On the way to the Cairngorms...

Saturday, 30th April - (Catch-up)

After leaving Pitlochry, we decided to go and see Blair Castle. What is it about castles? Maybe too many Knights and Maidens movies as a child. 

Blair Castle is also stunning, and has been sort of in the same family for generations, give and take some ructions during the Jacobite disputes. 

One of the Lords in the 19th added a hall in which he displayed all his weapons. We couldn't take photo's but the display is magnificent and consists of swords, spears, knives, dirks, shields, and all displayed in such a way as to be decorative.

The castle is white, and is repainted every fifteen years. Some paint job!!! It was a self-guided tour and the rooms were superb, and dripped money!! It was certainly a different time in history, and I guess they could do whatever they wanted, including hunting.

(I don't approve of hunting just for the sake of it, but I have included a photo of how the antlers of the deer are displayed. It may represent many magnificent beasts, but it may also have been food on the table).

The other fascinating thing was the display of the tabbards(?) or soldiers uniforms, and an example of chain mail clothing.

The last two photo's are for Anthony, to see some of the chairs on display.

Next, the week in Aviemore...

Up to the Mountains...

Saturday, 29th April - (Catch-up)

Don't you just love turrety, towery rooms?

On the way up to Aviemore, we visited Glamis Castle, (pronounced GLAMS (?) This was the childhood home of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, and is juuuuuust stunning! So well organised, and we took the tour, which lasted for an hour, and our guide was originally from upstate New York, and still had her accent. She had been in Scotland for some 25 years, and certainly knew her stuff. The castle is beautiful inside, but you can;t take photo's, so we bought the book.
Had a yummy bowl of Pea and Ham soup in the restaurant, and the place was packed with people both having lunch, and watching the Royal Wedding on a huge flat screen telly. We'd been in there on arriving at the castle, and had a cuppa tea, and when we returned to have the soup, the same people were still there, glued to the proceedings!
One of those times when you will always remember where you were when something like that was happening.

View from our room in Pitlochry

Went on to Pitlochry, as we couldn't get into the Scandinavian Village at Aviemore until Saturday. These towns up here remind us of places like Thredbo, etc., as they are geared to walkers, hikers, skiers, and the town has about 10 "outdoor" clothes shops. Got some proper walking socks for Lee and some stuff for the kids. The hotel was up on the hill, with a great view, and a huge room, with very comfortable bed. Again, the duvet/doona thing, and the owner told me next day she never thinks that people might want a lighter cover for summer!

Nice meal in the hotel restaurant, but the guy who waited on us was a bit dull, and a little disorganised, both that night and in the morning for breakfast.

Next morning, we went on to Aviemore and road was not that good, and we discovered we'd taken what was probably the old road, and when we got to a certain point, we came down to the new one, and had a better run into Aviemore. Some remnant snow still on the mountains, and this town is quite nice and even more geared for skiers, walkers, etc.

The rest of Edinburgh...

Tuesday, 27th April to Saturday, 29th - (Big Catch-up)

The rest of this week started with me going in to the city alone to do the banking transfer. I missed the train, and stood for a while on the local station, but it was great, and quiet. Found the bank easily enough but they wouldn't transfer the money as I didn't have an HSBC account. So, I paid cash into the required account and all was done.

Got back in time for a simple lunch, and then later we had the rest of the savoury mince we'd made. My pain in the side was still giving me gyp, so we had separate beds, and both got better sleeps.

On the Wednesday, we went out to St Andrews to see the golf course, but the access wasn't good as they were doing roadworks everywhere, and so we went into town and had a coffee, bought some fresh made sandwiches, and then a bit of a walk 'round. Then drove down to the beachfront, which is very pleasant, but a little breezy.

After St. Andrews, we drove back towards Edinburgh via a garden which we'd seen was open, called Cambo. Stunning place, and they have rooms as well, and beautiful plants for sale!!! (The other thing we can't bring back) Had our sandwiches before we went into the garden, and spent quite a while there. Beautiful walled garden, with lots of really interesting bulbs and plants, and of course with the climate they have, everything was looking really nice. The only problem with being here so early in the season is missing what will be a magnificent display of roses.

The trip back is littered with small towns and many roundabouts, and a different aspect of the bridges over the Firth.

On the Thursday, we went back to the city and Lee spent some time in the National Library of Scotland and found some references to some of her forebears, while I had a nice walk up and own the Royal Mile and spent money!!! Lee was longer than we both thought she might be, but I couldn't get in to the reading room to find out what had happened to her, because I hadn't registered! After the library we went and had lunch at a place called 'The Filling Station', and got a really nice BLT wrap. Quite tasty, and made a change from the toasted kind.

Then, back across the bridge to the apartment, and Friday back across to get some more supplies for the trip up to Aviemore, in the Cairngorms.