Scottish Delights

We spent a good part of our trip on the road, just driving from point A to point B. The plus point was that Ireland is an incredibly beautiful country and it was Autumn. The countryside was a mash of green, yellows and red. On our route, there were mountains, pastures, lakes along the way. I took a few videos which I can't seem to upload to my image hosting site.


There were a couple of highlights of our trip. One was seeing the crown jewels of Scotland ( which was okay ) but part of the collection included the Stone of Destiny! I kid you not, that's what it was called. Stone of Destiny is a ceremonial stone used in the coronation of Scottish and English Kings for the last hundreds of years. It is believed that this stone was Jacob's Pillow Stone in the bible.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his buildings, interiors and furniture. This might be the start of something, but he is also another artist part of the Art Nouveau movement. We saw the interiors of the tea-house that he designed, some pieces of the furniture and his first building, the lighthouse.


The whiskey was exceptional. After going for beer tours (Qingdao), stout tours (Guiness), wine tours (Hunter Valley + other misc places), it was my first whiskey tour ! We headed to Glengoyle, a small Scottish distillery. Much of its processes were still manual, operations are on a small scale as compared to Chivas.


Scottish Ale and food were great too. There was the must-try item, haggis

It was only after Wikipedia, my trusty friend, then did I realize that I was deceived into believing that haggis was a Scottish dish. In fact, it might have roman or french origins ! But, nonetheless, it is a dish that is very close to the Scottish heart now.

Haggis is supposed to be sheep innards (think lungs, intestines) stuffed into a sheep stomach and boiled. Anyway, mine(called Neeps, Tatties and Haggis) just tasted like meat. It was yummy, not fantastic.