Day 14: Airbnb and other things that rhyme with shit.

The trip is winding down. We are pretty exhausted. I don't know if you have noticed, but Annie and I are not small people. The beds in these countries do not fit our bodies. It's a constant battle. Annie would say that I take up too much of the bed. Do not believe her. It's all lies. I'm fighting for my fare share over here. 

Anyway, we are heading to Edinburgh and only have one half day there. Oh boy.   It was about a four hour drive down to the city. Oh, I forgot something important. 

Airbnb is the worst.  Our first Airbnb was going to be our first night of the trip in Dublin. If you remember Adeline cancelled on us at the last minute and we hate her for that. 

Our second Airbnb was on the Isle of Skye and there was a risk of getting stabbed. 

Our third Airbnb was for our last night in Edinburgh. The lady sent Annie an email today and asked if it was ok that the people upstairs were having a party. With music starting at 9:30 pm. Well no, that isn't ok actually. So we cancelled that reservation. 

So we don't have a place to stay for Friday night. Great. We got on our phones and Annie found a place for 100 lbs ($160 usd) on Booking.com. I watched her book it.  We always confirm the dates with each other multiple times. 

They sent the confirmation email for September 28th. Well great!  Good to know we have a hotel for ten days from now. Annie called Booking.com and they said they would call the hotel and see if they could change the dates. Great. 

They called us back about an hour later and said that they couldn't understand the person on the phone that they called from the hotel. Ok. They were going to email them and get back to us in the morning. Great. 

They called Annie in the morning but I answered since she was driving. They told me that they had gotten hold of the hotel and since we booked last minute the price would be 170 lbs. I said "No. That isn't the price agreed to. Go ahead and cancel our reservation."  I was then informed that there would be a cancellation fee.  OK. 

I informed Booking.com that I would not be paying a cancellation fee for a room that they couldn't honor the advertised price on. I informed them that either they could not charge me this fee or I could dispute it with my credit card company. The end result was the same.   After a another couple phone calls they graciously didn't charge me. Thanks!

We still don't have a hotel. Shit.  We had lunch and got back on our phones. I found a place using Expedia. Booked!  Proper date confirmed!  All is well. 

An hour later they cancelled our booking. Shit. We still don't have a hotel. I now started calling hotels. At this point we are in the city. Annie is navigating and driving. I'm calling hotels. We finally found a place. It was fine. We are exhausted. 

Oh....then we went to Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood Palace and a really good Italian place. 

Tomorrow we fly to Dublin, then JFK, then HOME. 

Cheers. 

Day 13: Glenfiddich

Today is a very strict, scheduled day. It also revolves around scotch. So I'm pretty happy about it.  First things first, if you are ever in Scotland you need to look up Trochelhill and stay there if it is at all possible.  It's an amazing B&B.  

We set out for Strathisla Distillery.  We were just heading to the tasting room and to see the grounds because I heard that they were remarkable. 

They did not disappoint. The tasting room was very nice, full of leather couches and...well...scotch.  11 am is a bit earlier than I would prefer it to be while drinking hard alcohol though. 

We left Strathisla and headed to Speyside Cooperage. These guys make the barrels. To be more specific, they repair the used barrels that have held Bourbon or Sherry in them.  They get paid by the barrel and they work very quickly.  I took videos but i don't have any pictures, sorry. When you see me in person ask to see the videos. It's worth a look. 

We were short on time and weren't able to take the proper tour. The guy at the desk felt bad for us and charged us the senior citizen price, or he saw my sweet gray sideburn hairs and thought I was of the advanced age. 

We had a lunch reservation at The Copper Dog.  It was a sweet pub, but I'm getting tired of pubs. I want a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. 

After lunch we went over to Glenfiddich for our Deconstructing Solera tour.  Solera is a process that they use for some of their scotch. 

I really like this distillery. It's still family owned, unlike many of the distilleries in the area that are owned by Chivas.  I tried to steal a sweet whisky truck. 

At the end of the tour we took three different batches of whisky and mixed them to create our own little batch.  So we are bringing our creations home. Then I filled my own bottle of Solera, bringing that home too. It's straight from the cask, so it hasn't had any water added.  

Overall not a bad day at all. Tomorrow we head to Edinburgh and finish off our trip. 

Cheers. 

Day 12: Aberlour

Back on the road we go.  We are heading to the town of Aberlour 3 1/2 hours away.   Aberlour is surrounded by distilleries, we have some tours planned and some bars on the agenda.  The drive sucks and we are pretty tired. We didn't sleep very well at the B&B in Portree. The bed sucked and Portree is kind of a dump. So there was a risk of being stabbed.  Luckily we are stab wound free. 

We made it to the town of Aberlour just in time for our Aberlour distillery tour. 

The history of the distillery was interesting, and the stills were incredible!

The tour guide informed us that it isn't smoke and mirrors and that all of their single malt is made here.  After thoroughly touring the area we went to the tasting room. 

They used to let customers bottle their own batch, but the man shut them down.   Even the Scottish Man sucks. 

We sampled six types of scotch, some of them straight from the cask so the alcohol content was around 60%. I like scotch, but good god. That was dangerous. 

