Writing while riding the train. We are enroute from Pitlochry, where we've spent the last four days, to Glasgow, where we will spend the next five.
Pitlochry was charming, though overly touristed. It seems like everyplace is these days. But its charm came through, at the b&b where we stayed, the restaurants where we ate, the people we met, and the street lined with shops. They were mostly aimed at tourists, with the usual knickknacks and also full of tartan and mock tartan products, at least four ice cream places, usually with lines, and oddly, three thrift shops, each supporting a different charity. One was run by the Red Cross, one by a children's charitiy, and the third, by the Scottish cancer organization.
I spent one morning browsing those and some of the gift shops, while Loring took a couple of hour hike into the hills.
To backtrack a bit: We arrived in Edinbourgh after a pleasant enough six hour flight from Boston. It's always a pleasure to go someplace that has a direct flight. We arrived in the morning and were picked up by our pre arranged driver for the two hour drive to Pitlochry. We had chosen not to rent a car, mostly due to the driving being on the other side, and aside from the original drive, planned for train trips, the two hour one we are now on, and the one from Glasgow to Edinborough, under an hour, in another five days.
Every Monday night in Pitlochry there is a drum and pipe performance, and fortuitously, we arrived on a Monday. It happens at the town recreation field, or, in the case of rain, at the city hall. The field is about a fifteen minute walk from our lodging. Many people had cars and drove, but many others walked. Hard to know who in the audience was local and how many were visitors. It was a great introduction to the country and the town. There were two bands, plus a group of young local dancers. The emcee was very funny. He asked where people were from, indicating he'd greet each in their own language. There were many from England, Scotland, a fair number from other European countries, one person from China, a group of Australians, and very few Americans, probably no more than a half dozen. The mc actuallly greeted every group with "bonjour" except for the French visitors, to whom he said "willkomen."
One band was local. The other was a prize winning band from Australlia who had last been there six years ago. I assume they have different guest groups each year, or perhaps even each week.
The bands performed in precise formation, very pleasing to watch. Even Loring admitted that they sounded good. He's not a big fan of bagpipes. I never before noticed that not all bagpipes are in the same key.
The dancers were young girls and young women. They danced to traditional music except for the last one, a single dancer who danced a more ballet- like dance to more modern music.
One dance featured two pairs, two girls and two boys dressed in sailor suits. In retrospect, the boy characters must have been girls, especially as there hadn't been any previous boy dancers. In any case, very cute. They then invited members of the audience to learn the dance. A large number of people came onto the field from the bleachers. Many of them clearly already knew the dance. Others had never done it before. It reminded us of the contra dances we used to attend, for many years, and where we met many of our long term friends.
There was a female singer who performed two songs between the other performances, Unfortunately the sound system was terrible and her voice did not sound very good. Near the end, she and the mc sang a song together. He had not sung before, and it was a nice surprise to hear the two together, despite the mediocre sound.
The performance ended with the two bands and all the other performers parading around the field, followed by most of the audience.
Wow, and that was only the first night.
Tigh na Cloich, our B&B, was delightful, as were our hosts. The breakfasts were more than ample, and excellent. They held us over with maybe an ice cream midday, until supper. There was fruit, yogurt, cereal, croissants, and that was just the first course. Then a choice of omelettes. various kinds of eggs, bacon, baked beans, hash browns in little triangular cakes, tatties, which are more of a potato pancakes, , broiled tomatoes, toast, probably something I'm forgetting.
The scrambled eggs were the fluffiest and most delicious l've ever had. I asked for the secret and they gave me the recipe. It includes cream or milk, and butter, as I'd suspected. Stephanie asked me to send her a picture from home of us cooking and eating them!
On our second day we walked down to the dam on the river and the salmon ladder. It helps the salmon make their way back to where they were born, to spawn and then die. That is, if they don't get eaten by eagles or bears, as we'd seen in Alaska and on a live webcam respectively. Don't know if anything gets them here, aside from their natural death. There was a live cam at the visitors center, but we only spotted one fish through the very murky water. The visitors' center mostly focussed on the building of the dam in the early 20th century. There were recorded recollections of workers and residents, and info about how many had originally opposed it but later came to appreciate it.
