Waaaaay back in November I went to a Christmas market with some friends. There was a booth for a Scottish country hotel on Loch Awe selling 3-night vouchers at a steep discount. Without thinking much about it, we all decided to buy vouchers for our husbands as Christmas presents that we'd co-ordinate later so we could all go up together for a fun-filled weekend in Scotland. Which we finally did in early July.
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| Loch Lomond |
It's about a five hour drive up, passing the picturesque and historic Loch Lomond along the way. When we were less than an hour from Loch Awe, we (Bill and I along with our carpool pals, Brian and Regine) saw a sign for Loch Fyne brewery and tasting room. We peeled off the main highway (and by main highway, I mean a small, winding road with one lane for each direction) and headed down a single-lane dirt track for about a mile. We were starting to wonder if we had gone the wrong way when we turned a corner and, wow! a brewery! We got a flight of tasters to share and decided that it was a good omen for the weekend ahead.
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| Loch Fyne Ales |
Sadly, the hotel turned out to be marginal at best… I mean, what can you expect from a hotel offering such steep discounts? Apparently, the answer is a hotel with no potable water because the rain washed too much peat into their well. Imagine showering in light brown water. Yeah…
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| Loch Awe at dusk |
But the views, though!
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| Loch Awe at dawn |
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| Fly fishing! |
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| Forest fine enough for a centaur |
We also found several wonderful pubs with delicious local food.
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| My food is looking at me!!! |
And a fine collection of beer coasters. Why didn't we think of collecting beer coasters years ago?
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| A fine collection of coasters |
We spent most of our time exploring the surroundings and not at the hotel (which was our plan, anyway), so it turned out to be a positively lovely weekend with great friends! More on our excursions in future posts, so stay tuned!
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| A hairy coo!! |
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