After the tour we took a nap. In our car. Don't judge us. 

We grabbed some dinner at The Mash Tun, I made reservations three weeks ago. It paid off.  Good bar, good food, limited seating. 

I have been crossing my fingers that the B&B for this part of the trip would be awesome. It is. Trochelhill. We got here late, but it's beautiful and the beds don't suck. Also, the risk of stab wounds is very low. 

Cheers. 

Day 11: Hiking in Scotland

Another big day planned for today and it is raining quite a bit. We drove north to The Old Man of Storr first thing. 

It was raining and super foggy,  we hiked a few miles and went around Mr. Storr. 

After the hike we drove back to the closed Oyster Shed from the day before. Success!  Cheap oysters, lobster and scallops.  The oysters are even cheaper if you shuck your own, but I'm not a scientist. Please deliver my food ready to be consumed. 

We were cold and needed coffee so we asked the Oyster Lady where to go.  She told us that there was a tee shop in Eynort. So we were Eynort bound. She failed to mention that the Tee shop is the ONLY thing in Eynort. They should just call the town "Tee Town", population: 2. 

We were driving on a single track road across the countryside. No houses in sight.

Ok! We are on the right track!  Then we found it! It kind of stood out...

There is absolutely nothing around this place. There were about ten other people  that were in need of caffeine. The coffee was ok. 

Next up was the Fairy Glen. Fairies for sure live there. It was magical and now you have a friend that probably/maybe has fairy connections. 

We really did a lot today! Next up, Quaring. This is another hike. We actually didn't make it all the way up. It was raining, and getting dark and foggy. I was a little worried about getting back to the car.  The views were beyond impressive. Scotland just kills it. I wish the blog pictures weren't uploaded at such a poor quality. 

That last picture is of a sheep that blocked the road. He was super awkward and just looked at us for a while. 

Tomorrow we leave Skye and head to Aberlour for two days of Distillery touring. 

Cheers. 

Day 10: Driving across Scotland.

Today is a pretty big day. We are leaving Inverness and heading a few hours to the  west side of Scotland to the Isle of Skye. Before leaving the city we went by The Battle of Culloden. Long story short, some Scots rebelled and some English really killed them. Way bad. 

The battlefield was interesting but this cow really stole the show. His hair is ridiculous and he loves Annie. 

We swung by The House of Culloden. Which was just a house but a pretty cool one.   

Then we drove west to Urquhart Castle. Nothing special here. It was right on Loch Ness but there were a lot of people. Probably better to look at from a boat. 

From there we continued our journey to Eilean Donan Castle. This one was awesome. No pictures allowed from the inside, but the outside of this place speaks for itself. 

Our journey continued west to Talisker Distillery. We didn't have time for a tour, but we did try the scotch. I have a bottle of Talisker Storm at home so I knew a little bit of what to expect. Very peaty and a bit intense. Talisker Skye was pretty good. 

We tried to eat at the Oyster Shed but they had just closed. Very disappointing. We are going to try to get there tomorrow. We did make it over to the Fairy Pools. 

The views on this island are really incredible so far.  Lots of rolling hills and green mountain sides. 

We finished the night off with dinner at Sea Breezes in the tiny town of Portree. The seafood was amazing.  Oysters, mussels, halibut, salmon. All amazing. Yes we ate all of that food. We are representatives of America.  Tomorrow we do more activities on Skye, and check that Oyster Shed out. 

Cheers. 

Day 9: Scotland things.

Today we flew to Scotland!  Before that I had to fix my suitcase so that it would survive the journey. 

Mission accomplished. 

We had a bit too much fun last night and are regretting some of our life decisions. Luckily we are just flying to Inverness today. Not a lot of sightseeing. 

We got to Inverness and the countryside is looking very promising. 

Short blog for today. Tomorrow we are heading to the Isle of Sky for a couple days.  Going to do some hiking and probably find some scotch to sample. 

Cheers. 

Day 8: Our hosts run out of whiskey.

We don't have any big plans for the day.  Just hanging out in Cambridge with the Hamiltons. After eating breakfast and drinking coffee we went walking around the town. 

We stopped in at Kings College. It was very peaceful and the stained glass was incredible.  

A lot of people were out "punting". Basically hanging out in these boats and having a guide push them up and down the river that goes through town. It was particularly amusing to watch the people that didn't hire the guide, but just rented the boat. There is a trick to steering those things, and these people did not know it. 

We visited a couple bars, I finally found some beer with some hops. They sell wine to go at the store. It's hilarious. Just a wine glass that is full of wine. With a plastic top that you peel off. 

We ended the night back at Aaron and Esther's house with another couple that is staying with them. Good food, great wine and way too much whiskey.  

Tomorrow we fly to Inverness, Scotland. 

Cheers. 

Day 7: Tons of British in London.

Hello. I'm tired. It's been a long week. We woke up this morning in Cambridge and jumped on a 45 minute train to London.  We started off by going to the London Tower which was pretty cool.  We were given a tour of the area and it was super entertaining. The tour guide called Americans "tax dodgers", which was amusing. 

