{ Planet Adventure }: 14 Nov 2006

Edradour Distillery - Pitlochry - Scotland/UK

Pt: Edradour, a menor destilaria de uisque da escocia, nao faz uso de meios artificiais para producao da bebida, processo totalmente manual. Confira o web site para maiores informacoes

En: Edradour Distillery, the smallest distillery in Scotland, they don't use automated processes to produce the beverage.

Edradour is a Highland single malt whisky made in Pitlochry, Perthshire.

Reputed to be from the smallest distillery in Scotland of the same name. Established in 1825, the distillery is entirely run by three men, and always has been. Only twelve casks are produced each week. They have a free tour which includes a dram.

The stills are the smallest in use of any distillery in Scotland. Were they any smaller, they would be deemed by HM Customs and Excise to be portable, with the implicit capacity for illegal production.

There are a variety of whiskies available inculding an unchillfiltered 12 year old. Most whiskies are chillfiltered whereby the esters and oils are removed producing a cleaner look to the whisky, which when chilled or ice included does not produce a cloudyness which is prefered by those who indulge in such things. The unchillfiltered whisky has a more complex nose and and flavours. Other whisky manufactures are now also providing this distinct type.

See the whole article here

Check out Edradour Distillery's web site

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Edradour Distillery - Pitlochry - Scotland/UK

Water of Leith Walkway - Edinburgh - UK

Water of Leith Walkway - Edinburgh - UK
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Originally uploaded by { Planet Adventure }.

The Water of Leith Walkway is a public footpath and cycleway that runs alongside the small river of the same name through Edinburgh, Scotland, from Balerno to Leith.

This is probably one of best of the many walks you can take in this amazing city, another great call is the Royal Mile which ends close enough to the great Arthur's Seat, it's guaranteed that you won't regret walk up there to see the stunning sun set and of course the great views you get of the city.

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Scottish Parliament Building - Edinburgh - UK

Scottish Parliament Building - Edinburgh - UK
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Originally uploaded by { Planet Adventure }.

Since September 2004 the official home of the Scottish Parliament has been a new Scottish Parliament Building, in the Holyrood area of Edinburgh. Designed by Catalan architect Enric Miralles, some of the principal features of the complex include leaf-shaped buildings and a grass-roofed branch merging into adjacent parkland and gabion walls formed from the stones of previous buildings. Throughout the building there are many repeated motifs such as shapes based on Raeburn's Skating Minister.[6] Stepped gables, and the upturned boat skylights of the Garden Lobby complete the unique[7] architecture. The Queen opened the new building on 9 October 2004.

The Scottish Parliament (Scottish Gaelic: Pàrlamaid na h-Alba; Scots: Scots Pairlament) is the national unicameral legislature of Scotland, in the Holyrood area of the capital Edinburgh. The Parliament, which is sometimes informally referred to as "Holyrood" (cf. "Westminster"), is a democratically elected body comprised of 129 members who are known as Members of the Scottish Parliament or MSPs. Members are elected for 4 year terms under the proportional representation system. As a result, 73 MSPs represent individual geographical constituencies elected by the plurality (first past the post) system, with a further 56 returned from eight additional member regions, each electing seven MSPs.

The original Parliament of Scotland (or "Estates of Scotland") was the national legislature of the independent Kingdom of Scotland and existed from the early thirteenth century until the Kingdom of Scotland merged with the Kingdom of England under the Acts of Union 1707 to form the Kingdom of Great Britain. As a consequence, the Parliament of Scotland merged with Parliament of England, to form the Parliament of Great Britain, which sat at Westminster in London.

Following a referendum in 1997 where the Scottish people gave their consent, the current parliament was established by the Scotland Act 1998 which sets out its powers as a devolved legislature. The Act delineated the legislative competence of the Parliament — the areas in which it can make laws — by explicitly specifying powers that are "reserved" to the Parliament of the United Kingdom: all matters that are not explicitly reserved are automatically the responsibility of the Scottish Parliament. The UK Parliament retains the ability to amend the terms of reference of the Scottish Parliament, and can extend or reduce the areas in which it can make laws.[1] The first meeting of the new Parliament took place on 12 May 1999.[2]

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Royal Mile - Edinburgh - UK

Royal Mile - Edinburgh - UK
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Originally uploaded by { Planet Adventure }.

