few days away in Perth and Aviemore in the depths of winter
Early Monday and its really cold, in fact bloody cold. The car shows that its minus 4 and heading down. By the time we drive past Holy Loch its minus 6 and the sea is frozen. The sun is starting to rise and starts playing on the ice formed by the water lapping the rocks. Spectacular. The views managed to get even better; indeed superlatives were popping from our mouths with every turn in the road. The mountains were capped in snow, crisp and white, made even sharper with the effect of the golden winter sun.
Continued along the Southside of Loch Fyne but quickly turned towards Glasgow and headed over the "rest and be thankful" the highest point on the A83, 803 ft above sea level that divides Glen Kinglas from Glen Croe, The Arrochar Alps as they are known locally. At the viewpoint on the top you can see the old valley road, engineered by General Wade during the subjection of Scotland following the Jacobite rebellion.
Then along the narrow A82 by the side of Loch Lomond, and for once the road was reasonably traffic free, possibly due to the amount of snow and ice mounded on both sides of the road.
Stopped off near Crieff at the Glenturret Distillery to visit their shop and café. But it had all changed and wasn’t up to much. That might be a little harsh, because it was their first day of a new operation and it could have been teething problems.
Then we stopped at the Farm shop just before Perth, called Gloagburn Farm, Tibbermore. Should have stopped here for our soup and roll.
But we had coffee and l tried Cannoli for the first time. They are Italian pastries of the Sicily region. Fried pastry filled with a flavoured cream & cheese mixture, delicious, but rather sweet. I had seen Montalbano, the Italian detective devouring them for breakfast. In fact he was having a orgasm eating them. So l thought they deserved a try.
Then it was time to find our bed for the night. Another Itison offer, dinner bed and breakfast. The Lodge at Perth racecourse. It was quite difficult to find, but only because our normally reliable satnav didn’t want to recognise the postal code for once. Eventually crawled through the five a clock rush hour traffic to traverse the river and head along the Eastern bank until we passed Scone Palace and followed the racecourse signs to the hotel. Its a new hotel that didn’t quite meet the promotional blurb, although the room was good, but not perfect. Missing a full length mirror, with banging doors and fairly poor housekeeping. But the staff were excellent in every way, friendly, courteous and very willing to help in anyway possible. The food was also well cooked and tasty, yet the restaurant bar, lounge area lacked any atmosphere.
Left after a good breakfast of smoked haddock and tried to defrost the thickly iced windscreen. Then a short diversion to Blairgowrie, followed by a trip to Dunkeld for a walk along the river Tay. One slight problem, the roads and paths were thick with solid ice. Not snow, but compacted ice. It was treacherous. So we walked around the village and popped into the odd shop before heading North to Aviemore.
The drive was great and the views again magnificent, with the bonus of seeing a massive stag who was quite close to the road. Hopefully he didn’t decide to cross in front of the traffic. Stopped off at the House of Bruar for lunch and hour or so looking at art, fishing gear and the odd item in the sale. Its become a real destination, and even on a cold wintry midweek day it was overflowing with people spending money.
From here it was a straight run up to Aviemore and then to our hotel in the Boat of Garten, The Boat Hotel. Its located in a perfect position for touring the area. The hotel is old and rather worn at the edges, but it had a great atmosphere and the majority of the hotel staff were excellent. The place ran smoothly due to the eagerness of staff and management alike to please. A refreshing sign in todays world.
Continued along the Southside of Loch Fyne but quickly turned towards Glasgow and headed over the "rest and be thankful" the highest point on the A83, 803 ft above sea level that divides Glen Kinglas from Glen Croe, The Arrochar Alps as they are known locally. At the viewpoint on the top you can see the old valley road, engineered by General Wade during the subjection of Scotland following the Jacobite rebellion.
Then along the narrow A82 by the side of Loch Lomond, and for once the road was reasonably traffic free, possibly due to the amount of snow and ice mounded on both sides of the road.
Stopped off near Crieff at the Glenturret Distillery to visit their shop and café. But it had all changed and wasn’t up to much. That might be a little harsh, because it was their first day of a new operation and it could have been teething problems.
Then we stopped at the Farm shop just before Perth, called Gloagburn Farm, Tibbermore. Should have stopped here for our soup and roll.
But we had coffee and l tried Cannoli for the first time. They are Italian pastries of the Sicily region. Fried pastry filled with a flavoured cream & cheese mixture, delicious, but rather sweet. I had seen Montalbano, the Italian detective devouring them for breakfast. In fact he was having a orgasm eating them. So l thought they deserved a try.
Then it was time to find our bed for the night. Another Itison offer, dinner bed and breakfast. The Lodge at Perth racecourse. It was quite difficult to find, but only because our normally reliable satnav didn’t want to recognise the postal code for once. Eventually crawled through the five a clock rush hour traffic to traverse the river and head along the Eastern bank until we passed Scone Palace and followed the racecourse signs to the hotel. Its a new hotel that didn’t quite meet the promotional blurb, although the room was good, but not perfect. Missing a full length mirror, with banging doors and fairly poor housekeeping. But the staff were excellent in every way, friendly, courteous and very willing to help in anyway possible. The food was also well cooked and tasty, yet the restaurant bar, lounge area lacked any atmosphere.
Left after a good breakfast of smoked haddock and tried to defrost the thickly iced windscreen. Then a short diversion to Blairgowrie, followed by a trip to Dunkeld for a walk along the river Tay. One slight problem, the roads and paths were thick with solid ice. Not snow, but compacted ice. It was treacherous. So we walked around the village and popped into the odd shop before heading North to Aviemore.
The drive was great and the views again magnificent, with the bonus of seeing a massive stag who was quite close to the road. Hopefully he didn’t decide to cross in front of the traffic. Stopped off at the House of Bruar for lunch and hour or so looking at art, fishing gear and the odd item in the sale. Its become a real destination, and even on a cold wintry midweek day it was overflowing with people spending money.
From here it was a straight run up to Aviemore and then to our hotel in the Boat of Garten, The Boat Hotel. Its located in a perfect position for touring the area. The hotel is old and rather worn at the edges, but it had a great atmosphere and the majority of the hotel staff were excellent. The place ran smoothly due to the eagerness of staff and management alike to please. A refreshing sign in todays world.
Tried to do a
little walking, but the tracks were completely iced over and definitely not
suitable or safe to walk on. Did find an odd path that was in the woods that
was free of ice, but after 20 minutes of walking, the path once again became
unsuitable, so we had to retrace our steps.
Instead we headed up
the ski slope on the funicular railway, and were treated to superb views until
the clouds obliterated everything below us.
Few mad diehards walking to the summit.
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