September 4, 2010

Highland Games! We couldn't turn down the opportunity to check out the annual Braemar Gathering in Braemar, Scotland. The heather was in full bloom as we drove the 2 hours to Braemar to check out the games.

Tug of war with Queen's box in the background
The traditional caber tossing
11 pipers piping! Well, 11 piping bands that is! Really awesome sound in person.
We took in the games for about 5 hours including the dancing, running races, piping, tug of war, and "heavy events": caber tossing, stone throwing, throwing a stone over a bar, and hammer throwing.
On the way back to Aberdeen, we paused for a picture of the heather near Balmoral, the queen's summer home. Beautiful!
After passing a sign that said "Welcome to the Highlands" I was pretty annoyed that we kept seeing only regular cows and no Highland Coos. But finally on the way back, we saw some! Here they are, they didn't want to get near me at all....

Here's a video of the pipers piping - impressive!