Scotland Trip - July 11, 2005

Today will be our final day of golf - 36 holes at Turnberry's Kintyre and Ailsa courses. This is my first post from Scotland this week, due largely to a busy golf schedule and relatively slow internet access.

Regardless of the troubles, however, I wanted to report that even though we have spent a considerable amount of time on the courses, we've also managed to have a bit of food and drink. Last night's repast was a local affair for sure, fish and chips in a decidedly iffy part of Troon.

The Barassie Chippy ran out of haddock with our fourth order, so those of us near the back of the line substituted chicken. It's a fried food delight, so some say, but I'm suffering a bit this morning. Here's Nick Green, the "English Bastard, as Blair calls him, the first to be served the haddock, and Neil MacKenzie, still waiting to be called:


We took our eight bags of fish (or chicken) and chips, gathered 'round a picnic table overlooking the public beach just 100 or so yards away, and fought over napkins to clean our greasy fingers.

It's pretty interesting, actually: you come over here for the golf - and there's plenty of it, most of it marvelous. But some of what you remember most are the other things: the tiny rooms in the Marine Hotel; the hilarious one-liners or escapades of your travel partners ... and yourself; the extremely long days (the sun's up this time of year by 4a, and each night, it seems, we're asleep before it's dark); the pint after pint you drink before and after the rounds; the culinary excursions ... and what you're willing to eat in the interest of "local flavor."

I'll go back and fill in many of the blanks of the trip in coming posts, but this one I didn't want to get by.