A Wee Bit On Edinburgh
If I could say a wee bit about Scotland, it might include descriptions such as: rugged beauty, a rainbow of greens, cool stones, warming scotch, a love of tatties, gingers, tartans, all things fried, sweeties and bag pipes. Really though, there is much more to express from our short, 10 day stay in Scotland. This post is solely dedicated to Edinburgh.
What an outstanding opportunity Daniel and I had to stay with the family of a good friend while in Scotland! We were overwhelmed with the hospitality of Neil Bisset and Rachel Way in Edinburgh, and with Muriel and Ian Bisset in Haddington. A heart-felt thank you to each of them and to Anya for her plentiful and thoughtful emailing about all things Scottish and especially for connecting us with her lovely family.
We had to smile when we found out we were staying with a Scot who was indeed very “ginger”, though I’m sorry Neil I know you don’t like to be called that, and a Welsh who is now selling kilts and hip flasks in Edinburgh! As you already know from Dan’s previous post, our first evening included a trip to the local chippy where we found that indeed Scots really do love their deep fried foods! However, that first evening we also took part in the torchlight procession which commenced Hogmanay, the Scots word for New Years. Scotland takes their New Years seriously with Hogmanay lasting a mere four days. The culminating event for us was the Street Party on Dec. 31st. We enjoyed the live music, dancing and fireworks!
The Royal Mile was where we found many laughs popping into the oh-so touristy souvenir shops, a tummy warming whisky tour, the biggest baked potato known to man (or woman), the cutest little shop for cream tea (a pot of tea served with a scone, thick cream and jam) and the cherry on top, Edinburgh Castle.
I loved the sign on the baked potato shop: Hottest Tattie In Town. Dan had his potato filled with cheddar, sour cream and pineapple where I went for the more traditional cheddar and beans. There must have been at least 20 different fillings available!
To wash these potatoes down we proceeded up the mile to The Whisky Experience. Well, we both had an experience all right! I can confidently say that Dan really enjoyed his. I mean, look again at the photo and note the longing and love in his eyes! Did you know that 2% of the whisky evaporates from the barrels each year during the maturing process? They call this the angel’s share. The most interesting part of this tour for me, was putting my underdeveloped sniffer to work in the classroom component of the tour. There are four main regions producing Scotch Whisky in Scotland and each of these regions’ whiskies are distinct in flavour and smell. Very fruity notes are found in the Speyside region whiskies where an Islay region whisky is characterized by a very deep, robust, smoky, and quite peaty flavour. The Lowland’s produce a malt whisky that is quite light, mellow and citrusy, where the Highland’s malt whiskies are typically the sweetest with either floral and honey notes or vanilla. The learning was quite fun for me. I mean, who wouldn’t enjoy an interactive, colour coded wheel that you could scratch & sniff and then open for a picture of a banana to represent the fruitiness of the region’s whisky! Dan couldn’t stop laughing at how repelling I actually found the artificial banana smell. With all the fruits available, why would you choose banana to represent the fruity notes in the whisky? I can still smell the banana…perhaps they should re-name the tour to the Scottish Banana Experience 
Off to explore the Highlands now!
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Yes, Dan is in suspended animation with that whiskey.
I think the lederhosen is out and the kilt is in.