Leo and I flew to Scotland, eating "filet Americain" (beef tartare from the Dutch grocery store at the Amsterdam airport), to Root's 60th birthday boondoggle, where we met up with Root, Roger, Erik, Hal and Julie, David, Nathan, and Jon and Heather.
We had a great time tooling around Islay and tasting scotch. They were on a 2-3 week holiday and Leo and I had a week to join the party. Islay is the island near Glasgow that is famous for its peated whiskey. We arrived midweek and so missed the Bruichladdich day when Erik tasted his 19 year old(?) cask. He bought it when his son was born. Apparently the Bruichladdich folks went kind of nuts, serving them plenty of Octomore and other goodies from the caskroom.
Hal filling his glass with the copper dog:
We also missed Laphroaig and Lagavulin day but got to enjoy some of the extra tastings that they bought.
Hal found his plot of land - every bottle of Laphroaig comes with a coupon for a free square foot plot of land!
Leo and I stayed at a B&B in Port Ellen because Calumkill wasn't big enough. The Grange was lovely. Third pic is view of ocean from our room.
Leo had haggis and blood sausage. Every morning.
We rented bikes to get from Port Ellen to the party house >3 miles away. It turns out that bikes in the UK have their brakes set up backwards! There's a nice walking/biking path to Laphroaig/Lagavulin/Ardbeg from Port Ellen but beyond that (and even on some parts of the broken bike path), you are on a narrow road with cars.
Tons of sheep.
The trip wasn't all about scotch. We explored a bit:
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