Grantown-on-Spey

We had a todo list with 20 items on for Tuesday, Aug, 5. Won’t bore you with all 20. We were most worried about Schiphol Airport, but they had an app that made navigating through so simple. Plus going on a Tuesday helped a lot.

We breezed through passport control on both the Amsterdam and Edinburgh side. In the air leaving the Netherlands, we saw:

Arriving over Scotland

After a few rough patches near Edinburgh, Gail took to driving on the left like she was a native (Gail says, “sure, sure”). It was a 3 hour journey requiring lots of concentration for the driver, though. But eventually, we made it to the Scottish highlands.

I’d be surprised if you’ve heard about Grantown-on-Spey. It’s a small town, located beside the river Spey at the northern edge of the Cairngorm mountains, about 20 miles southeast of Inverness. The town was founded in 1765. The Airbnb we are staying at is located on the outskirts of town. Local critters entertain us, like this red squirrel.

We drove a few minutes into town to get dinner and supplies on the first day, and walked into town the next day (Wednesday, Aug. 6), about a 15 minute walk. We passed a small pond where the locals were feeding some ducks.

There were a lot of cool buildings, like this YMCA

And this Baptist church

This was an interesting sculpture, apparently part of the Highland HeArt trail, consisting of 23 sculptures in 16 locations throughout the highlands. They’ll be collected and auctioned in early September to benefit Highland Hospice.

Another cool building.

We went to dinner at Craig Bar which specializes in meat pies and Scottish salad (french fries). Here, you see me about to dig into a Funghi Chicken, mushroom and chicken. Gail had a Moo and Blue, steak and Stilton cheese.

Former church

Tomorrow, we plan to go to High Tea on a stream train.