loch ness

A tour bus day. Woke up at 6:15 and had breakfast same as yesterday. Then headed off the the royal mile to catch our tour bus to locness which we had pre booked from leeds. Got to bus very early this time and made it onto the first couch and got decent seats. Our tour guide (Graham) was energetic and a nice person although the PA system though the bus was a little loud. 

First stop was deanstons whisky distillery. We got in the 9:30 tour and our guide was called Lucia. The tour was a chemical engineers dream job. First we saw the barrels made from American oak. Some were old bourbon barrels and other sherry barrels. All the flavour of the whisky comes from the barrels with bourbon creating a honey and nutty flavour and sherry giving a fruity flavour. Next we saw the masg drum where the barley malt was mashed wirh water. The water absorbed the sugar and then was extracted. The rest of the mash then becomes animal food. Next we saw the fermentation tanks where the sugar water was turned into "flow wine". Next we saw the actual  distillery where flow win become whisky head,heart and tail, only the heart is kept and the head and tail is recycled. They are separated due to how much alcohol content they have. Finally we saw the barrel room where all the whisky is stored and we were shown how the amount of whisky in a barrel changed over time. I barrel poured last year was full whereas a barrel poured 44 years ago was 90% empty. At the very end of the tour we tried some whisky. First you sniff the whisky. It had a nice honey and nutty flavour (a bit like baileys). Then we tasted it. I'm not a fan. It kinda just burnt my tongue and my mouth died. Ah well I think bini enjoyed it. I'm definitely the light weight of this relationship. 

Next stop was locness but along the way we saw the Monty python castle and some amazing Scottish highland scenery. Also saw the location of hagrids hut, some James bond scenes from sky fall and hairy co (also known as really fluffy cows) they were very cute. 

At locness we stopped and went to get some money out. However they are pounds for every transaction so bugger that for a joke. We got in about 2 and our tour around the lake started at 3. From two to three we went down to the lake and taught bini how to scim rocks on water. Sadly there was waves on locness as it was a quite windy. Still she managed 4 bounces i got 6 :). The  tour around locness was good and we saw some more great scenery. Sadly no sign of nessy. Before we got back on the bus I really needed to pee. However the toilet cost 50p and we literally had no money. So as they didn't have a gate to stop you I just strode on and out without anyone stopping me. If they did I was gonna pretend I didn't speak English. :) 

Them we made our way back to Edinburgh. Got  stuck in a little traffic jam as there had been a head on collision further up the road but it only delayed us by 30 minutes. 

Got back in Edinburgh at 8 and ate dinner of pesto and choirzo pasta again. Had a good sleep so we were ready for our bus to leeds tomorrow morning.