Beginner's Guide to Scotland

In this episode, we talk about some basics for a first-time visitor to Scotland - what to eat, how to handle driving, what to expect from visiting there, and more. We'll also tell you where you can find a stone that predicts the future, where the legend of the original “Red Wedding” took place, and where you can get a Philly cheesesteak in small town Scotland.  

Matt recorded all new music for this episode too: A "nontraditional" version of “Scotland the Brave” (on multiple cellos!) and a guitar rendition of “The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond”. 

Want to know more about us and our travel services? Find us at:

www.LittleRoadsEurope.com

www.facebook.com/LittleRoadsEurope

We craft small-town driving itineraries for travelers to Italy, Ireland and Scotland.

And our "alter-egos" as musicians:

www.OrsiniVirtuosi.it

Transcript

Beginner's Guide to Scotland podcast notes

Note: This is not a complete transcript, but rather the show notes we write in advance to prepare for the episode. 

INTRO: 

Welcome to Little Roads Unfiltered: Italy and Beyond

 Today we’re talking about Scotland! Among other things, we’ll discuss…

- The castle that had a real-life Game of Thrones “red wedding”-type massacre

- How to find your own stone that predicts the future

- Where you can get a Philly cheesesteak in small town Scotland

[music up then down to 20%]

This is Matt Walker          …and I’m Zeneba Bowers - 

We’re recording while sitting on the terrace of our tiny home in Italy - so you’ll get a sense of the sounds of life in our little town. We want this to be more like a casual conversion with us - complete with church bells, cats meowing, motor scooters and whatever else 

 - so join us as we talk about your first foray into Scotland

… here on Little Roads Unfiltered: Italy and Beyond.”

[Music up then fade out]

For those of you who don’t know us: We are professional musicians and also travel writers and consultants, living and working here in Italy for the past 6 years. 

If you want to learn more about us and our lives, you can find us on our website LittleRoadsEurope..com, on our socials, and now here on our new podcast, which we’re going to do unedited, as if you’re sitting here chatting with us - 

…and by the way, we did our own intro music - Matt arranged it, and we recorded it here in our house! Since we’re musicians working here in Italy, ecc ecc ecc

 So let’s get to talking about visiting Scotland!

We travel to small towns, so for tips on visiting Edinburgh/Glasgow, consult any standard guidebook. We focus on small towns 

Let’s start with food, since our travels always focus on that. When traveling, we do a ton of research to learn what are the most prized ingredients and traditional foods of the area, then figure out where we can get the best version of same. We also like to combine those with lodgings within walking to the food, so we can eat dinner and then stroll home. 

We like to be done with the car in afternoon so we can enjoy things like whisky.

First meal of the day: breakfast. Hope you want to eat 3000 calories for breks, because you will! 

Similar to English/Irish breakfast, wildly different from Italian breakfast

Eggs, fried mushrooms, and several meats: haggis, link sausage, bacon, LORNE SAUSAGE (pork sausage minus casing, famous in Scotland), black pudding 

Tattie scones (mashed potato pancake), fried tomato, baked beans 

We change our typical routine to adjust to wherever we are. So in Scotland we eat Scottish breks every day, then skip lunch. This works out well for the schedule, as we will discuss later on. Some places (especially the places we sort out) offer healthier options too: yogurt with berries and oats, whole grain bread, egg white omelettes, porridge which is traditional 

Scottish specialties:

“Neeps and tatties”

Haggis 

Cullen skink: smoked haddock, cream, potatoes 

Scottish salmon 

Highland venison 

Arbroath smokies : smoked haddock from Arbroath 

Sticky toffee pudding 

Clootie dumpling (dried fruit, spices, flour)

Tablet (like a grainier fudge. If you like sugar this is for you) 

Shortbread (sold everywhere, but it is worth it to go to the town it is made in, called Aberlour, which carries its scent all through the town - WALKER’S shortbread

BERRIES, farm stands, late season, we hunted out particular farms

Scotch Whisky (not whiskEy)

Irn Bru: some say bubblegum soda. I think baby aspirin soda. Yoo Hoo Incident of 1976

POINT IS TO TRY NEW THINGS, not have everything be perfect

People don’t go for food, but we hunt out very special places, excellent gastropubs that use locally sourced ingredients in inventive ways

I did like Irn Bru in one form particularly: 

Remember that bar up in Fortrose? Owned by a Philadelphian, and he has a Philly Cheesesteak on the menu, plus Irn Bru beer on tap. We sent some clients there that loved it 

Our clients ask us to do Ireland and Scotland both. So discuss the difficulty of that and also why it is harder to get out to the islands in a short trip 

Must keep the gas tank at half full - one of our primary tips for our clients because we are designing tours there 

ASK US ANYTHING: Is it hard to drive on “wrong” side of road? (US perspective, obv)

Driving in Scotland: Not as scary as you think, even with driving on opposite side (US clients) - not crazy busy like Rome, lots of rural roads - the challenge is occasional narrow roads w/ pulloffs, and for US folks, the opposite side thing

— “ADVERTISEMENT” BREAK —

That reminds me that we need to stop for a word from our sponsor - - - -  just kidding, we don’t have any sponsors - instead, today’s show is brought to you by: A Good Idea. 

And today’s Good Idea is: 

When you’re renting a car, particularly in a foreign country where the cars may be set up differently, spend a good 5-10 minutes familiarizing yourself with the instruments - lights, signals, gages, wipers, defroster, mirrors, fuel latch, hood release, and other controls - This is especially valuable in a country where the driving is on the opposite side - like when Americans visit Ireland or UK.

That’s it!   … So anyway, where were we?

Applecross pass - steepest ascent in UK from Applecross town to “mainland” 

Speaking of mainland: With most clients we don't advise visiting the islands, too much

- guidebooks talk about EVERYTHING but important to have time to take it all in

Inclement weather affecting travel

It's colder than you think even in summer , two pairs of shoes, raincoat, not 1 dollar kind

Very short tourist season, even shorter than Ireland 

Lots of places lost after covid and closed completely

Opening hours 10:00 to 4:00 and they also take a lunch break 

Early breakfast preferable (830-930), we schedule our clients trips this way too

We sometimes schedule special visits - birds of prey, seal tour, distillery visits

(but not too many of those, to not feel like a tight schedule) 

Sightseeing in day: Ancient bridge, woodland walk, waterfalls

Nearly every site is paid and more expensive than Ireland, and also farther apart 

Rait Castle (ruins) - site of banquet when rival families fought: the visiting family were supposed to be murdered, but they found out and the guests killed their hosts

(Little legend details like this that we include in client itineraries)

Another legend: Brahan seer, who was a Highland seer who worked at Brahn castle in the 1700s. He publicly (and accurately) predicted that Queen Isabella’s husband was cheating on her, so she subjected him to a tortuous death. (Today’s leaders who do not like to get info they don’t like). Hagstone, which you can find on Chanonry Point, Rosemarkie Beach

You can get your own personal seeing stone

WIND; COLD 

Speaking of legends, Loch Ness! Google maps doesn’t show everything, so we were surprised being still wild and looking the way it did 400 years ago - we never saw the monster

OUTRO: 

I think that’s a good place to wrap it up here - we hope you enjoyed joining us for our talk about Scotland!

Don’t forget about our “Ask us anything” - you can write in and …

If you enjoyed our chat today, please give it a like or a good rating, and tell your friends about us…

We’ll be talking about a wide variety of topics here on this podcast, from travel tips to slice-of-life stories - we’ll be posting a new episode each Tuesday. 

So catch us next time - we’ll see you down the Little Roads… Cheerrie Biye!