Today starts out in Fort William, one of my favorite places in Scotland. A small town on the edge of the highlands, and with a uniquely scenic setting in and of its own, Fort William is a charming town with a great and walkable High Street and fun character.
Today’s events begin with a trip on the Jacobite steam train, most well-known for its appearances in multiple Harry Potter movies as the Hogwarts Express. First, a disgustingly mushy shot of the young couple at the train station.
While none of our kids are huge Harry Potter fans (a bit young, but I’ll start the five year old in a year or two), it doesn’t take any pop culture familiarity to appreciate a good train ride through the positively gorgeous scenery of the western highlands.
While the eldest is typically easily distracted (and spent most of the trip playing cards with her cousins), she still managed to appreciate the experience when forced to take a break.
Here’s what one corner of our train car looked like for most of the trip.
The interior, while a little plain for us folks in the back, was still part of a neat train of cars. Those further up–including the Potter-like compartment cars and the obligatory Potter-/highlands-themed gift shop–were pretty neat.
You can’t tell me this train doesn’t look cool, even if you aren’t a big Potter fan. As you can tell, the little one somehow seems to be managing to enjoy herself.
On the way back by coach, we stopped at Glenfinnan monument to Bonnie Prince Charlie, which also overlooked the famous Glenfinnan viaduct (again, best known from Potter–this time from the flying car scene in the second film). Here’s father and son, with the monument in the backdrop.
This stop gave us a great chance to walk through some of the fantastic scenery we had been admiring for most of the day.
Upon our return to town, a large group decided to hike a ways up Cow Hill, a small bump just behind Fort William.
I must confess, I thought my eldest would have turned back long, long before this, but she made it to the highest point with only minimal whining and a lot of cousin-chasing.
More cousin-chasing occurred on our way back down the hill, where we somehow found our way–nearly randomly, and by way of a trail we didn’t know existed and whose outlet we could have only guessed at–straight to the hotel.
After much hiking in highland wind and rain, there was only one thing to do upon our return (at least, once the kids were safely settled in with some hot chocolate).
See you tomorrow for highlands trail running, the Great Glen, and much more!