Jedburgh
February 28, 2008 on 1:24 am | In Uncategorized |
Yesterday most of our group drove up to Edinburgh for sightseeing. Meghan and I already toured Edinburgh for two days and have one more day there this Saturday so we decided to take a day trip to the town of Jedburgh just 11 miles east of us. I’m getting used to driving in the UK now and today was no problem negotiating the roundabouts in Hawick and narrow country roads. In Jedburgh the only main attraction open this time of year is the abbey. Jedburgh abbey is one of the “finest” abbeys in Scotland and I agree because it is the most intact abbey I’ve seen so far. We toured the abbey for a few hours and saw about 4 other people the entire time. It was so nice to take our time and not feel rushed by other tourists. Afterwards we had lunch at the Carters Rest Pub. We then walked around the gardens of the house where Mary, Queen of Scots lived. Unfortunately we couldn’t tour because it doesn’t open until early March. Having some time to kill we saw an ad for a cashmire outlet and walked across town to check it out. The cashmire, while 50% off, was still way expensive. 75 pounds = about $150. To our surprise the cashmire outlet had a whiskey shop with every Scotch imaginable. They had a tasting area and the attendant was very informative about the differences between the various single malt scotches. We tried a few scotches of different age, oak barrels, and distillation. I ended up buying a bottle of Auchentoshan to bring home which the attendant said is a good introductory scotch to start with. Tasting the scotch was strikingly similar to wine tasting and the attendent mentioned he wanted to go to California with his wife to tour the wine country. I recommended Paso Robles which he had never heard of.