Oban looks like a lovely town. Just lively enough to stave off boredom but not so big as to lose the local charm. It's really too bad we didn't get to see much of it.
But, we are on a distillery tour and distilleries are what are here for, so when said we were visiting Obama, we meant the Oban distillery, so that is exactly what we did.
First thing after breakfast, we drove over to the site of our visit, a whole five blocks away. Maybe four. We're not lazy, but we had to put our bags in the bus and know where to meet after the visit. Logistics you see. Where Laphroaig was a hands on exploration into the making of single malt whiskey, Oban was a theoretical treasure trove. On its own, it might have been a little heavy and wordy, but with the information we had already accumulated, the academic approach was a welcome addition to our curriculum.
Also, we got to drink scotch.
Not terribly much of it. A sip of this and a nip of that, but it allowed me to determine that my sweet of choice for scotch is not crystallized ginger. I dont hate it, but I also don't love it. It gives the alcohol more bite than necessary while canceling out a lot of the subtle sweetness of scotch, an effect that chocolate doesn't seem to have as much, surprisingly.
After Oban we hopped back on the bus for our journey to Glen Coe and Loch Ness. On our way we stopped for a light lunch at the Cstke Stalker View Café where, as luck would have it, we got a great view of Stalker Castle.
We made our detour to Glen Coe where we stopped for a photo op. the sight was nothing short of breathtaking. The area was used in the filming of 'Braveheart' and it's easy to understand why. The scene is everything we think of about Scotland and its natural beauty and we were lucky enough to visit in typical Scottish weather.
Finally we made it to Loch Ness and our hotel. Reading this, one might think that we didn't do much, but truth is, we stopped for photo ops in several places and got to take in the scenery. There's no point in describing what I can show with images.
JF
