Jeremiah Watt

The Hostel was just fine, we slept well enough and for 15.00 per person what do you expect. Breakfast was a simple affair of some toast and tea.

We are entring into Fort George over the draw bridge. This is the last fortification built in Scotland. This one though is different than all the rest as it shows some modern tendencies in fort construction. FT George has earthen walls of 60 feet thickness, and each wall is a moat surround, each wall is also lined on its 40foot hieght with smooth rock. This makes a wall very indestructible to enemy catapult and canon fire since it is just dirt and not stacked rock. The Fort is still in use today, and is a final staging point for troops headed to Iraq at the moment. In the past it has housed trining for troops headed to every UK skirmish, especially Afghanistan, India, Burma, Cameroon and South Africa.

Today the barracks house both a historical Museum and also young troops in specialized training for extended military missions that require a special soldier.

A HIghland Pipe Players "Sporran", usually made os Angora, or as we see here Horse Hair, but we have also seen them done in the long hair of the highland cattle.

The horn of a local sheep has been turned into a gorgeous Snuff Horn. The horn is cleaned, scraped on the outside to get a good clean color, then it is dipped in boiling water to soften and while hot the curling process is begun. It takes several dips and restarts on the horn to achieve the graceful curled effect............not to mention some practise.

Here is something that my knife crazy boy would love to find, an antique Dirk. Showe here in the traditinsl leather coverd wooden scabbard, the handle is a piece of Bog Oak, that has been carved to resemble an intricate braid pattern. The top of the handles is adorned with a orange colored stone known locally as a Cairngorm.

We leave the shores side location of FT. George and begin the ascent inot the area that is known as the Cairngorms, a very rugged area coverd with dense forests, livley streams and sheep aplenty.

We are in the heart of the finest Malted Whiskey distilling area in the world as a Scot will tell you. There are almost 600 distillers in the region, and I think that it said only some 50 or so have any distribution beyond that of direct sales at the distillery. SO for Scotch lovers the tasting is the only way to find the new ones we haven't heard of.

Without doubt this has been one of my favorite drives of this trip, with narrow roads and very little traffic.

Now here was a classic piece of iron that was really getting the attention, behind the car stands the BALMORAL Castle........but for now at least all eyes are on the 1956 Jaguar. I thought Pine was going to try and climb in this beast, but fortunatley he found his good manners and just opened the door and sat down........Ia'm kidding, take it easy.

Here we are at the Castle that I think the kids have been waiting on the most, that is Balmoral Castle in the background. Balmoral is the summer home for the Queen and her favored estate at which to visit. Once you walk the splendid grounds with huge trees collected from all over the world, the forests of huge Pine and Fir trees you will know why. The inside of the castle is just amazing, even though we only had addmitance to one room, you could tell it was opulent. One of the most amazing features was the gardens and the flower beds.

A cool little car was sitting out behind the gardeners work area, and it turns out it is the SPORTY version of a Smart Car which is made in Switzerland. It is a very quick, two seater that will be in America soon enough.

The last CAstle of the day was a surprise, as none of us had even heard nor planned on it, the sign to Craites Castle just popped up and we turned in. NOw the Castle itself has a family living in it, and as such we are not allowed inside. BUt the garden grounds are open to the public. The gardens are just spectacular, even the kids thought they were fun to take a look at.

Supper this eve turned out to be one of the best I can remember. We pulled inot a relatively modern urban Pub called the Ploughman's Pub. It was chosen by my crew simply becasue it had a lot of cars parked outside and the assumption was made that the food had to be good, and indeed it was. I had a pie called " Fail me never", and consisted of minced & onioned beef with a gravy in it. This was placed inot a nicely browned Yorkie pastry, and along side of it was an item called "Skirlie", which as it turns out is nothing more than oven browned dry Oat Meal with a little hint of spice added inot it. What a fantastic meal this turned out to be, and such simple ingredients. Colleen had a Stilton stuffed Pork Chop, along with Neeps and a Beet root. The kids each had a different kind of fish. BUt desert was where we really went out of the way, we had another go at the Sticky Pudding and Custard........WOW. Then we had a Chocolate brownie with Maple sauce which was also a sock roller. And a simple tart with lemon, you have to understand that they do not make their fruit items as sweet over here, and manage to maintain more of the fruit flavor.

Good night and God Bless