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.