Whisky Tastings and Furniture

 John and I took a trip to one of the islands - Isle of Islay (pronounced eye-la).  There is only one thing to do on this island - whisky! Oh and wool - but that's a separate story. There are ~3,200 people that live on this small island about 2 hours off of the mainland by ferry.  If they are farmers, they are farming barley and peat moss and if not, then they work in the distilleries.  There are 8 - and soon to be 10 - distilleries on the island.  The ones that we visited were Laphroaig, Lagavulin and Caol Ila (which has become John's favorite since we arrived). 

Bowmore Whisky Distillery

John in front of the Caol Ila Distillery

John and Alix on the dock in front of Caol Ila -

Don't you love John's new hat?

John looking cool in front of Caol Ila

Whisky and Chocolate tasting

A church in Bowmore -

built in a circle so that demons

would have no place to hide

A view of a distillery from the beach

Our tasting box at Lagavulin

Whisky and Chocolate Tasting up close

Without really planning ahead, we had to take what we could get in terms of tours at the distilleries, which worked out really well.  We showed up at Lagavulin and signed up for a Whisky tasting.  Normally there would be 20 people in this, but on this day, it was just John and I.  We tried 5 of their whiskies paired with raw ingredients (i.e. barley, peat moss, vanilla sugar) to either eat or smell to draw out the flavors.  We learned A LOT about whisky at this - really cool experience.  At Laphroaig, we could only have a taste - but that's never a bad thing.  And we had a short time at Caol Ila as we had to catch the ferry back, but I am still glad we got to see John's favorite whisky distillery.

When we got to the Isle of Islay, however, we had quite the adventure.  Driving up the road, we figured out that we would have no cell service on this island which basically rendered Google maps completely useless - other than just being able to see our current location.  We were trying to drive down to one side of the island, when I realized we were going the wrong direction.  When John went to turn around, we ended up going down a small road where there was a house indicating itself as the Woolen Mill.  In the states, if we had come across something like this, it would have been a back road hill-billy ready to shoot us unless we got off the property, but this is Scotland, where it's more likely to be a little old lady waiting to serve us tea.  We almost left, but instead decided to go inside.  We were greeted by a man working the shop and the first thing he asked was if we wanted a tour - which again, in the states would mean he is going to take us in the back and chop us into the little pieces... but this is Scotland, so we got to see how the wool tweed is made:

Wool machine - creating the threads that will go through the loom

The owner of the shop was very nice to us and told us lots of jokes and stories.  He even told us that the Queen came into his shop one time - his response to her: "Hello, Your Majesty, do you have an appointment?"  As it turned out, this shop and mill is very well known, making all of the tweed for the island and distilleries and even for the movie Braveheart.  We had no idea what gem we had stumbled upon.

Stonefield Castle

John sitting regally in a chair in Stonefield Castle

A pool table - a very large pool

table (notice the scale with the 

cue on the table)

On the way to the island, we stayed at Stonefield Castle - unfortunately, we arrived at night and left early in the morning, so it was too dark to take a picture.  Great stay though - including the bottle of wine waiting for us in the room. 

A photo from our hotel in Islay of a ruined house

We have also gotten in the habit of walking up to the North Sea along the river in front of our place.  It's not too far, but it's really pretty.  There is also a contingency of swans - very large swans - that live in the river.  

Swans in the river

Stop looking at me Swan!

John's workbench

The countryside outside of John's school

Alix and John out...

Sorry for the delay!

Oh my!  I hope we haven't lost any adoring fans since I haven't posted in a little while.  Things here have been hectic - since we last talked, I have been diving in deep end first to school, we found a place to live, we got cars, we had a quick window to London and John has FINALLY started his school programme (yes, sorry, I'm starting to spell in British now...)

The view from our front door

So - let's start with our new place.  John and I live in a suburb of Edinburgh, called Musselburgh (pronounced muscle-burr-ah or muscle-bra - either is acceptable).  This is a photo of what we see when we walk out our front door (which is in the back of the building). 

There's been a considerable amount to setup - electricity, Council Tax (what is that? And turns our we are exempt as students, yep!), oh yeah, and INTERNET!  It took a week but finally got setup with wifi - John was a happy camper.

Now, let's talk cars.  Here are pictures of both of our cars. 

John's car - isn't he cute?

My car - brand new Toyota Yaris

 

Driving on the other side was definitely weird at first (especially as a passenger), but it's starting to feel more normal.  Especially for John, as he went on an adventure up to the Highlands.  Without any wifi in our house, I encouraged him to get out and go have fun.  

John hiking in the Highlands

A few days later, we took the train down to London for the weekend.  The train was surprisingly fun - even though I did homework the entire way there and back.  But with wifi, a table, and an electrical outlet, it was easy to setup shop.  Here's a few touristy photos of our time there:

Being silly in my new raincoat - a necessary garment

Gate to Green Park (next to Buckingham Palace)

Victoria and Albert Museum (see next)

The gate in front of Buckingham Palace

Obligatory selfie in front of Buckingham Palace

Big Ben! (a.k.a. Elizabeth Tower)

Yes - I convinced John to see a show!

You're in the band! (Need to see the show or the movie)

But for the real reason we went - John wanted to go look at some furniture... yes, you heard that right, furniture.  So, there is a museum exhibit at the Albert & Victoria Museum that has a whole collection of old and new furniture.  With these photos, I am sure that John can draw some inspiration for his designs.  It actually turned out that there was a special plywood exhibit at the museum going on as well - really made me think again about this material!

A chair on display in the Plywood

exhibit - made from one piece

This table folds up to be a stacked cabinet or a table

A chair... of chairs?

Well, we miss everyone at home and wish you all well.  I hope to write more often, but with over 9 group projects left before the end of the semester - it wouldn't surprise me if the time gets away from me.  But I'll write when I can!

Alix and John out...

Finally doing some touristy things...

Hey all - John and Alix here... it's been a few days, so I wanted to remind you.  Lots to catch you up on.  First of all, we have a place to live!  We have settled on an apartment in Musselburgh, Scotland, which is an outlying suburb of Edinburgh.  This was a great compromise for us as John's school is out in the country, but we can still enjoy the benefits of a slightly bigger city (restaurants, shops, etc) - oh yeah, there is pub 30 feet from our front door.  And this is the view of the river that our apartment overlooks.

Our new neighborhood - we are in the brown building (2nd from far right)

I also wanted to share with you some pictures of our adventure through the city.  We started at our AirBNB by the Meadow park and hiked up to Arthur's Seat - didn't look that hard, but there were so many steps.

View of Edinburgh from Arthur's Seat - that is the North Sea in the distance

The view from Arthur's Seat toward the East... we aren't that far from the edge of town

Ruins from a Chapel (~1400's) at the base of Arthur's Seat

Proof that we were both there

A bird at the top of Arthur's Seat... I know he's closer to me

than the Huskie... but really?  This was a BIG bird

Then we made our way to the bottom of the Royal Mile, which is a stretch of road full of shops and restaurants making their way up to the Edinburgh Castle.  

Edinburgh Castle

The Royal Mile - perspective from the Castle

(look at all those people!)

John and I with the Castle behind us

All in all - a great day.  Lots of steps on the pedometer.  And a few other things we came across recently:

Finally - I got some ice cream here - mmm...

A nice Thai restaurant we came across -

lots of good food available

John's first bottle of Scotch Whisky

(no - I didn't misspell) -

is this available in the states?

 Alix and John out....