An enormous stuffed stag dominates the breakfast room in the hotel. There's no doubting that you're in the Highlands. While we wait for our porridge we listen to a couple sharing their opinions of Scotland with another couple seated three tables away. ' They don't have coins in this country ' an overheard observation that we find interesting.
The hotel does a good job keeping standards up. Finding staff in a place as remote as this must be a nightmare. Brexit stopped the inflow of service savvy young Europeans who used to come here each summer. Now, the hotels employ Brits who culturally don't see hospitality as a career. This year we've noticed that service in many places has less finesse.
We check out of the hotel which, despite the OTT decorative style , we greatly enjoyed. It must be fun in winter when the wind and snow are battering at the doors. Perhaps we'll bring the new car up here to try it out on the mountain roads. Last night the bar was full of dogs - this is usually a sign of a happy place. I counted nine of them. Two foxes had a run in with each other at 2:31. They kept at it for 25 minutes. The Highlands is quiet. It must be something to do with the sound muffling effect of the mountains. The foxes woke some of the dogs who then woke the other dogs. The breakfast folk also comment on this.
There is even, for all of ten minutes, some blue sky and what passes in these parts for sunshine.
The shops in town are open from Thursday to Sunday. The shopkeepers day starts at 11.00 and ends at 4:30. The talkative hotel guests in the dining room think this is because the locals are lazy. It's more likely to be down to the tourists season being extremely short, the number of visitors being limited and the constraints of trying to juggle their day jobs while making a little extra from their retail sidelines.
The butcher is open every day - all day. He clearly has a sense of humour.
7 comments:
Nice to know you and "The Font" have somewhere you both enjoyed enough to consider returning with your new car. This long-time reader of your blog wonders if you have also found a place to take your possible next dog to bark at foxes during the night!
Nobby now wants to spend a night in Braemar luxury (with canine company in the bar, foxes for nightime entertainment and plenty of antlers to chew on).
If the hotel is popular with dogs and their owners, it can't be as bad as the decor!
Are the locally caught haggis farmed or wild....?
A stuffed stag overseeing meals would be quite intimidating, especially if eating venison.
We have foxes here on the hill just south of Washington DC.
I love those walls in that dining room. So happy you stayed there. And yes, it is a glorious place during a storm. xx
Wait. Foxes ran into the bar? And there were nine dogs? In the bar? With the foxes? Do you think the hotel would employ a 70 something gal in a front desk job? She has wonderful social skills...
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