We began with a trip to the Rothiemurchus Estate. It goes on for miles and miles! Actually 26,000+ acres, including mountains, lochs, and farmland. There are 170 species of birds living there! And they consider this a “small” Highland Estate!! The mountains in Scotland are not all that high—the highest is slightly over 4000 feet. But the winds on the mountain tops are crazy! Averaging 80-100 mph, they can gust up to 170 mph! That’s why the mountain tops have no trees on them, and you can see a tree line very clearly partway down the mountainside. There is also snow on some of the mountaintops, even in July! The winters there can range from -10 to +10 degrees, which sounds so cold, until you realize that is Celsius, so it’s 14 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit. We got to see some beautiful red deer, and feed them. It was pretty cool, as they slurped out of our hands! They are amazingly tame, coming right up to us with no fear. I suppose this is a common thing for them, so they weren’t afraid.
From there we went to see the Highland “Coos” (Cows). They are so cute!! They have long hair, and we wondered how they could see with the hair over their eyes. We saw 2 moms and 2 babies who were about 3 months old. We then went to “the Lodge” for tea. We met Lady Huntingtower (what a name!), AKA Philipa Grant, the wife of the Laird. She was very nice, down to earth. We returned to the train for lunch, which was a HUGE piece of salmon. Protein! YAY!!
We traveled a bit to Dunkeld, and rode the coach to the Scone Palace. This is a BIG mansion, like a castle, really. This is where the Kings of Scotland were crowned for centuries, on the Stone of Scone (pronounced “scoon”). The halls are huge, full of old pictures and beautiful antiques. Once again, we had tea, and I was not good! A scone (what else, at the Scone Palace?!?), and 2 kinds of shortbread. I’ve got to stop having tea! I took a nap on the coach back to the train.
Deb and I went next door to a hotel that had WiFi. It was 5 pounds for an hour, and we had only about 20 minutes before we boarded the train, but we needed that contact, so we did it anyway. We returned to the station, and found the door locked! Knocking did no good, so we called Dad’s cell and he got Q to let us in. Back onboard, we were just relaxing, talking with the people who would be leaving the next day. We were sad to learn that Q would not be continuing with us, and that Des, our wonderful coach driver, would also be leaving us. We will certainly miss them and their antics!
About 30 minutes before our “informal” dinner, I noticed that people were coming in dressed up. So I decided to go change into my cocktail dress. I was a few minutes late for dinner, and when I sat down, I realized that my neckline was REALLY low! Fortunately, I had my pashmina with me, so I wrapped it around my shoulders to cover my chest. Dinner was a huge beef filet, and fresh fruit with chocolate for dipping for dessert. We sat with our “cousins”, the Johnstons, and had a great time. We will miss them too! Getting up from dinner, I was sliding across the chairs, and went too far. I landed right on my “bum” on the floor! Fortunately, I was unhurt, and quickly got up—easy since my shoes actually had some tread on them. I took that opportunity to go back and change into “normal” clothes.
Everyone gathered in the observation car, where we had musicians playing an accordion and a keyboard. Unfortunately, they were not wearing kilts!
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