Islay and Jura Piping & Drumming Club

Our day started with a shock moment. When Maxi woke up, he noticed a huge and pitch-black spider that had made itself comfortable in our bedroom. Even the panicked escape to the bathroom was of no use, because there was a second spider hidden under the carpet. So there was already a lot of tension early in the morning. Luckily, our host Cathy helped us out with her vacuum cleaner. Just narrowly escaped.

Shortly after, we took the bus to Port Ellen, one of the main towns on the island.

Here, we had a tour of the 'Port Ellen Maltings' malt house, where the production process of malt for brewing and distilling was explained to us. Maxi loved it, Verena not so much 😂

Then Maxi got to play a hands-on role and filled the smokehouse with peat for the smoky malt. Just in time for the next activity, the sun came out again.

Since the bus connections on the island are more than lacking and we didn't want to only rely on taxis, we decided to walk the almost 2 miles to the Laphroaig Distillery.

When we arrived, we were greeted with a great tour in a beautiful location by a small bay (see pictures).

One of the highlights was marking our territory on the grounds with a German flag. As buyers of Laphroaig Whiskey, we were given the 'plot of land'.

Naturally, we also had the opportunity to try a few drams (Triple Wood, Lore, Select, 10, 10 Cask Strength, Four Oak)

Happy and in the best weather, we walked the whole way back and can now record a total of 16.7 km on our step counter.

On the taxi ride back, we had a true Scotsman as our driver to top it all off. Maxi tuned out after the first few sentences... only Verena bravely made her way through the Scottish dialect 😂

Oh, and then there's the title of today's blog entry. That comes from the second true Scotsman we met today.

In a small shop, a very friendly elderly local engaged us in conversation and proudly put a cap from the 'Islay and Jura Piping & Drumming Club' on Maxi's head. Unfortunately, it couldn't be conclusively determined (as Verena claimed until the end) whether it had anything to do with Maxi's disastrous hair on that day...

With the good weather (and whisky) on Islay, we say goodbye to this beautiful piece of earth and take the first ferry back to the mainland tomorrow.

Good night and greetings

Verena and Maxi