Castles and Tartans and Pipers, Oh My!

We slept in a bit today - tough to do when the sun comes up at 4:30 and a couple of pigeons sneak in the open window. After another fantastic Pauline Duncan breakfast (scrambled eggs on toast with smoked salmon) we headed north a wee bit on the A9 again to Blair Castle and the Blair Atholl estates.

 Then on to House of Bruar for some "british country life" shopping and a long look through an amazing foodstuffs department. Doc nearly had me all decked out in tweed and tartan by the time we left the first store today, but we managed to escape with just a few key pieces to remember Scotland by.

Back on down to Pitlochry for some more shopping an skipping about, and by late afternoon we were holed up in the Old Mill Inn & Pub sipping Mojitos (Doc) and Dalwhinne scotch (Matilda). Of the three or four whiskies I've sampled so far (Bell's Blair Atholl, Edradour, Talisker, and Dalwhinne) I think the Dalwhinne is my favorite, although the strong Talisker is a close runner up.

The Pitlochry Highland Nights is apparently a tourist trap for which we fell totally, but it turned out to be pretty cute, local pipe and drum corps and local country dancers performing their various arts, and a few old guys in kilts singing "Scotland the Brave" and "On the Banks of Killiecrankie." Its amazing how long the days are over here - we've just made it back to the B&B and it is just getting dark at 10:20pm.