We’ve been to London several times before, but usually only as a stop on our way to, or coming back from Scotland. (More about those trips on @kiltedguy), and we’ve never actually spent a weekend in The Big Smoke. Because of this, we have never had the opportunity to visit a brewery there, since they only tend to be open for the public on Saturday, some on Friday or Sunday as well.
That’s all about to change: next week we’ll be heading back to London, to visit a number of breweries on the Bermondsey Beer Mile, and even a couple more. Oh, and some museums and sights as well!
The last museum of our trip was the Museum für Kommunikation.
We then headed south, to the sparkling new Stone brewery. There were no tours of the brewery itself yet, but the “Bistro & Gardens” certainly are impressive already! The garden and indoor space for drinking and dining are huge, and they have fifty beers on draught, most of them brewed there or in the original American Stone brewery.
For dinner we had the über-German fast food: Currywurst.
After a short stop in Liège, we arrived home safely, happy to see a proper bed. Hiking 40 km with full gear, but without any training, it was quite an experience!
Some last photos from yesterday to say goodbye, until our next trip!
In the harbour near Fittie, with my girlfriend. Kilt lifted a bit by the strong wind…
Monument for the Gordon Highlanders
Playing with a mini submarine in the Maritime Museum
Wearing my black ‘beer kilt’ at the Punk AGM 2016 (photo by BrewDog)
Walking towards the BrewDog brewery in Ellon
In a blog named Kilted Guy, it wouldn’t be right to skip the subject of being kilted in Aberdeen.
Usually I change into my kilt once I check into my hotel or hostel, but since we had the convenience of a private cabin in the Caledonian Sleeper, I could just put on my kilt in the morning, before even touching Aberdonian soil.
As usual in Scotland, people never seem to be fazed by the sight of a kilt — unlike in Brussels — and wearing my MacLaren kilt, I never received any remarks about it. Well, the lady at the left luggage facilities at the train station inquired about it, but she seemed to be seizing any opportunity to chat about anything…
During our stay in Aberdeen, we noticed two other kilties. The first one, a guy in his twenties, was wearing his kilt very casual. Read: halfway down his calves, way too low to my taste…
The other one was wearing a beautiful kilt, obviously made by 21st Century Kilts, easily identified by the typical kilt pin. He was wearing it exactly as you see it worn in the ads of the kilt maker, complete with high boots and scrunched down hoses. Now I look at their photos again, it might very well have been the white-bearded guy featuring in a couple of them!
For the Punk AGM I decided to wear my black ‘beer kilt’, complete with BrewDog-bottle-opener-converted-to-kilt-pin. Only minutes after leaving the hotel, someone noticed my BrewDog outfit, and wanted to take a photo of me.
At the AGM, someone else even made close-up shots of my kilt pin!
Then, while I was on my own for a couple of minutes, a Scottish lady — who obviously had a few beers too many already — came up to me to ask me why I was wearing “a schoolgirl’s skirt”! At first I thought it was because my black kilt is not the same high quality and yardage as my MacLaren kilt, and her Scottish eye spotted it was probably made in Pakistan. But no, it was merely because it was black! Apparently, in her mind, only a tartan kilt is a kilt.
I guess even some people in Scotland still have to get accustomed to ‘modern’ kilts…
