Several years ago, our dear friend who works for a major airlines, surprised us with two buddy passes, and we could fly anywhere that her company had schedules. The surprise came shortly after I completed a year of therapy in an effort to get my injured foot working again. When we asked her for suggestions that she thought I would be able to handle, she told us about the train pass that she thought we would enjoy. If we purchased the pass before we left home, we would be able to take the train as many times and any distance in Great Britain.
It was a timely suggestion, because by the time we got our act together, school had started and several of Ed’s relatives were school teachers. That meant that they wouldn’t be able to be our tour guides, as had happened when we visited in the summer, so we would be on our own during the week. Not wanting to sit around their home, and watching TV all day, a train ride sounded great.
Once we got to England, we were given direction in how to travel to various towns to visit with other relatives, and then gave us suggestions on what may be interesting for us to see. Out number one choice was to visit Scotland. Neither of us had been to Scotland, and it was a great opportunity. It was suggesting that we visit Edinburgh, the capitol of Scotland, and were warned that if we decide to include Glasgow, we may have trouble understanding their dialect, being that we were still struggling with the English dialect in parts of England. After studying the map, we decided to head north of Edinburgh, to see if we could spot the Loch Ness Monster, near Inverness. Just kidding… !
The train travelled within sight of the North Sea, and it was a beautiful trip. On our arrival, we asked a taxi driver to take us to a B & B near downtown. He took us to the most quaint lodging operated by a very hospitable couple. We got a “birds-eye” view of the city and surrounding country side on a city double-decker bus. The weather was perfect for sitting on the open upper deck, and my camera was kept busy the whole time.
Tags: Travel Trains Friends
