Day 6 - Elgin

The Tourists departed the Apex Hotel at 8:30 am and on the way out of Dundee, they passed the Tay Bridge which is a railway bridge across the Firth of Tay. This is the second bridge on this site, the first one collapsed on December 28, 1879 with a train on it killing all aboard. It is known as the Tay Bridge Disaster. 

The region around Dundee is one of the top strawberry growing regions in the world and greenhouses like this below were a common sight. Interestingly, the strawberries are grown on tables within these greenhouses which makes the process of picking the strawberries much easier.


The Tourists were taken on the A9 up to Elgin which is takes about an hour longer but is much more scenic than the direct route.  These pictures do not do the countryside justice, it is breathtakingly beautiful.  






Along the way, the Tourists passed Blaire Castle.  Built originally in 1269 it is the ancestral home of Clan Murray and belongs to the Duke of Atholl.  The Duke of Atholl has the only (legal) private army in Europe.  The “Atholl Highlanders” guarded Queen Victoria during visits to Scotland in 1842 and 1844 and afterwards she presented them colors providing them legal recognition in perpetuity.  The Atholl Highlanders are limited in number to no more than 100 soldiers.  


The map below shows the journey the Tourists took this morning. We started at the blue circle in the middle right and proceeded up to the red dot in the top. 


The Tourists arrived in Elgin and were greeted by a piper and local curling dignitaries at the Sunninghill Hotel.  We repaired to the hotel bar for a cocktail before lunch. Tourist Peter Lyons was in heaven because he is on a personal Scotch tour of Scotland.  In 4 days, he has partaken of 33 different whiskies.  The bar at the hotel had 132 different scotches available…He may not join us for the rest of the tour.


The drinks were followed by soup, sandwiches and sausage rolls for lunch.




A short welcome speech was provided by Stephen Rankin (husband of Scottish Olympic Gold Medallist Janice Rankin) who explained that there were 56 distilleries (50% of all distilleries in Scotland) in the Speyside area (Spey is the river through this area). The Tourists also received a brief history of the whisky industry and Stephen explained that Elgin also has Johnstons of Elgin, a 225 year old fine clothing company.  


After lunch, the Tourists headed the few short blocks from the hotel to the Elgin Ice Rink at Moray Leisure Center where they were greeted again by a piper (same piper). 






Four teams hit the ice against our hosts. Team Wright had the bye. 

After the 4th end, the teams broomstacked with a wee dram of scotch.



The scoreboard last below are a different format than the usual Curling scoreboard. This format is more like a baseball scoreboard. 


Team Rich (USA/Blue) vs Team Watt (Scotland/Yellow)
USA - 13 Scotland - 3


Team Jackson (USA/Red) vs Team Fraser (Scotland/Yellow)
USA - 6 Scotland - 4


Team Beadle (USA/Red) vs. Team Oswald (Scotland/Yellow)
USA - 4 Scotland - 7


Team Anderson (USA/Red) vs. Team Cameron (Scotland/Yellow)
USA - 9 Scotland - 5

Current Cumulative Score:

USA : 149

Scotland: 124

After the matches concluded, the Scottish Curlers and American Tourists returned to the Sunninghill Hotel for drinks.  Leland Rich presented our hosts with a gift from the Tourists and Stephen Rankin presented the Tourists with lovely scarves from Johnstons of Elgin.  









The Tourists then got on the bus to travel to Inverness for their stay at the Kingsmills Hotel. At the hotel, the Tourists had a dinner on their own, joined by just Courier Bill Arnot and bus driver Kevin.




We look forward to a museum visit in the morning and another game in the afternoon.

Oh…

A handful (7) of the Tourists may have accidentally walked into a pub in Inverness tonight called Johnny Foxes. Not your traditional, Scottish Pub, but a pub nonetheless.  Interestingly, they ran into Scott from Australia that is on a tour through England, Scotland and Ireland who went Curling for the first time in Inverness tonight.  Curling one day and he runs into the USA Curling Tour.  What are the odds?










Oh…
And there might have been a more traditional Scottish Pub named Gellions with live music. 



Oh…

And 2 hours later they randomly ran into Scott again. 












Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introducing the Teams

Image
With less than a week until our departure for Scotland, excitement is building among the Tourists, our Scottish hosts and the friends & families of the Tourists. For the benefit of our Scottish hosts and for our friends & families, we would like to introduce the teams that will be representing the United States on the 2022 Scot Tour. As a reminder, the 2022 Scot Tour is a friendship tour through Scotland where the Tourists will be competing against our Scottish hosts for the coveted Herries-Maxwell Trophy.  The country that scores the most points over the 3-week tour will retain the Trophy until the Scots visit the United States in 4 years and we compete for the Trophy again.  That means winning games is not as important as scoring as many points as possible while simultaneously seeking to minimize your opponents points.  And for that reason the game strategies may be a little different than normal. Happy New Year to All!  We can't wait to cross the pond. Without further a
Read more

Day 24 - Edinburgh Redux and Departure

Image
The Tourists boarded the coach at 11:00 to depart the Leonardo Hotel for a coach tour of Edinburgh.  The tour of Edinburgh started with a visit to South Queensferry to view the three bridges. Then a tour of New Town Edinburgh (started in the 1750s) and Old Town Edinburgh (founded in the 8th century). The Tourists returned to Curl Edinburgh at Murrayfield for lunch and their final game in Scotland.  Having already won the Herries-Maxwell Trophy, this game was a fun exhibition match with the Royal Caledonian Curling Club including previous Tourists.  Fun was had be all and the Americans won all the games…and lost all the games. To improve the fellowship, this game featured 2 Scots and 2 Americans on each team with names drawn from a hat to pick the teams.   Before the games, Tourist Steve Shaffer accidentally misplaced his broom. The Tourists returned to the hotel to get dressed in their F-1s for the final time for the closing night reception. Tour Couriers Bill Arnot and David McIntyre
Read more

Day 13 - Greenock

Image
The Tourists departed at 8:30 am from the Doubletree by Hilton North Queensferry and bid a fond adieu to Tour Courier Bill Arnot.  They will meet up with Bill again at the closing night party on January 29th, until then the Tourists will miss him daily. In the meantime we are excited to get to know Tour Courier David McIntyre better.  We got some more pictures of the bridges on the way out of town, this time in the morning light.    The Tourists headed for Paisley Abbey.  On the way, they got a view of “The Kelpies”.  The Kelpies are 98 ft high horse-head sculptures depicting kelpies (shape-shifting water spirits). They also drove past a statue of “The Angel of the Nauld”, known locally as Arria.  We had another interesting sighting on the bus. I was not sure this was possible (for those that don’t know us, one of the Scots commented today the Doug seemed to be “six foot twenty”) Paisley Abbey Paisley Abbey was initially constructed in 1163 with ongoing construction and additions occur
Read more