Aviemore and Moulin, by Pitlochry

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

We're home again after escaping the snow blizzards of Aviemore this morning - but we had a nice weekend. Our drive through on Friday was OK, but I had to drive gingerly , particularly through Donside on our way to the Lecht. The steepest parts of the road - from the Allargue Arms up the hill at Corgarff, and up the hill at Bridge of Brown - were by far the easiest parts - it seems the ploughs had made special efforts to make sure vehicles could get up to the slopes OK.

We settled in our apartment down by the Spey and then walked up to the centre at Dalfaber for a beer to help us decide where to eat. There was nobody in the restaurant and we were initially a little reluctant to be guinea pigs, but eventually we relented and took our seats beside the central fire for our steaks. We even posed for a photograph after our meal:

We went back to our apartment and watched Shutter Island on DVD - what's that all about?

It snowed on Saturday morning, but we knew we had to get out and stretch our legs and by the time we were ready to go the snow had relented - but who would go out with a woman wearing a hat like this?:

Our walk was circular - along the river, across the golf course and back up through the Dalfaber estate to the town centre and then down to the Old Bridge Inn for lunch. Back to the apartment in the afternoon, read, sleep, G & T and then out again on the long walk back to town. We opted for Spice of India - pretty good - and we posed for a photo at reception as we left:

(Neither Santa nor the sax were real - thought I should tell you that).

On Sunday morning it snowed again - heavily for an hour or so - and we began to doubt if we could get out of Aviemore at all. We did eventually make the drive south, and once we were over the Drumochter Pass, it was fairly plain sailing on the way to meet Barry, Helen and Dawn at the Moulin Inn, near Pitlochry. Here's the team photograph at our favourite pub, with Dawn hogging the fire:

By the time we had eaten, the skies were now blue and I took this photo of Jo, taking a photo of me:

and that was our weekend - now to get ready for HK & Oz.