Pt: A Royal Mile eh a mais antiga rua de Edinburgo.

Veja o artigo completo aqui (escrito em ingles)

En: The Royal Mile is the popular name for the succession of streets which form the main thoroughfare of Edinburgh's Old Town. As the name suggests, it was equivalent to a Scottish mile between the two foci of royal history in Scotland, from Edinburgh Castle at the top of the Castle Rock down to the Palace of Holyroodhouse. Although it is often said to be properly referred to as the "High Street" by locals, along the way, the actual name of the street changes from Castle Esplanade to Castlehill, to Lawnmarket, to High Street, to Canongate, and finally to Abbey Strand. The Royal Mile is Edinburgh's busiest tourist street, rivalled only by Princes Street in the New Town.

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Arthur's Seat - Edinburgh - UK

Arthur's Seat is the main peak of the group of hills which form most of Holyrood Park, a remarkably wild piece of highland landscape in the centre of the city of Edinburgh, about a mile to the east of Edinburgh Castle. The hill rises above the city to a height of 251 m (823 feet), provides excellent panoramic views of the city, is quite easy to climb, and is a popular walk. Though it can be climbed from almost any direction, the easiest and simplest ascent is from the East, where a grassy slope rises above Dunsapie Loch.

Like the castle rock on which Edinburgh Castle is built, it was formed by an extinct volcano system of Carboniferous/Mississippian age (approximately 350 million years old), which was eroded by a glacier moving from west to east during the Quaternary, exposing rocky crags to the west and leaving a tail of material swept to the east [1]. This is how the Salisbury Crags formed and became basalt cliffs between Arthur's Seat and the city centre. From some angles, Arthur's Seat resembles a sleeping lion.

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Edinburgh's view from Calton Hill

Edinburgh' (pronounced [ˈɛdɪnb(ə)rə]; Dùn Èideann ([tuːn ˈeːtʃən]) in Scottish Gaelic) is the capital of Scotland and its second-largest city and the 7th largest in the United Kingdom.

It is situated on the east coast of Scotland's central lowlands on the south shore of the Firth of Forth on the North sea and forms the City of Edinburgh council area. (The city council area includes urban Edinburgh and more rural areas.) It has been the capital of Scotland since 1437 and is the seat of the country's devolved government. The city was one of the major centres of the enlightenment (see Scottish Enlightenment), led by the University of Edinburgh. The Old Town and New Town districts of Edinburgh were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995. In the census of 2001, Edinburgh had a total resident population of approximately 440,000.

Edinburgh is well-known for the annual Edinburgh Festival, actually a collection of independent festivals held annually over about four weeks from early August, when the population of the city doubles. The most famous of these events are the Edinburgh Fringe (the largest performing arts festival in the world), the Edinburgh International Festival, the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, and the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Another famous event is the Hogmanay street party.

The city is one of Europe's major tourist destinations, attracting roughly 13 million visitors a year, and is the second most visited tourist destination in the United Kingdom, after London.

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Scottish National Monument - Edinburgh - UK

Pt: O National Monument foi construido no inicio do seculo 19, para comemorar a morte de soldados escossezes em batalhas contra Napoleao. O plano inicial era fazer o mesmo se parecer ao maximo com o Acropolis em Athenas, mas a grana acabou e o monumento acabou ficando com sua construcao pela metade.

Veja o artigo completo na Wikipedia (escrito em ingles)

En: The National Monument is probably the most well-known. Built at the beginning of the 19th century to commemorate the Scottish soldiers killed in the Napoleonic Wars, the original plan was to make it appear as the Acropolis in Athens did 2500 years ago. But funds quickly ran out, leaving only a few columns and half the foundation complete

See the whole article here

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Tuesday, 14 November 2006