6/15 Skye to Thurso & Comments about UK's Sugar Tax

Not a lot exciting on this long drive from the Isle of Skye to the town of Thurso, which is at the very top of mainland Scotland.  Beyond Thurso, and in the North Sea, are two groups of islands you may or may not be aware of.  The farthest north are the Shetland Islands, which the ponies originally came from.  Not quite as far north are the Orkney Islands.  Both groups consist of many smaller islands and are reached by ferries. 

About 35 years ago, I somehow ended up reading a book on the Orkney Islands that described the incredible Neolithic and Iron Age archeological sites here.  So, in 2008, I added this area to my trip and spent three nights and two days here, but it was not enough, and much has been learned about this area since then, so heading to Thurso to catch the ferry to the Orkneys was my goal today.   

And at the end of today's post, I am going to tell you about some things I learned about the sugar tax implemented by the UK government in 2018.  

Most of my long drive today looked a lot like this:

 

As you might guess, 100 miles of this got a bit tiring.  Finally, I crossed the upper part of Scotland and made it to the North Sea!!  After this, the road was a very good two-lane major highway with even lines down the middle and on the edges.  Wow!!

The really nice part of the day was arriving at my bed and breakfast room at a place called Valley View House, out in farmland, just east of Thurso.  Much like non-chain hotels, B&Bs can be a crap shoot, but in very small towns you cannot always find a chain hotel, so you stay in either an older hotel or find a B&B that is privately run and owned.  Nearly all are in private homes where the owner has separated out a handful of rental rooms from their private living spaces.  Some, like the cottage I rented in Danby for a week, turn out to be very clean and comfortable, plus you meet some nice owners.  On the other hand, during my travels I have gotten some that were old, musty, and a little dull.  I rely on reviews from various places, but you never can tell what you will get, other than it will often be better than the old and musty hotels in the center of town.  Generally, quieter too. 

This was a relatively new home that the owners had built with the intention to run it as a B&B when they retired.  However, as they told me, they looked at the mortgage and decided they had better start running it right away so they could pay for it.  Rooms were modern, large, clean, and very nicely decorated.  Pleasant to find this at the end of a tiring day.

 

The Results of the UKs 2018 Sugar Tax!

I have been in the UK for about three weeks now and noticed early that the Dr. Pepper and Pepsi tasted really awful. I bought one bad Dr. Pepper in a bottle at a takeout store, but got the Pepsi in a hotel restaurant bar. I was told it came from the bar fountain, but when I complained that it tasted like diet Pepsi, he got me a new one in a can and brought me a glass of ice. The stuff in the can tasted perfectly normal. 

 

So, a couple of days ago, I went to a grocery store to get some takeout for dinner. I was tired from a long day's drive and did not want to tackle a restaurant, and supermarkets here have pretty good sandwiches and fruit cups. I really wanted some iced tea, so I started reading the labels of the bottled ice tea in the case, and EVERY SINGLE ONE HAD ARTIFICIAL SWEETENER IN IT! At this point, I looked at the bottles and cans of Coke and Pepsi, and discovered the bottles had sweetener and the cans had only sugar. NONE of this was labeled as diet, though the Pepsi in the bottle did say it was lower calories. 

 

See the fine print on the label of this non-diet 7Up I found.

 

 

 

 

Apparently, in 2018 the government put a tax on soft drinks containing more than a certain number of grams of sugar, so the various companies solved the problem by adding various artificial sweeteners, but did not label the products as diet because they also contained some sugar.  And by the way, they still put Aspartame in drinks and food over here!!

 

Anyway, read labels if you ever come over here!!!