At the moment I am seated at a tv table in my little room at the Highlander Inn in the tiny town of Craigellachie beside the River Spey in the far north end of Scotland. We are in whisky and salmon country.There over are 500 golf courses in Scotland, there must be just as many distilleries. Tomorrow we intend to see some, along with more castles. A couple days ago we rummaged through an unattended Slain castle, climbing turrets and looking far below at crashing breakers and deep moats. It was dangerous to be there, but we just walked in and explored. Bram Stoker drew his inspiration for Dracula from this monstrous edifice. Tons of photos, of course, but you'll have to wait until the support technology improves.
Tonight, after a fine round of golf with friendly locals in the rural town of Fraserborough, we followed the spectacular northern coast through MacDuff to the Moray Firth and its legendary whisky trail.
Tomorrow morning a gentleman we know as Duncan will make us breakfast. He used to work at a nearby hotel, but had an opportunity to buy this one and took it. I had the Aberdeen kippers with oat cakes at the St. Olaf in Cruden Bay.
I am thinking bangers, bacon and poached eggs. The bangers, if they have some texture, will taste like a Jimmy Dean sausage link. The bacon will look and taste like fried ham. We see a lot of sheep, but rarely see it offered. A Scotsman told us that the French eat most 0f their sheep and their drink most of the whisky. There are five rooms. We have all of them. 
The scenery out my window is dazzling. The people are most cordial.
Three floors below, Tatsuya Minagawa, director of the Highlander Inn and a famous whisky judge who brought his family here from Japan, is serving our party from a 200 bottle collection of rare whisky. Danny, left, our group leader, is a connoseiur, and the rest of us are learning to appreciate the finer points of this water of life.Stan Rolfsrud
9 p.m.
Somewhere east of Inverness
