Scary airport arrival

Our last brekkie and Ali admitted to our lovely hosts that the blind is slightly broken. I loved Portsoy, it's a very quaint fishing village. We tried to fix the blind and then heading to Banff and had a walk along the beach and watched the very British people paddling in the water. I love the UK. We visited the majestic Duff House that I'm sure I've seen in period drama's. We drove onto Crovie which was devastated by flood, I love a good flood.

Unfortaunately Ali had to leave her new baby, the gold and then we went to our executive lounge for free refreshments, I could get used to this. Bad thing was, the plane was bigger on the way home :(

We arrived in Bristol airport and on exiting the airport, we were greated by nobody and everyone stood outside the airport looking through the glass. The first thought it bomb...again. But then the smell hit us, I can only suspect that the toilets above leakes because raw sewage covered the whole arrivals hall. Nice welcome.

Very posh room and one broken blind

After another gorgeous brekkie (I love B&B's), we drove to the shortbread factory, my heaven but alas, it was closed. We drove to Lossiemouth for a walk on the beach and looked at the oyster catchers and herron. It was so sunny, I burnt my face and still suffering looking like a tomato.

We drove to Buckie where we boarded our boat for wildlife watching and oh the binoculars were stuck to my eyes. We saw porpoise, seals, jelly fish, kittiwake, oyster catchers, fulmars, cormorant and soooo much more. It was fantastic and I do believe Ali kinda of found her sea legs by the time we got back.

We had lunch at bow rock, a rock that looks like an elephant and then drove on to Portsoy for our last night. Oh my gosh the room was soooo post, the bathroom was bigger than both of our bedrooms combined! It was huge and so posh. Trouble is, I don't always fit posh and to my dismay, I pulled the whole blind down and broke it. You can't take me anywhere.

We had an evening stroll to the sea and our favourite dinner, fish and chips sat by the side of Loch Soy.

No flies on me

Today we had a very scenic drive to Balmoral, home of her majesty but Ali wasn't too impressed with the plant and garden discussions in the audio tour. They still hunt deer and hang them up in a round building! Luckily we couldn't go in. Strangely enough Balmoral seems to be the home of flies too, especially around Ali, not me. What that says for both of us, I do now know.

We had a gorgeous scenic drive (with Ali still loving driving the golf) through to the Glenlivet distillery. It was a free whiskey tour, only problem being my problem with vertigo and walking over a see through floor. We even had a free taster at the end of 15 year old whiskey and oh my gosh it was horrid. Worse still, we were told to put water in it to really taste it but it just added volume!

We had a speedy drive to a RSPB nature reserve and arrived with 2 mins to spare to see Osprey chicks.

We drove to Dufftown where we resturant shopped. To ali's dismay, I chose a wholesome food resturant called noahs ark. I loved the rainbows and quickiness but the dirty table, crazy host, dinner in a quiche dish even though it was mousakka and sweetcorn and gone off potatoes. It was a bit too much for Ali. To cap it all off, the lady insisted we had whiskey cheesecake for dessert and we are too polite! I scrapped off all the whiskey and to be honest, think i got tipsey from the quantity of whisky but it was so that Ali could eat the bottom bit. Unfortunately, we were then both full so couldn't eat the bottom so I ate the top for nothing :)

The bedroom was to die for, a baby pink, lacey 4 poster bed!

Like Scotland, Like Ireland

With a Scottish breakfast inside Ali we head out. Last night I stupidly asked what's in a Scottish brekkie even though I hate cooked breakfast, and then declined it so Ali took pity and went for the full brekkie. Thanks Honey :)

We drove to Dundee and I achieved one of my dreams, to see Scott's ship, the Discovery. I've wanted to see it for years and when I asked Ali whether I'm behaving like a kidm without thought, she said 'yes'. I was only jumping up and down in excitment!

We saw the wardroom, the messroom, I drove the ship backwards (I later found out the wheel I was turning was the rudder) and not the main wheel. I loved being on Discovery and it just makes me want to go to Antarctica even more.

Next was to Glamis castle, a gorgrous building with the most amazing driveway. Ali had Arbroath smokies pate for lunch and I had a very scottish cheese sandwich and scone. We said hello to some scottish cows and then had a gorgeous drive through Glen Clova. Unfortaunately, I'm not a great passenger and fell asleep!

We stayed overnight in Kerrimuir and went for a pre-dinner walk. Little did we know that it would be quite so long, full of closed attractions and up, up, up, up and more uphill. .We had 5 mins to spare before dinner in the hotel finished.

One slight problem is that when on whisking trips, we tend to attract friends and scotland was no different to Ireland. Today's friend was the local alcoholic that had his name written on his hand. His conversation about how weird RSPB'ers didn't go down too well.

'I don't like bumps'

Whisking started at lunchtime when I was bundled into the car, with only the knowledge that I needed my passport for the next few days. We drove to the airport and went to check-in which had 'leeds/ bradford', much to my dismay. Then I knew where we were going - Aberdeen!

Over lunch we sat next to luggage that was swobbed for explosives. I loved the way we all just sat there awaiting the swob, still eating our lunch. The plane only had 29 seats and no microphone so the air hostess just stood and spoke. It was too small for arm rests, drinks trolley and I wanted to explore the toilet but I feared getting stuck in it!

Even though Ali booked the whisking, she doesn't like planes and oh my gosh my hand turned white and she was verging on hyperventiling while I was loving the bumps! Everything was forgotten when we arrived in Aberdeen and Ali saw her baby, a brand new golf with only 28 miles on the clock. We drove to our chintz clad B&B in Arbroath. It was so cute that I took a picture of the 80's hair dryer and toilet roll cover.

We drove to Montrose and had Indian food, in Scotland. Don't you just love embracing the local cuisine. We went to bed in the daylight! It doesn't get dark in Aberdeen until after 11pm.