Alas the adventure has come to one of life's pauses. The Jamie and Claire tour May 2012, The Grape Tour (named after Robert who is a bit of a wine buff) has shouted its last shout, tinged its last last glass of announcement, climbed its last castle step and Noella, always disappearing, finally caught up with the group (once we unglued her camera from her fingers).
We have new friends and many memories, but let me hand over to our guests' own words to describe the last two days.
DAY 7
Dolly: Yesterday's
stop at the Castle was great fun. Lots of stops as each person
was shown their rooms – all with plaid carpeting. Ours was
with two single beds and in the best Scottish tradition, the toilet
was across the room from the bathtub and shower. Although we would
have explored the castle on our own, we were happily obliged to search for
the dining room – hidden away and not part of our introductory
tour. We were instructed to respond when we heard the bagpipes …
very nice. Dinner was in the great dining room with luscious food
and libations.
Robert
Undoubtedly one of the
best nights was at the Castle.. hearing the bagpipes calling us for
dinner, the great meal, storytelling and then Scotch and Snooker in
the parlour took me back to past generations.
Robert has got into geocaching on this trip - he meets the "planter" |
Grant [aka MacLarry]:
Great trip.
Great group of
interesting people....great camaraderie.
Great hosts.
Great second wedding –
thanks Mac Iain!
Je suis priest!!! If
Scot and Sam come to Canada, please look us up!!!
Noella:
A fantastic trip. Ditto the comments above. Being in a castle which
we could treat as a home away from home with all the trimmings was a
wonderful experience. The pre-arranged surprises just capped
everything. Laden food tables with good food and company added to my
enjoyment.
All through we've experienced historic Scotland
pertaining to Jamie and Claire and more as well as wonderful scenery.
The fact that the Scottish weather pulled out all the stops for the
whole trip giving us beautiful warm, sunny days after the absolutely
cold, wet entry into Scotland was a relief. The walks were another
really enjoyable aspect of the trip taking us to some out of the way
places not able to be experienced on your average coach tour. Being
able to actually be in the kinds of locations for our favourite
characters will enhance my future re-reading of the books. The
celebration of a Cindy & Grant's wedding anniversary was a very
special experience and happened in a wonderful location combined with
a book reading. I'd better stop as I can go on and on...... Noella
The morning after the night before in our castle. |
DAY 8
Today we did the Edinburgh, having arrived by carriage into the town last night (train carriage that is, a first for the J&C tour).
We had a grand time running up and down the Royal Mile, visiting all the places that Claire did, looking for Jamie. The OSs really enjoyed putting face-to-place so to speak. Kim spoke of finding the spiral staircases in the castles much narrower than she had expected from her reading of the books, so a good "education" in the scenery of Outlander was had.
The Epilogue:
Some of the group are going on with me in the morning, one of my "extension" tours. We're off to Skye, so keep an eye on the blog for the Outlandish comments on that one. Perhaps we'll pass a Silkie's Isle on the way. In fact, we will see lots of west coast isles like the treasure laden one, seals and all.
The Ladies of Leisure head to the Western Isles. |