Scotland Roadtrip Pt. I

In July me and my friend Pascal made a dream come true and went on a roadtrip to the holy land of whisky. Since we got into drinking Scotch we were always talking about going to visit the distilleries and the beautiful country and now we finally made it happen. Because there is so much to write about this will be a write up in multiple parts and I intend to make a few in depth portraits of some distilleries.

After a long time of planning and calculating we decided to drive all the way from Switzerland and back. We both really liked the idea of a massive roadtrip and so everything was set to go. Pascal came and picked me up with his Volkswagen Passat which was the ideal car for this trip because there was so much space and we could take everything we needed with us. We had decided that we would make the trip to Edinburgh in 2 days because it is a 17 hours drive. On our first day of travelling we had to drive to Dunkerque where we then wanted to take the ferry to Dover. We had planned everything ahead and already got a ticket for the ferry and had a reservation for a hotel in Folkstone.

Our trusty VW Passat

According to google maps it takes around 8 hours from Zurich to Dunkerque and we planned in plenty of time so we could eat dinner before boarding the ferry. What we didn't reall plan though was the traffic in Belgium which cost us a lot of time. At a certain point we began to fear that maybe we won't catch our ferry because we had already lost two and a half hours and on our tickets it was written that we should check in 45 minutes befor arrival. When we could finally drive at the maximum speed again it was a race against time. In the end all went well and we arrived 20 minutes befor departure but they still let us in and we were also lucky not to get a ticket on our way there :)

Pascal on the Ferry

The ferry ride was very enjoyable and we were looking forward to arrive in Dover because we both have never been to the UK before. After having arrived we had to drive another 20 minutes to Folkestone, where our hotel was. It was then when we were confronted with one of our biggest fears before this trip. That fear was driving on the wrong side of the street (Yes you've heard right; wrong not just different). In the end driving on the other wrong side was way easier than expected and after 5 minutes of adjusting we never looked back.

Beautiful sunset over the English coast

The night in Folkestone would have been nice hadn't it been for a baby seagull right outside our window that started making noise at 3 o' clock in the morning. Nevertheless we were really excited for the second day of our adventure because in the evening we would reach our destination, Edinburgh. The second day of driving was very quiet and apart from some heavy rainfall in the Midlands nothing noteworthy happened. In the afternoon we arrived at the Scottish border and of course we stopped to take some pictures. The last hour on our way to Edinburgh was nice and I have to say that the Borders Region is beautiful and I regret that we couldn't really discover and apreciate it.

Finally we arrived in Edinburgh and after finding our hotel we prepared to meet up with a fellow whisky blogger. You can read all about that meeting in part 2 of this series of write ups.

Part II