Greetings!

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer. Backyard BBQ's and trips to the beach! 

I just wanted to let you all know that we have a few last minute openings on some of our 2018 trips...

We are currently accepting deposits for our 2019 trip to the Republic of Georgia.
Details here...  http://www.porterratravel.com/2019-georgia.html

There's a single space on our trip to Italy this September... http://www.porterratravel.com/2018-rome--tuscany1.html
2 spots left for Machu Picchu in October ...  http://www.porterratravel.com/2018-machu-picchu.html
and 2 spots left for our trip to Belgium in December (an annual favorite) ... http://www.porterratravel.com/2018-belgium.html
 
 Sign up on the website or send me an email if you're interested, but don't wait too long!

​Happy Travels,
Larry

​The other surprise, at least for me, on this trip was gin; the new national drink of Scotland. Yes, of course, you can still get at least a dozen varieties of Scotch in virtually any pub, but there are gin bars popping up everywhere! There are at least seven craft gin distilleries in Edinburgh alone, each producing their flagship bottle as well as numerous other styles and flavors like elderflower or rhubarb & ginger. You can get dry gins, floral gins aromatic gins. And the plethora of tonics is out of control with dozens of brands concocting all sorts of flavors. So when you ask for a gin & tonic at your local pub be prepared to answer a few questions; which gin would you like? Which tonic? And what would you like for a garnish? Thankfully all the bartenders are super friendly and glad to help us Americans sort it all out. Personally, after much testing and tasting (and more testing and tasting), I settled on The Botanist; a floral but dry gin with Fever-Tree Indian tonic and a grapefruit garnish, although it went pretty well with a thyme garnish too. 

​All in all it was a fabulous trip… We spent our first night in Stirling, a delightful town with a great pedestrian zone. Large enough to have lots of options and small enough to feel comfortable and cozy. We walked over the famous Stirling bridge where William Wallace defeated the superior English forces in 1297 and toured Stirling Castle, perched high on a rock overlooking the town below. Then on to Inverness, the capital of the Scottish Highlands. From there we visited Glenfiddich and had a tour of the Speyside Cooperage. The cooperage tour was especially fun, it’s an aspect of whisky that most people don’t even consider, but it’s where much of the flavor of a whisky comes from. Being able to look out over the production floor and watch the guys repair and wheel the barrels around was amazing. It’s a highly specialized craft requiring a four year apprenticeship and lots of hard work. These men are truly the unsung heroes of the whisky trade. Oban was our next stop, a pretty little fishing village on the west coast and home to the famous Oban distillery. Last but certainly not least we ended the trip in Edinburgh and visited the town of St Andrews from there.