Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Aberdeen!

Exploring Edinburgh

Last weekend we found ourselves in the beautiful city of Edinburgh, or Edin-burra, as the locals pronounce it. We left our flat early Saturday morning to catch our 2.5 hour train ride south. The train was fairly uneventful as the sun didn’t rise until we were almost two-thirds of the way there. Currently, the sun rises around 8:45 a.m. and is fully set by 3:30p.m. Sometimes it seems even earlier if it is a cloudy night! Despite having limited sunlight, we were able to get out and enjoy all that the historic city has to offer. In total, we visited Edinburgh Castle, St. Giles, Mary King’s Close and Camera Obscura.

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and is the seat of the Scottish Parliament. Edinburgh is thought to be originally settled in the late Bronze Ages as an Anglican Kingdom and it wasn’t until the 10th century that the Scots were able to call it home. Several battles took place between the English with regards to the rights to Edinburgh Castle, which is located right in the center of the city. By the 15th century, Scotland had firm control of the Castle and the city. The picture below is Edinburgh Castle at night. We actually took this photo from our hotel room!

Edinburgh Castle at Night

Situated on volcanic rock, the castle is protected by sheer cliffs on three of its four sides. This provided excellent protection from the multiple sieges over the centuries, but also made it difficult to keep an adequate water supply during those sieges. The castle was only taken by force once throughout history under the legendary Robert the Bruce who secretly dispatched 30 men to scale one of the deadly cliff faces at night.

Believe it or not, this is still a functional castle. Active-duty Military personnel are stationed on sight and several governmental functions are held each year. It is also home to the War Memorial of Scotland and several military museums. The Crown Jewels, sword and scepter of Scotland have been located at the castle since 1996, with an agreement that they are returned to Westminster for any future coronations. During WWII, they were actually buried inside the castle for safe keeping, with only four people knowing their whereabouts.

The next historical stop was the High Kirk of St. Giles, which has been a religious focal point in Scotland for over 900 years. It is widely considered to be the “Mother Church of Presbyterianism.” Although the church has survived fire and gone through several renovations, the structure dates back to 1124. Inside you will find beautiful stained glass windows, a massive organ and many other interesting decorations. Services are still held here.

High Kirk of St. Giles

Mary King’s Close is a street filled with many myths. Historically, the street was surrounded by buildings up to seven stories high, housed some of the richest middle-class in the city and had one of the busiest public trade markets. In 1645, the plague hit the area very hard and many people spent their final hours quarantined in their homes on Mary King’s Close. Because it was unknown how the plague was spread, residents were not allowed to leave their home. Instead, they were required to hang a white sheet out their door, so people would know not to go near that home. When the plague was over the street remained abandoned for many years. People only returned to the area because they could not afford to live elsewhere and soon after (partly due to the streets reputation), many reported supernatural occurrences. Some claim that the first “ghost story” came from Mary King’s Close.

In the 1750’s, the city decided that the buildings on Mary King’s Close were not in great state, so a “covered place of exchange” was built directly on top of it, eventually blocking the street from all sunlight. Despite being closed off, one residence was still inhabited until 1932. In 2003, the city decided to reopen Mary King’s Close to tourists while continuing to excavate several areas. The tour gave us a glimpse of what life in Edinburgh may have been like in the 1600 and 1700’s. The buildings are remarkably intact with remnants of “homemade wallpaper” on one of the walls. One interesting fact about the city was that the government instituted a "window Tax," essentially taxing people for daylight. Due to the cost of the tax, many people boarded up the windows in their homes.

Our whirlwind trip of Edinburgh was very interesting and informative. It is a city worthy of several days of exploration. We could go into much further detail, but the post would become rather lengthy!

"Wee Drams" of the Scotland Malt Whisky Trail

Among castles and the beautiful highlands, Scotland is also known for its Scotch Single Malt Whisky. Approximately 1.5 hours northwest of Aberdeen begins the infamous Malt Whisky Trail. In order to better understand the Scottish culture, we felt it was imperative that we get out and explore the many distilleries essentially in our own backyard. We began our adventure at Glen Moray in Elgin. Our tour guide, Lynda, was phenomenal and incredibly knowledgeable on all aspects of whisky making. After having a few wee drams of the final product, we returned to Craighurst B&B to get a good night rest before visiting several more distilleries the following day. During the next 24 hours we visited: Glen Grant, Glenfarclas, Glenfiddich, Aberlour and Strathisla distilleries (Chivas Regal is made from 80% Strathisla single malt...for any of you connoisseurs out there). We only went on guided tours of Glen Grant and Glenfiddich the second day but were able to use our taste buds at the other distilleries as well to discern the differences of the other wee drams of whisky! All three tours were interesting in their own right; however we felt the Glen Moray tour was by far the best. Here are a few of the fun facts we learned on our adventure of Scotland’s Malt Whisky Trail…

