Five years ago, Jim and Jacque Hagander were married in a small town in Scotland. Several friends and relatives flew over for the ceremony and stayed at a charming castle in Fintry, about an hour west of Edinburgh. For their fifth anniversary, they invited us all back again - we had a few that couldn't make it and a few new faces.

Friday, October 8, 2004
We had packed most of our bags the night before, so just added a few things in the morning before leaving for work. I had a ton of stuff to get done, and then needed to meet with the contractors at the house. We arrived home around 2:00, eventually got Suki into her cat carrier, and took her to the vet's. Not a happy camper.

The car service picked us up around 4:15 for the ride up to Newark airport. Lots of traffic at first, then it smoothed out and we got there around 6:15. We're flying Continental, and after we checked our bags and got our boarding passes we went up to the airline lounge. Nice, big facility, although the food consisted of cheese and crackers - I've been spoiled by Virgin's Clubhouse with their pre-boarding full meal service

We boarded our flight and settled in. Continental's business class seats are wide with lots of leg room. We lifted off around 9:00 pm. The crew served us a meal - one of the nicest airline meals we've had. Lobster salad, veal chop and shrimp - delicious.

I watched Spiderman 2, and then tried to get some sleep. They woke us for breakfast around 7:30 am, so I probably only slept about 2 hours. We were about 45 minutes late getting across the pond, and as we deplaned, a Continental rep told us they had rebooked us on a later flight, as we would probably miss our connection.

Since we now had a couple of hour to kill, we stopped at Continental’s Arrivals facility and took showers and freshened up. We headed over to British Airways domestic counter to check in for our flight to Edinburgh. Unfortunately, since we were not flying British Airways on the inbound, they were not responsible for the delay and would not allow us to transfer our (cheap) tickets to the next flight. We had to go to ticketing and purchase new tickets – boo.

While we stood in line, we were next to a woman who was having problems confirming some future flights for her children. Gary heard her mention Port Moresby and asked if she was trying to get to Papua New Guinea. She said that she and her family live there and she was trying to get her children home at Christmas. She lives not far from Walindi, where we dive with the Febrina, and she knows Alan Raabe the captain. What a small world.

We went back over to check-in and got boarding passes. We went to the BA lounge and had some coffee and watched the planes take off until it was time to board. The flight to Edinburgh was short – about an hour – and they served chicken salad sandwiches. We arrived around 1:30 – unfortunately our bags did not. We registered with the lost baggage office, gave them our address in Edinburgh and went off to find our rental car.

We caught a shuttle to an offsite hotel where the rental car office was situated. We got a grey Vauxhall – manual transmission. I had directions to the hotel, sort of, and off we went. Gary did a great job of driving, although I kept pointing out when he was getting a little close to the curbs, trees, bus stops, etc on my side. As he noted, he’d rather hit something stationary than something moving at about 50 miles per hour coming the other way. We made it into Edinburgh, and could actually see the hotel but couldn’t figure out how to get there. I did a brief foray and got directions to the parking garage behind the hotel.

The Glasshouse is a modern boutique hotel, created out of the façade of an old church, with the rooms on the roof overlooking a garden. It is on the west side of Edinburgh, right below Coltan Hill. I asked the bellhop what the weather was expected to be like the next day and he smiled, shrugged and said, "It's Scotland."

We checked in, explained that our bags would be along shortly and went to find something to eat. We chose a place called the Slug and Lettuce, and had a rather nondescript meal. Back to the hotel and naps.

We called British Air’s lost baggage office around 6:00 and they said that while they didn’t know where our bags were or when they would be delivered (although not until tomorrow, since the courier didn’t work past 9:00), they did know whose fault it was that we didn’t have them: Continental’s. Not five minutes later, there was a knock on the door and the bags appeared. Obviously, a great communication system at BA.

Ron called around 5:00 – they were leaving for the airport to pick up Mark and Mary. They are staying just up the road at the Thistle Hotel, and we agreed to meet there for dinner later. When we arrived, we met Ron and Pam, Mark and Mary, and Christine and Ken. We wandered for a bit, with Mark doing an excellent job of scouting out pubs for us. We found one with an upstairs dining room and had a nice dinner.

The guys were all disappointed that they wouldn’t be wearing kilts for the anniversary, so they agreed to go to Stirling on Monday to rent them. What good sports! We walked back to the hotels and said goodnight.

Sunday, October 10, 2004
We slept late – until 10:30 – then ordered room service breakfast. We ate, got ready to go and checked out, leaving the bags with the front desk. At Mark’s excellent suggestion, we walked up to Coltan Hill behind the hotel, which has great views of the city and river.

Then we walked down Princes Street and did some shopping, then across to the Royal Mile. More shopping and lunch – Gary had BBQ ribs and I had a nice Cajun chicken breast with mango chutney. We hiked back to the hotel and Gary pulled the car up to load the bags.

