Day 5 - Inverness to the Cairngorms via Speyside

A sunny morning suddenly turned into a downpour just before we went for a walk to the downtown mall in Inverness. I needed to get a workable SIM card for my phone and there was a Vodaphone shop only a few blocks away. This was the first time we got to try out our rain gear since arriving.

The person at the store was able to get me set up with a short term phone number and a generous data package. This should work well when we have mobile coverage which is a bit spotty in the Highlands. A nice view of our Hotel along side the River Ness.

Our destination tonight is in the Cairngorms National Park in the town of Grantown on Spey, a relatively short distance away. On the way there we decided to take in a bit of the seaside and stopped at a little town called Findhorn. Very quaint with a Yacht Club and cute stone buildings.

A little further down the road we stopped by Lossiemouth, another seaside town with a nice seaside golf course (but not much else in my opinion)

From there we were on to the city of Elgin. The highlight here is the Elgin Cathedral, constructed in the 1200's and essentially destroyed in 1390. There are enough remnants still standing to appreciate the work of the stone masons of that era. Truly remarkable work. We managed to spend a couple of hours walking around the ruins and climbing the circular stairways in each of the remaining towers.

From here, it was on to visit one of the many Speyside distilleries. The choice was simple, I had to visit the favourite distillery of my Scottish university classmate, Alec Johnston. The Macallan is a fairly large facility that is currently undergoing a huge expansion. Apparently, this is to meet a huge demand for high end Scotch in China. Check out the Guinness World Record Certificate below.

All of the tours were booked but we were invited to tour the "original" house which is part of the head office. A great collection of rare scotch and a nice hospitality room.

From here we took a scenic drive to Grantown on Spey and our guesthouse. A narrow twisty road through the beautiful countryside.

After checking into our guest house, it was time to head to the local pub for our first Scottish Pie and a pint. What has been really interesting here is that most pubs and bistros allow well behaved dogs!

The main street of Grantown on Spey is typical of most of the villages we drove through today except the main street is much wider.

We enjoyed some really high speed internet at our B&B and were able to FaceTime both Jenn and Laura.

I always enjoy looking for funny terminology. Today's was a sign that was advertising "static caravans". It took a few seconds but I finally figured out they were selling mobile homes!