Scotland!! Denise, a very close friend of Holly and I and fellow fiddler, had the brilliant idea of getting 6 ladies together for an amazing 2 week summer trip to Scotland. 5 fiddlers and a bohran player, the six of us were all a part of the regular musician group that attended the weekly session at Ceols Irish Pub in Reno.
It was June when we, the six, spanning 50 years of life (19 years to 70 something years) arrived in sunny Scotland. Yes, apparently, we got a break in the weather and it was sunny for most of the time we were there! Scotland is an absolutely gorgeous country, filled with picturesque pastures, old stone churches and winding cobblestone streets. And of course, magnificent castles and ancient distilleries.
We spent many happy, blissful, and hilarious hours in the car, eating huge Toblerone chocolate bars we found at the airport. Driving from one small town to the other, we stopped to play fiddle tunes together in old churches out in the middle of no-where, visited random distilleries and took castles tours along the way.
We made daily visits to the local Co-op to pick up food to cook and Jura Scotch (one of our favorites) to drink in the evenings at our lovely Airbnb’s. Thanks to Denise’s amazing planning, we stayed in incredible Airbnb’s. My favorites were the castle perched on a hill and surrounded by gorgeous gardens, a romantic ‘Jane Austin’ cottage in Isle of Skye, and an old distillery where a sheep arrived at the end of our stay to bid us farewell and scavenge for any misc. chocolate bits we might have left in our bags.
We stayed 3 or 4 nights in each town, enjoyed delicious local food, and played at a local sessions with amazingly friendly musicians. We enjoyed long walks along the water, watched the sun set at midnight, and then played more music together at our Airbnb till the wee hours of the morning. Wonderful memories…can’t wait to go back!