The directions were not as precise for the outbound journey. We couldn’t make the turn that they suggested, so we followed the signs for the A8 until they abandoned us in the middle of Edinburgh. We continued our drive around the city, ending up right back at the hotel. We tried again. This time Gary made a U-turn and we found the turn that we needed. We did need to stop at a gas station to ask directions and buy a map, but eventually found ourselves at Culcreuch Castle in Fintry.

There was another wedding party that was just checking out as we arrived. We checked in and brought the bags up to the room. We have the Napier Room with a view across the lake. Culcreuch Castle was built for defense and was the clan castle of the Galbraith clan from 1320 to 1630. It was then the home of the Barons of Culcreuch from 1699. Andrew Halsam and his family are the current owners and we met them in 1999 - unfortunately, they are on holiday in Egypt so we will not see them this time.

The whole group adjourned to the dungeon where Ron and Pam hosted a lovely dinner. It was terrific – I had the cream of broccoli soup and salmon fillet; Gray had deep fried mushrooms and roast duck breast. The guys all agreed that kilts would be a great idea, except Paul and Jeff, and decided to make a trip to Stirling the next morning. Some of the group stayed up playing cards in the drawing room, but we were tired and went to bed.

Monday, October 11
Gary was up early to go for a run. I slept in a bit, then got up and showered and went downstairs for breakfast. Apparently the card players were up until about 2:00 in the morning, so the breakfast crowd was rather sparse. Ron and Pam were going to go into Stirling with Mark and Mary, so we agreed to meet them to drive into town.

We found parking spaces downtown and went to the kilt hire shop. Ron and Gary were outfitted, and we guessed on the sizes for Jim, Mike and Selso. Ken had already been in to arrange his rental. Afterwards, we drove up to the castle and toured around for an hour or so. As we were getting ready to leave, Jeff, Lucia, and all the kids arrived.

We did some shopping and headed back down the hill to find a pub for lunch. We found a rather loud place near the kilt shop. After eating we picked up the kilts and drove back to the castle. It was pretty late when we got back, so after a brief rest, we got changed for dinner. Gary looked very dashing in his kilt. We went down to the bar and the others began to drift in. All the guys looked great! We enticed them out to the front of the castle for a photo op. Pam had bought a little plaid skirt for Zoe that matched the tartan that Jim was wearing – so cute!

Jim and Jacque hosted dinner in the Laird’s Hall. It was lovely. They offered a served starter and then had a nice buffet dinner with some delicious looking desserts. Zoe finally zonked out on a couple of chairs while the dinner went on around her. I called Mom – it’s a shame they didn’t come.

Tuesday, October 12
It was Gary’s turn to sleep in today. I got up and ate breakfast – we talked about driving over to tour a couple of Scotch whisky distilleries outside of Glascow. We looked at the maps and decided to try to caravan out. Christine, Ken, Ron, Pam, Jim, Mark and Mary – and Zoe – all split up into three cars and we followed along. We did all right until we got past Glascow and should have found the distilleries. We gave up after we lost two of the cars and followed the signs up to Loch Lomond.

There was a visitor’s center at the base of the loch, along with a large shopping center. If the weather had been nicer, it would have been fun to rent bikes and ride along the shore, but given the grey sky we decided to press on. We stopped for petrol – I won’t complain about the cost of gasoline in the states, since the UK is still about twice as expensive. We found a restaurant for lunch and Gary decided to try haggis, which he really enjoyed.

We headed in the direction of the castle and found the Glen Goyne distillery. We went in and found that a tour was starting in a few minutes. We went up to the reception center and they gave each of us a good sized shot of ten year old single malt scotch. Can’t say it’s quite my taste, but we sipped it while they showed a brief film describing the origins of the distillery.

Single malt scotch is made from three ingredients: water, malted barley and yeast. Most distilleries now buy their barley already malted, then grind it and add hot water of varying temperatures. The resulting mixture is placed in huge vats - made of Oregon pine – where it ferments for several days. Then it goes into huge boilers where the liquid is distilled and then put into casks. It is then stored for a minimum of ten years – Glen Goyne also offers seventeen and twenty-one year old scotch. The casks are normally mixed together to provide a consistent taste. Some casks are reserved and bottled as single cask scotch – very limited supply and quite expensive.

We shopped a bit in the store and then headed back to the castle. The guys had decided to wear their kilts again tonight. Gary had bought a black one when we were in Edinburgh, so he went for a more casual look with a dark grey long sleeved polo shirt. We ate in the dungeon again, and Ron had little gifts for those with recent and near future birthdays. I got a little brass pig from Wales; Mary got a lovely filigreed box.

Mark then stood up and announced another happy event: he had proposed to Mary and she accepted. Poor thing – she hates being the center of attention, which of course she was. Lucia gave her some good advice, saying that at first she didn’t say much either, but finally just went with the flow. What a great evening.