In the Dutch whisky community we had previously heard of an event called Whisky Afloat, organised by Bennie, Gerda and John. It is of a gathering of whisky enthusiasts spending the day on a boat, cruising the Frisian lakes, whilst sharing a collection of whiskies and having a good time together, concluded with a BBQ…

It was time to say goodbye to Linda, Graham and Johanne. Two weeks had gone bye so fast, while we were still having so much fun getting to know each other when staying with them in Speyside. After exchanging some hugs we took off before we all would break down in tears, apparently we are…

On the last day of our trip to Speyside we had an appointment with the Tomatin distillery. In 2012 we had stopped at Tomatin Distillery on a Sunday, driving from Oban to Inverness taking the scenic route via a closed Ben Nevis distillery. Tomatin does not do tours on Sunday either, but they had their visitor’s…

We had already seen the cooper’s craft when we visited the Balvenie two years ago, but had never been to the Speyside Cooperage before, so we had decided to visit while we were in the area anyway. Coming from Craigellachie when going to Dufftown, it is a hard to miss location when you would be following the A941…

We woke up to this beautiful sunny Wednesday morning at the house we rented on the banks of the river Fiddich in the beautiful village of Craigellachie, Aberlour, Scotland. The sun was out early and the birds were performing their most beautiful compositions in our windowsill, reminding us we had a beautiful day ahead, where we…

The wonders and festivities of the Spirit of Speyside Festival were over, but our trip to the Whisky Capital of the world was only one week old, and we were not even close to being ready yet. The morning after we said our goodbyes to Oliver and the remaining five of us had planned a behind…

The last day of the festival sadly arrived far too quickly. We had pre-booked a trip to the (once more) normally closed to the public Auchroisk Distillery. This distillery was perhaps one of the easiest for us to find; following the A95 north, turn left onto the B9103 where the road forks, and after a…

Deciding what to get for lunch Fourth day of the Spirit of Speyside festival – the Sunday, we started slowly. We drove down to Aberlour and walked around the city for a bit, albeit closed because, well, it was Sunday. It amazed us a little that with the extra people in the vicinity, the Sundays…

Our third festival day was another busy day. We would start around 11:30 at the Laichmoray hotel in Elgin, so we decided to sleep in and have a relaxed morning. Following the A941 up from Craigellachie, we arrived without any problems at the hotel, where a bus was waiting on us to tour us around…

We have had a great, but busy time at the Spirit of Speyside festival 2014. Many evenings ended with us crashing on the couch talking to our new friends with a fine dram, our feet up and a fire blazing in the fireplace, or we ended at the kitchen table, trying to get some text…