Adventuring Abroad: Scotland: Loch Lomond & surrounding area

Super apologies for the looong absence of posts. We took a 5 week trip back to the States, and then were busy with family visiting and a trip to Croatia! All to be blogged about... hopefully in sequence.

Back to July! When I left off blogging, we had just arrived outside of Glasgow, Scotland with my parents. The next morning, we got up and headed into Loch Lomond National Park to see the sights. Paul had gotten recommendations from a colleague to try out the Glengoyne Distillery to learn more about the famous whisky-making process of Scotland. [And yes, in Scotland, it's spelled without the "e" -- "whisky" is Scottish, "whiskey" is Irish, from my understanding.]

We took a guided tour of the distilling process. We learned the intricacies of what requirements exist for a whisky to be called "Scotch" as well as "single malt." There was also memorably a room filled with whisky barrels, with a demonstration wall of how the whisky changes over time while it's in the barrel. It very gradually evaporates and takes on a darker color from being in the barrel. So by the time you have "30 year Scotch," it's darker and quite a bit higher in alcohol content than Scotch that's only been in the barrel for a few years.

We did get to sample the whisky -- I had to add an awful lot of water to make it palatable for me! It was a neat experience.

Looking at the front of the distillery from across the road.

Beautiful flowing water in back of the distillery; no longer used to actually make the whisky, though.

One of the pretty displays of the amber-colored Scotch in glass bottles.

This type of roof topper is unique to whisky distilleries.

The room with the whisky barrels and demonstration of the aging process.

Me, Charlotte, Paul, and Mom at Glengoyne Distillery

View of the countryside through the signage.

After finishing the tour, we took a very scenic drive through parts of Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park. We drove north along Loch Lomond itself, then saw view of Loch Long and ended up in the town of Inverary, on the northernmost parts of the Firth of Clyde (a bay connected to the Irish Sea). The views of the "bens" (not tall enough to be called "mountains," apparently) were incredible. It was fairly overcast most the day, which felt quite Scottish at least.

We parked the car and wandered briefly around Inverary. We heard bagpipes and saw a crowd gathering, so we joined to lookers-on as a wedding began in the town's church. We saw the kilted groomsmen and the rather cold-looking bridesmaids, then the bride and her father pulled up in an old-fashioned car. It was entertaining for a few minutes, and we actually saw them again later when they were taking scenic pictures at Inverary Castle. We had then lunched in a small cafe in the town and took in the scenery of the small harbor.

Piping for the wedding in town that day

The Scottish bride

Cold bridesmaids and kilted gentleman

Small harbor at Inverary

Racing with Granddad!

The best.

We hopped in the car again and drove the short distance onto the grounds of Inverary Castle. We had read that the castle wasn't much to see on the inside, so opted to walk the grounds instead. There were goats and sheep grazing, and lots of pretty views of the Firth. The Castle's grounds were used for outside shots for "Duneagle Castle" on Downton Abbey.