United Kingdom

- we woke up and decided to explore the newer parts of Edinburgh. Though less exciting and interesting, it is the necessary part of keeping Edinburgh relevant, and was still quite cool. We jumped on a walk that took us along the river and eventually popped out at the bottom of the royal mile. We found a nice rooftop bar where we could stop for a drink and admire the fantastic view of the black rock in which the cities castle is situated. We once again, made our way back to the royal mile, and just before the entrance to the castle, we went inside a distillery to begin our whiskey tasting. We had the more expensive tasting and as such we had some nibbles to accompany the different whiskeys. I was shocked at how well they matched each other and hid the burn of the whiskey. I've hardly got a taste for whiskey, but that only made me more impressed how they accompanied the food and whiskey together and made both taste amazing. The host then walked through the different regions of Scotland, how they differ in their whiskey taste, gave a brief history, and then we began to drink. He started by explaining how to properly drink whiskey, what flavours we might encounter, and what they might mean for the whiskey (i.e. region, distilling process, etc.). You could tell he thoroughly enjoyed talking about and tasting whiskey as his mouth could barely keep up with his brain as it tried to output as much as it could. We started with a bitter whiskey that was 12 years old and partnered with chocolate very well. We then moved onto a malty whiskey that went with some venison. Thirdly we had a sweeter whiskey that paired very well with some trout. And finally we had a vintage that ended with a bang, combined with cheese. Each time I was shocked at how well they accompanied the whiskey, the Scots really do know a lot about whiskey. We explored the gift shop, eager to see if we could take our favourites back with us, but so late in the trip and having visited so many distilleries, most of us were out of space to buy too much. We then enjoyed one last pub feed and went back to the hotel for dessert and to finish off all the remaining food from the past weeks of travel, as well as pack our bags.もっと詳しく