07/12: Glasgow - Day 2

For Day 2, we went out with a similar philosophy as the previous day. We got up in the morning and took a bus out of town to the Glengoyne Distillery, which is located a little outside of Glasgow. We had had the option of going instead to the Famous Grouse distillery, but as their whisky resembles the taste of excrement, possibly from said grouse, we elected for the unknown.

We were fortunately rewarded with a stunningly beautiful location, on the border of the highlands and the lowlands. We were also rewarded with spectacular whiskies. Below you can see the distillery with the Scottish flag waving proudly.

The trip out there was actually a little intense as our bus was driving at break-neck speeds through windy roads. By the time we got there we had no desire to drink anything, and had to sit down to regain our composure. Fortunately, this proved successful, and we were introduced to the distillery with a short video on its history while sipping on their 10 year whisky. Here's a still-life composed by Courtney.
We were unfortunately not allowed to take photos on the tour, but we learned quite a bit. For example, I didn't really know what the differences were with Single Malt or Blended Malt, etc. Also, it was interesting to learn how smokey whiskies like Laphroig get their characteristic smokey taste (Glengoyne is not a smokey whisky).

We did get a chance to try their 10 year, 17 year, and 21 year whiskies. I would definitely recommend the 17 year over the 21 year variety, but the 10 year was also quite tasty. We also learned the old Scottish equivalent of Cheers: Slainte Mhath (pronounced something like Slanch-a-va)

The pagoda like roof structure is typical of most distilleries.
Got a little Glengoyne in you?
Thistles, rolling hills, pastures, and livestock? Yep, we're in Scotland!

Glengoyne is unique because they straddle the border for the highlands and the lowlands. So they technically distill their whisky in the highlands and matures it in the lowlands.
After the tour was over we headed back to Glasgow to be reunited with Tom. He took us to tour around his beautiful Alma Mater, University of Glasgow. Tom and me:
More of campus:

We then went for a stroll in Kelvingrove park.
Afterwards we went back to Tom's place and rewarded his hosting with a very crappy meal of tacos. As it turned out, the only seasoning we found was basically a BBQ sauce. It was really bizarre, but fortunately edible. We then had some drinks before getting some sleep with the plans to wake up and head off to Edinburgh early.

Next Post: Edinburgh