to say hi and chill with us for a bit, but there was a boat waiting for us so we had to get back on the bus and head off. At Fort Augustus we had time for a lil bit of a wander before we were due on the boat to go find Nessie. Seemed like a nice but tiny town, quite liked the canal and the whatchamacall them things that raise/lower the water in a canal - lol I'm so good with words aye :p Anyhow after a quick explore we got on the boat and just wanna say if you have ever been to Milford Sounds then this boat trip is a rip, was boring as and no great scenery but then I have probably just been spoiled growing up in NZ. On the plus side Missie swears she saw Nessie and that Nessie is actually just lil like her and is purple like her and that people have just been so afraid of what they don't know that they have made up crazy stories and totally exaggerated her size and also made her into a monster when in reality she is just a lil shy and scared of loud noises, like boats, so she hides and just watches a lot. So there you go, Nessie is real so it was worth the boat trip :)
After Fort Augustus we headed back down to travel the long road home, we stopped just outside of Spean Bridge at the War Memorial as it has views of the Ben Nevis Range (Ben Nevis is the highest peak in Scotland at the grand old height of nowhere near as tall as my mountain, Mt Taranaki). I did like seeing all the snow on the hills, there and Glen Coe, that was nice and I also liked the war memorial, and there was a memorial garden just off to the side which I had a quiet wander in. We then had a quick stop at Pattack Falls, a lil stream with some rocks that made a cute lil waterfall. The next and final stop was at Pitlochry which was a small town we stopped at basically for food and toilets. It was funny as pretty much everyone, including Dougie, commented on how all the shops were shut and it was only 5.30pm, lol welcome to a small town people. I actually like it when shops are shut at a sensible time like that. The rest of the drive home was pretty quiet, couple of stories told, some music played, watched the sun set and chilled.
Pic time :)
We drove past the back of Stirling Castle on our way to Deanston Distillery which is just outside of Doune (where we saw the castle that is used in the Outlander series). At Deanston Distillery we did a tour and learnt lots. Like they use Jim Beam casks as in America you are only able to use a cask for one lot of bourbon so they are real cheap and can be used for 2-3 lots of whisky and makes the whisky taste good, or so they say. Also learnt that its fun and a lil hypnotic watching the spinny thing go round in the Mash House mixing all the evil barley with water. Learnt what the different shaped stills do, short and fat ones are for heavy not sweet whisky (yup I forgot the technical word they used lol), the high skinny stills are for lighter more sweet whisky. Deanston has the high skinny stills. We learnt that the whisky needs to be locked away from the moment it is put in a barrel else they have to pay tax on it from then, also learnt that the storage hall was awesome and would make a fun party hehe. Then we had a tasting, that in itself was highly entertaining as there were a few Americans on the tour and they were saying how it was only 10 in the morning how could they have an alcoholic drink lol they so haven't lived if they aint ever had a drink at or before 10am. I had two tastings, one was their standard whisky from a Jim Beam cask which I did not really like, sweet whisky is weird and disappointing. The other one I had was one that had sat in a Jim Beam cask for a while then stored in a brand new oak cask to give it a spicy flavour and this one was much nicer.
After the distillery we kept driving north (well obviously hehe) and passed some real nice lochs, took some pics of Loch Lubnaig from the bus so not the clearest (far too cold to even think about unwinding a window, same applies for all the bus pics I took). We then stopped for a photo stop at the Glen Coe range, which so many people were saying were real nice and blah blah and all I thought was is that them, they aint very tall. For everyone who has ever said that The Highlands are like NZ and in particular the Sth Island, I just wanna say it is like NZ but like the Nth Island in my opinion, not dramatic or gorgeous enough to be like the Sth Island. In fact most of the trip felt more like driving to bro's than anything. After saying that though did get some nice pics of the Glen Coe range :)
Then back on the bus to head to Fort Augustus and Nessie :) along the way a hairy coo was spotted just off the road so we stopped and all got off the bus to take pics and say hi. It was a friendly hairy coo and came over to the fence to say hi and chill with us for a bit, but there was a boat waiting for us so we had to get back on the bus and head off. At Fort Augustus we had time for a lil bit of a wander before we were due on the boat to go find Nessie. Seemed like a nice but tiny town, quite liked the canal and the whatchamacall them things that raise/lower the water in a canal - lol I'm so good with words aye :p Anyhow after a quick explore we got on the boat and just wanna say if you have ever been to Milford Sounds then this boat trip is a rip, was boring as and no great scenery but then I have probably just been spoiled growing up in NZ. On the plus side Missie swears she saw Nessie and that Nessie is actually just lil like her and is purple like her and that people have just been so afraid of what they don't know that they have made up crazy stories and totally exaggerated her size and also made her into a monster when in reality she is just a lil shy and scared of loud noises, like boats, so she hides and just watches a lot. So there you go, Nessie is real so it was worth the boat trip :)
After Fort Augustus we headed back down to travel the long road home, we stopped just outside of Spean Bridge at the War Memorial as it has views of the Ben Nevis Range (Ben Nevis is the highest peak in Scotland at the grand old height of nowhere near as tall as my mountain, Mt Taranaki). I did like seeing all the snow on the hills, there and Glen Coe, that was nice and I also liked the war memorial, and there was a memorial garden just off to the side which I had a quiet wander in. We then had a quick stop at Pattack Falls, a lil stream with some rocks that made a cute lil waterfall. The next and final stop was at Pitlochry which was a small town we stopped at basically for food and toilets. It was funny as pretty much everyone, including Dougie, commented on how all the shops were shut and it was only 5.30pm, lol welcome to a small town people. I actually like it when shops are shut at a sensible time like that. The rest of the drive home was pretty quiet, couple of stories told, some music played, watched the sun set and chilled.
Pic time :)
Deanston Distillery
Spare casks
Stills
Traditionally stored in the storage hall
Missie getting her alcohol on
Glen Coe Range
Our bus at Glen Coe stop
Hairy Coo
Missie has spotted Nessie
The nice flat hills surrounding Loch Ness
Cool trick on the boat windows...
Fort Augustus canal thingy
Ben Nevis Range and War Memorial, a selection
Pattack Falls
Scottish dude driving another tour that we just happened to run into throughout the day, he said hi to Missie :) we was happy hehe
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