Monday, June 23, 2008

On To Forres

(June 23, 2008)
This morning we planned on taking the 10:45am trip from Inverness to Forres (wanted to tour a couple whisky distilleries and check out the town of Forres). Unfortunately, we missed the train! We left the house at 10:10am, walked down the hill, and then ran for the last half. As I approached the train station, I could see a train pulling out (d´oh?). I picked up our tickets, and then found out it was our train which left! Grrrrr! Ari and Jeremy arrived and I broke the news to them. We sulked a bit, and then I found out we could take other trains within the same day. So we opted for the next one. That gave us over an hour to hang out in Inverness.

We decided to go to a French joint I spotted the night before on a walk. It´s called Delices De Bretagne. We had crepes here (I had a latte---I know, very yuppy!). We then walked a little along High St. (in Scottish towns, their "Main St.´s" are called High St. I guess back in the day, they were the streets which tended to have most of the vendors, and the sewage could easily flow down from them since they were "high"). We then made it (on time) for our 12:19pm train.

The train ride was quick (15-20min) to Forres. We got off and walked to the Benromach distillery which was fairly close to the train station. This was a small distillery (2 people ran the visitor centre and 2 people ran the whole distillery(!)). This turned out to be a good thing, because we ended up getting a really good and personalized tour by our Scottish guide, Dave. He was great with answering questions and throwing in a joke or two about the whisky biz. A notable item about Benromach is that Prince Charles helped christen the place by reserving one of the first barrels corked back in 1998 (there´s a picture of him signing his name on the barrel). It´s now been 10 years, so he is due to open it, or he can wait as long as he wants--Dave and crew are awaiting his wishes. We then had a sampling, and I ended up getting a bottle.

It´s amazing. I live in the wine country of south central Washington and I´ve never done a wine tour. It seems like the "whisky tour" business is similar. It was pretty fun. I´ll have to give the wine tours a try back home!

Our next journey was out for a tour of the Dallas Dhu distillery--the oldest distillery in Scotland (although it´s not operating, it´s strictly runs as a museum). We then headed into the town of Forres before heading out for the 2-mile walk to Dallas Dhu. Stopped at the bakery and Ari had something yummy and sweet; Jeremy and I had mince pies. Downtown Forres looks old and cool. There was definitely a central area with a large steeple building. We hung out in the center, and ate our rations while watching a street-acting crew. We then headed to Dallas Dhu.

The "hike" took us through old Forres, the ´burbs, and then in the Scottish countryside/farmlands. It was a nice walk, and the weather was PERFECT! Along the way we came across a horse who was interested in us and we fed him some grass. We then made it to Dallas Dhu. I had thought this was going to be another running distillery, but this was basically a real old school distillery which was then converted to a distillery museum. Oh well. We toured the place with audio thingies and checked out how they made whisky years ago. It was interesting and gave us more of a history. There was a tasting, but the whisky they offered was fairly nasty--yup, guess I´m now officially a whisky snob! ;)

After Dallas Dhu, we decided to walk back into Forres via a different route. At Dallas Dhu we noticed a walking trail (vs. the one-lane road we took out there). This was was an awesome choice. We walked in the Scottish countryside, and the weather was awesome. It was a good workout and way to see the country.

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