Mostly Islay and Whisky

Since I’m with Luca I don’t think I’ll have as much time to blog, but I know people want to see photos so I’ll just use this as a way to share some.

We started the trip by meeting up in Glasgow (I had a long layover in Reykjavik and he had to wait a long time for me at the Glasgow airport but it all worked out).

Dumbarton

We stayed one night just outside Glasgow and went to the Dumbarton castle, grabbed dinner and tried to sleep early since we had a 2.5 hour drive to Kennacraig where we picked up the ferry to Islay at 930am! So we woke up by 6 on our first full day in Scotland.

The ferry was large and comfortable but it was a 2 hour slow trip
On the ferry
Not the most exciting photos but a nice ride
Random distillery photos — these happen to be at Kilchoman which is the newest (9th) but is committed to still doing everything the old fashioned way and using barley and of course peat from Islay

For the record, we made it to 6 distilleries. Only a few actual tours of the facilities (Kilchoman and Lagavulin), a few cask tastings (the most expensive “tour” where you just go, sit in a room where the barrels are stored and get to sample from casks directly — usually much stronger ABV— Laphroig and Bunnahabhain) and a a few places where we just went to their tasting rooms that are open to the public, no need to make a reservation (Ardbeg and Ardnahoe). All good, we bought a bunch more — though I might be whisky-d out for today.

Probably the best known three — Laphroig, Ardbeg, and Lagavulin are all down one (long) street from one another. So we drove to the middle one and walked the 30 to 45 mins between them. Otherwise the drivers are asked to take away the “drivers drams” because Scotland has pretty strict drink and drive rules. Luca only did it once and actually you get a bigger pour that way but it’s not as fun
One of our cask tastings
At Bunnahabhain. We met a father-son who were having a last trip together for awhile because the son is moving his family to Australia (dad my age, son maybe upper 30s) and has a few more drams with them
All the grist mills are made by the same manufacturer who went out of business because the quality was so good. As a result only one guy in the world now knows how to fix the machine that breaks once in a blue moon. This guy is taking a photo of his name and number.

Now some random photos of Luca (sorta) at various bars. The weather was unbelievable for Scotland — sunny and not even that windy, like 60 degrees. Really beautiful.

At the Ardbeg House which was a sorta “posh” restaurant, as our Airbnb host said — really ought to have taken photos of the inside as it was cool. of course we had cocktails before eating there.
Tee hee. Evi’s panda was with us and had an outing. it was beautiful to sit in the sun and have a few beers

Hm, a few scenery shots. We stayed at a lovely Airbnb near Port Ellen that was high up and had great views of the sea on several sides. many of these are from there. The final ones are from the returning ferry ride.

Actually this was from the pub place — our view as we had our beers

And finally, a few of the silly sheep and cows. It’s spring time and there were tons of babies, especially sheep.

Yes we did a ton of drinking — I bought a bottle to take to Iceland (booze is very pricey there and might be hard to find) — figured we’d want a not-so-wee dram after being out all day! But for now I might take a little break. Or maybe not.

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