He would agree with your assessment of Scotland. He hitch hiked around Europe which was OK because he was always more handsome and athletic than his just older brother (me). Among the locals who picked him up was a sheep farmer who also treated him to supper and put him up for the night. Not to be outdone, brother assisted him with the sheep shearing the next morning.
I found it surprising, that the Scots were so nice. Back in 1976, people enjoyed seeing us in uniform. I was one of those guys who liked to get off the ship and wander as far away from Fleet Landing as my feet could carry me.
In Edinburgh, that was what I did. I found a small pub, and went in, and had no shortage of people saying hello and talking to me.
It was odd, I had one very nice older guy talking to me in the pub who invited me to go bowling with him and his family, which to me was...odd. I couldn’t do it due to the short time we were in port, but I was telling this to someone at some point a few years later, and was told that bowling in Scotland used to require a reservation, weeks or even months in advance because it was so popular but bowling alleys were so few. I was told that I should have been honored to be invited!
On top of all that, my squadron was VA-46 (The Clansmen) and we had the MacDougal tartan and the Clan Badge painted on our planes (Of a muscular arm with a sword clenched in the hand with the motto in Gaelic “Buaidh No Bas” which translates to either “Victory or Death” or “Conquer or Die” ) and our pilots were issued a MacDougal kilt and Glengarry cap to be worn at formal things like a change of command ceremony.
You can imagine they took a special shine to us, and had a formal reception at the clan castle which was attended by...the officers...no enlisted pukes invited! (that was okay, we understood)
So, how was the sheep farmer's daughter?