Monday, 13 September 2021

An unconventional distillery

 

In Dundee, TSH and Diva walked along the waterfront and into the impressive city centre, which has many grand stone buildings. In spite of it being Saturday, the centre was not busy and they wondered how long it will take for large town and city centres to recover from the Covid crisis.

TSH even managed to see a steam train passing by the ship – Tornado for those who wish to know.

Some people may be familiar with the Irish folk song about the pub with no beer. Much to TSH’s disbelief, the excursion in Edinburgh included a tour round a distillery with no whisky. The reason is that it is a new enterprise and it is not allowed to call its product whisky until it is 3 years old. So in the meantime they are selling products which are produced on the road to whisky, and gin which they can make in just a few days. The gin flavouring is sea salt (from a named coast) and beeswax (!!).  The other part of the tour was supposed to be a guided tour of Holyrood, but the ‘guided’ part was dropped, there was not much in the way of helpful signage and Diva did not want to touch the audio tour equipment. So it was all a bit unsatisfactory.

The next morning, they went on their own visit to the royal yacht Britannia, which is an excellent visitor attraction. In its days of service, the vessel had 240 crew (not sure if that included the food, drink and cleaning people) and conveyed at least 2 cars – a smart Bentley (??) and a small Land Rover type for expeditions to uninhabited parts.

The view from the ship in the port of Leith is spectacular – a full panorama including distant hills, Edinburgh Castle, Arthur’s Seat, road and rail bridges over the Forth and a Regent cruise ship in the fore-ground.

One pleasant dinner with Dr Peter Crimes and one pleasant dinner of pizza in the open air.

No TV for several days. No internet in TSH and Diva’s suite.

TSH has booked the Sainsbury delivery for the return home at the end of the month.


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