Of Travel and Taste

Day one of the Great Glen Way. After a hearty Premier Inn breakfast we make ourselves on the Great Glen) way, which conventiently was right behind the hotel's car park. Before we left the hotel ground we caught a glimps of a middle-aged gentleman making off with our suitcases. Excellent! This was the Sherpa Van Man, who would transport our luggage to the next overnight stop. The first stage of our walk took us out of Fort William, past the old Inverlochie Castle (I mean literally past it, in a sneaky kind of way, so we didn't even catch a glimps of it) and to the start of the Caledonian Canal. From then onwards the route followed the canal towpath until we arrived at Gairlochy. Along the way we passed the renowned Neptunes Staircase, a series of 8 locks which rather decoratively overcome a hight difference of 20 meter. I would say that aforementioned staircase was the highlight of the first stage, the rest of the walk being a pleasant, but not very spectacular walk along ...

Day 0 of our holidays. We spend most of the day in doubt in doubt if we would be able to travel. A fire in a timber yard (it is hard to imagine a better place for a fire...) disrupted trains from Euston Station most of the day. However St Christopher, patron of travellers, had his eye on the ball and made sure the Caledonian Sleeper departed as planned.  And as an added bonus he also helped us secure that last available table in the dining car. Clearly St. Chris was on a roll that day. We ordered our regular meal for dinner, haggis, tatties and neaps, and as usual the dish was microwaved to perfection. Funny enough I don't mean this ironically. Even though the food in the dining car of the Caledonian Sleeper is prepared in a microwave, the quality and taste are surprisingly good. After dinner, which we washed down with a nice bottle of Argentinian Malbec we were ready to retreat to our cabins and let the gentle rocking of the carriages put us to sleep. The next morning...