UK Trip - Arrival at the Resort

We finally arrived at our abode in Scotland, The Kenmore Club, in Kenmore, Perthshire, at about 4:00 pm. The trip from Edinburgh took just about 90 minutes. While Tom had become somewhat comfortable driving on the carriageway, the Scottish version of a highway, the road we had to turn onto from it, which would take us to our resort, was a different story. If we thought the lanes on the A9 were narrow – and they were, although there were often two lanes traveling in each direction and not just one – they were nothing compared to the A827. The A827 is a two lane road with no shoulder at all. In fact, not only is there no shoulder, where the shoulder should be, right along the fog line, there was usually a stone wall. We had the distinct impression that, in order to avoid having the side view mirror on the driver’s side ripped off by oncoming cars, we would have to drive so close to these fences that we’d surely scrape all the paint off the passenger side. The car seemed much too wide to traverse this road without some sort of collision with oncoming traffic, especially when the oncoming traffic was a truck (lorrie) or bus. And of course, the road was a winding, twisting road with sharp turns at very frequent intervals. Now and then we’d run into a sign that said “oncoming traffic in the middle of the road”. Uh, okay…and what were we supposed to do with that information? I pretty much sat in the passenger seat and used body English to keep the left side of the car from making contact with the stone walls, closing my eyes when oncoming traffic approached so I wouldn’t have to actually see us scrape the side view mirror off. I just waited for the sound of crunching metal and shattering plastic. Amazingly, it never came. With a sigh of relief, we arrived at the resort and I went to check in.

The staff was very friendly. They quickly gave us our key and parking pass and directed us to our cottage. The resort is made up of a group of white cottages with black wood trim, all arranged in a square around a beautifully landscaped courtyard. Each cottage is comprised of two units. Some units are two-bedroom, some are three-bedroom. We had a two-bedroom unit. The cottages are surrounded by a high stone wall, once part of the original castle’s wall. Two ancient stone gates guard the entrances. Each cottage is two stories with bedrooms and bathrooms on the main floor and the living room, dining room, kitchen and another bathroom on the second floor. As we entered our unit for the first time, we were very pleasantly surprised at how spacious and modern it was. From the outside, it looks to be quite old, but inside it is pretty new. Each bedroom had its own bathroom. The master bedroom had a large bathroom with a tub/shower combination. The other bedroom had a smaller bathroom with a stall shower. Upstairs was another full bathroom with a tub/shower combination as well. The kitchen was spacious and well-stocked with dishes, silverware, utensils, and pots and pans, as well as the “food packs” I had arranged to have delivered. These consisted of a loaf of bread, half a dozen eggs, a variety pack of cold cereals, orange juice, butter, milk, tea, orange marmalade, bottled water, and instant coffee. I had ordered two food packs, so we had plenty of food for breakfast for the week. We would have to remedy the coffee situation as soon as possible, though, and add some bacon or sausage to the list for a hearty breakfast. But first, we needed to sleep. We unpacked our toiletries, had some eggs and toast, then went to sleep. It started raining as we fell asleep.

Below is the view from our balcony at the Kenmore Club in Scotland. The water in the distance is Loch Tay. The old stone gate between the cottages is one of the original gates to the Taymouth Castle, upon whose grounds this resort is built. Behind us is Ben Lawers, one of the tallest mountains in Scotland. This was taken on a really beautiful, rare, sunny morning at about 6:00 a.m. I'll post a larger version of this photo, as well as some more photos of the resort, on my photobucket site: http://s45.photobucket.com/albums/f58/ginaemory/Scotland%202006/