Week in Review: Week 23 — Away On The Road

This week didn’t seem too busy, but when we reflected back on everything we did, we realized we did a ton! We did our house sit in the Royal Deeside area, which is a prime location to follow the Castle and Whisky trails. We also got great tips from the folks we were pet siting for, so we ended up seeing some really cool places. From there we headed towards Aberdeen and the east coast, where we continued to be surrounded by castles and whisky, plus the beautiful rugged coastline. All in all we ended up seeing 7 castles (plus one castle twice), 3 distilleries, 1 stone circle, 1 cooperage, and a bunch of beautiful walks. It was a great week, especially considering we really didn’t have much planned – we just hopped in our car and drove. That’s our favourite way to travel!

Highlight of the week

Sharleen: Heilan coos. After mentioning all of the cool things we saw this week, you may be surprised that my highlight was seeing some cows, but they are honestly the most adorable animals! Cute enough to make me want to have a farm. Ever since we arrived in Scotland we’ve been looking for Highland cows (Heilan coos is what they are called in Scotland). We saw our first two while driving past Balmoral Castle – the Royal Family’s summer home. Unfortunately the Queen is currently at Balmoral, so we didn’t want to pull over and take pictures of her cows. It was another 4 days before we saw some cuties at the Macallan Distillery. It was the best part of the distillery in my opinion, and we spent close to an hour hanging out and watching them. We then headed to Cardhu Distillery where they have three coos. Again, definitely a highlight of visiting the distilleries - although I am slowly developing a taste for scotch.

Darrell: Speyside Cooperage. When you think of Scotland, one of the first things that comes to mind is Scotch. I’m a huge fan of the “Water of Life”, so obviously we planned on visiting a bunch of distilleries as we made our way across Scotland. What I didn’t expect to visit was the only working cooperage in the UK. The Speyside Cooperage provides casks for most of the distilleries in the Speyside region – where the majority of Scotland’s scotch is produced. They create, repair, and refurbish close to 150,000 annually, and there are only 12.5 employees working on the casks (one works part time as he is 63 and very close to retiring)!

The cooperage was an awesome place we stumbled upon during one of our drives, and it ended up being the best tour we have seen so far on our trip. Tours run every half an hour, and during the tour you get a great history of the Speyside Cooperage and you get to see the skilled coopers at work. It was so impressive to see them in action! They are also some of the fastest coopers in the world. They all beat the world’s fastest time for creating a cask when timed by the Guinness Book of World Records. Their employee who did it the fastest had an impressive 3 minute 3 second time, which is crazy, considering the previous record was over 7 minutes!

One of our favourite parts of the cooperage was seeing the huge pyramids of barrels in their yard. We couldn’t get a good picture of it, and drones were not allowed. It would be worth checking out their website (click here) for pictures and video, and to read up on the history of this place if it is something you are interested in. It was super cool!

Least favourite part of the week

Sharleen: Spending Thanksgiving away from home. We both really love Thanksgiving. For me, it officially ends summer and kicks off the start to the colder months. It’s when I can look forward to wearing scarves, boots, drink warm lattes, and get nice and cozy! It also means lots of family time, game nights, and weekends indoors. Both of our families always have amazing Thanksgiving meals, so it made us a little homesick. It also kicks off the start to all of the amazing holidays that we will be spending away from family for the first time! We had our own Thanksgiving celebration, as we enjoyed a few drams of scotch at the cozy bar inside the Douneside House. But it was a little sad for us this week when we knew we were missing out on one of our favourite holidays back home.

Darrell: Following (or just finding) drone rules and regulations. Our drone is really awesome, and we got to fly it for the first time this week! We bought it back in Munich, about 2 weeks ago, however we’ve delayed flying it until we felt comfortable with all of the rules and regulations. Following all of the rules and regulations is kind of a pain in the butt. Not because we don’t want to follow them, but because it seems almost IMPOSSIBLE to find a clear outline of what we need to do and what we can’t do. Do we need insurance? Do we need to label the drone? Do we have to register it? Do we need a license? Where can we fly it? Where can’t we fly? When we find safe zone maps, why don’t they match other safe zone maps? It totally makes sense that there should be strict rules and regs, especially when a small drone could have such a large impact to the public, wildlife or any kind of airplane or helicopter. But, it’s honestly so annoying that we may not have purchased it had we known it would be this complicated. Although the drone is really awesome, and it will be a fun toy/tool to use going forward, it also seems like a bit of a headache!

Favourite city/town/village visited

Sharleen and Darrell: Tarland. The town of Tarland isn’t anything too crazy. However, the location for us was amazing! First, we were so fortunate to be able to stay at the beautiful Douneside House for our pet sit. The place was amazing, and the walks and gardens were gorgeous. Over our three nights there we easily spent almost 8 hours walking the grounds and enjoying the views. We also really enjoyed a few drams of scotch at their cozy bar. The location of Douneside was perfect for us to head west and explore the town of Ballater, pass by Balmoral Castle – the Queen’s summerhouse, explore the beautiful Royal Locknagar distillery, and enjoy the gorgeous autumn colours of the Highlands. When we headed east, we were on the Castle Trail where we had 3 gorgeous castles and gardens within a 30-minute drive. There was so much to see around there, our 3.5 days didn’t seem like enough time!

Favourite meal of the week

Sharleen: Ramen. It seems so weird to have ramen be my favourite meal, but Darrell and I think it’s because back home we had some sort of Asian soup at least once a week. For us this is total comfort food, and something we have only had as a treat in certain places along our trip. Not all towns we visit have good ramen or pho, so we’ve only had it about 5 times (and that includes making it ourselves twice!). Now that we are back in some major cities, we took advantage of the diverse food choices and had some awesome ramen. It was on a cool, windy day, so it was extra comforting!

Darrell: Liver meal. We popped into a small bistro on the side of the highway on our day out exploring castles, and I had a great plate of liver, bacon, onions, veggies, and potatoes. I haven’t had liver and onions in FOREVER! I know that liver is not for everyone and even for me was an acquired taste, but every once in a while it’s delicious! I can remember my dad ordering this a few times while we were out for dinner and getting to taste his, and this brought me right back to being a little kid. It’s really amazing how different things evoke different and random memories, but this meal definitely had me reminiscing about those meals as a child.

This week we are back to city life and looking forward to exploring Edinburgh! Our next house sit kicks off today, and we will be in town for 12 days. We are in a great location, right in the heart of Edinburgh. It will be perfect for us to explore the city and live like locals. This is also the last major city we will be staying in for close to a month, so it will be nice to visit some shops, go to some museums, and enjoy some more diverse food! We think this is the place we will try haggis for the first time, so wish us luck!