I get really bad service in London. Which makes it very hard to do the important things. 

Also, this happened:

 

Not impressed London. That name is tainted. 

After the London Tower we started wandering through the city. Unfortunately people started getting off of work. There were British people everywhere!  I would go so far as to say they make up the majority of London. Unbelievable. 

From what I can tell, The locals get off work and go directly to the pub. There are so many people drinking they spill out onto the sidewalks.  It was a rather unpleasant experience trying to navigate through all of this.  Also, our feet are tired and ready for a break. 

We grabbed some dinner and headed over to Parliament and Big Ben but it was already dark so the pictures aren't great. 

Neither of us love London. Too many people for our tastes. The architecture was amazing but we are ready for a bit of down time. Which just so happens to come tomorrow!  We are still in Cambridge for the next two nights. Currently we have zero planned activities.   So if the blog is just blank tomorrow you will know why. 

Cheers. 

Day 6: That cow had it comin.

Before I get into the events of the day I'd like to have a real discussion with you. Let's talk about the sinks in England. 

This is your standard sink. On the right you have cold water. On the left you have hot water.   This is very convenient. Say for example you would like to simultaneously burn your left hand while cooling your right hand. Well you are in luck. Maybe you would like to alternate between cooling both hands and burning the shit out of both hands. England has got you covered. 5/5 stars. Would burn again. 

After burning my hand we set out on our last day in the southern portion of England.   We went to a small bridge crossing the small river in Oxford. 

The water is crystal clear and amazing. If you look close you can see a decent sized fish in the sun as well. They were everywhere, but not as big as the drunk bar patron had told us they would be. 

We drove down the street to the Bombay Saphire Distillery. 

I don't care for gin, so that's the last we will speak of it. 

We left our little Home of Oxford and drove south to Winchester.  It is an adorable small town, which is becoming a recurring theme. I LOVE the small towns we have visited so far.   We wandered around until I spotted the cathedral through some trees. 

Except it turned out that it was just a church. We are dumb tourists. We did eventually find the cathedral. 

It was ok. Jane Austin is in there. So there's that. After lunch we set out for Cambridge!  This is an exciting part of the trip because we are staying with our friends, Esther and Aaron.  After a few hours we got to their house and it is fantastic. 

After dinner we poured some beers to go and set out for the local pub. We arrived at the pub but had not finished our beers.  Aaron asked us if we wanted to see the cows, like the good Americans we are we said yes.   So we walked across a park, and there in the middle of the park are grazing cows.  No fence, no barrier, just cows.   This is when things got tricky. 

Aaron pulled up some grass and started walking towards one of the Bulls. Now, I assumed that he knew what he was doing. Maybe this is part of the gig, maybe he feeds the cows for all of his guests. It seemed to be going pretty well. 

 

It was at this point that the cow decided he didn't like Aaron, or his stupid grass.   He kind of slammed his head into Aaron's hand and started to chase him a little bit. 

It was at this point that I realized that Aaron was in over his head.  It seems that this was not "part of the gig".  I would be prepared to back Aaron up if a human was chasing him.  But he is on his own when it comes to bovine defense.  Luckily for Aaron he survived the encounter and we carried on to the local bar.  It would have sucked if we would have died.  Then the Naylors would have been known as the the people that watched the cow kill Aaron. 

So far Cambridge seems pretty great.   We are staying here three nights, but tomorrow we will be taking the train into London. 

Cheers. 

Day 5: These stones didn't set themselves.

Today we woke up to breakfast being made for us downstairs. The lady that we are staying with made bacon, eggs, coffee and toast.  We ate breakfast with a beautiful view of the backyard. The Hawk was missing but we did find out that her husband takes it out regularly to go flying. That's just a thing that he does....you know...take the pet hawk for a fly. 

We got on the road pretty early because we needed to be at Highclere Castle when they opened.  For those that don't know, Highclere Castle is the castle from the show Downton Abbey.  

As you enter the grounds you drive up a small road that winds through thick trees. It opens up to show the open countryside with sheep grazing. It is really amazing. Then you turn the corner and see the castle itself. It is stunning and feels like a castle out of a story...or a hit TV show on PBS airing Sunday's 9 eastern. 

We toured through the inside of the castle. There was an amazing library that I could spend a lifetime in. No pictures allowed, sorry. 

After Highclere we got back on the road and drove to Stonehenge. This was pretty low on the list of things I'm excited about. More of a box that needed checking. 

Box checked. It was more interesting than I had expected. A girl had a selfie stick that she was using to constantly fix her hair and take selfies. Another guy was taking pictures with an iPad. This is a personal favorite of mine. Then he asked a stranger next to him to take his picture. So the stranger was then using the iPad.  I want somebody to ask me to take pictures with their iPad sooo bad.  

After Stonehenge we drove to Salisbury to see the Cathedral. Again, my expectations were pretty low.  Again, expectations exceeded. 

All in all it was a petty good day. Annie and I were both kind of tired though.  Hoping to get some rest tonight, we head to Cambridge tomorrow. 

Oh and we went to some pubs. So many pubs, everywhere I look.  Trying to taste every cask conditioned beer I can find.