• Scotch can only be a product of Scotland (even if it is produced the same way in a different country)


• There is a difference between “Whisky” and “WhiskEy”


• The flavors in the whisky differ depending on the shape and height of the stills


• Most distilleries buy their bourbon casks from Jack Daniels


• Adding water to your scotch will make the alcohol flavor less, but the aromatics more intense


• A proper scotch is never to be mixed with soda or served on ice; in fact, ice actually diminishes the flavor of the scotch


• Peat is used in the malting process to make a whisky smoky - a traditional practice for whisky distilleries on the west coast, however not in the central highlands where we toured.


• Scotland cows are fed the malt barley byproduct from the local distilleries….hmmm


• A distillery can be spotted from steam stacks, a cider aroma in the air and the distinctive black mold that lives off the "angels share" of the whisky that is evaporating within the warehouse - approximately 2% per cask per year.

• Never complain about it raining in Scotland because it will be whisky in 10+ years!!

Tasting a wee dram at Strathisla

Another wee dram at Glen Moray

Cheers!

Marin and Erik

Scotland Living

Well, we have finally settled into our home for the next several months. Our "flat" (a.k.a "apartment") is located slightly out of the city centre. The location is very convenient as we can walk to everything including our grocery, church, pubs, clothing stores, football stadium and doctor. Erik is the only one who currently gets to brave driving to work!

Our life in Scotland is very different than in the US. We are getting used to "flat" living again with all the bumps in the night. The kitchen size has also been an adjustment as we have a mini fridge, mini freezer and ...you guessed it... mini oven. Our laundry facilities include a combo washer and dryer unit, conveniently located in the kitchen....and it is small too! It takes approximately 3 hours to do a load of the basics for 2 days of living.

Despite feeling like giants in our new accommodations, we really love our new home and look forward to making it ours. We have already used the kitchen to make a few home cooked meals and look forward to trying new local recipes.....haggis and black pudding anyone? On the sweeter side, we do hope to master the infamous Sticky Toffee Pudding before we return to the states.

As you all prepare your Thanksgiving celebrations with your families, please know that each one of you are in our thoughts and prayers.

Much love,

Marin and Erik

Our First Few Weeks in Scotland

Greetings Family and Friends,

Welcome to the Chronicles of the Bartons, our attempt at keeping everyone up to date on our oversea adventures. We arrived in Aberdeen, Scotland on October 25th, 2008 and have made the Doubletree Aberdeen our residence since our arrival. In our first few days here we completed our flat search and found one that we liked just a bit out of the city centre area. We look forward to moving in and getting settled. Living in a hotel for a month isn't as fun as it sounds!

After our first week we received our company car. In the UK not only is the steering wheel on the other side of the car, but you drive in the opposite lane than in the States. It makes for some very white knuckle driving...and riding. We are also quickly learning the art of large roundabouts in lieu of intersections.

Despite living in the hotel, we have had the opportunity to get out and about and explore Scotland a bit. We have visited several castles already, and made it to the western side through the Highlands. Below is a summary of some of our visits to date...

Dunnottar Castle is one of the only castles that William Wallace was unable to overtake. As the pictures show, it is quite a brilliant location for a castle. It's flanked by the ocean and sheer cliffs, making it impossible to attack. Although there is not much left of the original structure, it is a sight to behold.

Crathes Castle is another beautiful castle in the area which was a private residence until the 1960's when it was turned over to the Trust of Scotland. It is renowned for its beautiful gardens and acreage. When the castle was turned over to the trust, they kept a lot of the original furniture and pictures. An interesting fact about the castle is that the primary staircase has a "trip step" which is a step a bit larger than the rest. A trip step is used to cause attackers to trip and fall while going up the steps...allowing the family more time to escape. In this castle, it was the 11th step.

Urquhart Castle is located on the beautiful Loch Ness. While it has stunning views, the castle wasn't much of a fortress. It was actually overtaken every spring by the Clan McDonald who was part Norske and part Irish. The ultimate demise of the castle was completed by its Lord when they decided to blow it up with dynamite! What you can see from the pictures is all that is left. Loch Ness is a truly beautiful lake. Unfortunately we were unable to spot the notorious Nessie when we were there.

Glen Affric is a a gorgeous forest preserve south of Inverness. We could have spent days here taking several of the forest walks and hikes. This forest abounds with lochs, waterfalls and picturesque views. There were even sheep wandering around that had lost the rest of their herd. It was everything that we imagined Scotland to be...

This is just a taste of our travels. As we get settled into our new place we will keep updating the site!

Cheers!

Marin and Erik