October 7 2016

We would have like to have stayed longer at Fonab, with its beautiful accommodations but we had to leave early to make it to Fort William in time to catch the Harry Potter Train (not its official name, that's the Jacobite Steam Train). So off we went on a somewhat circuitous routing to the train station. Arriving a few minutes early, we found we were assigned to car B just two behind the steam engine.






Seating was two by two facing each other with a table between. Evelyn and I were the "odd couple" who did not have folks from our group at our table. As it turned out we met a delightful young lady from outside Paris who was traveling throughout Scotland on vacation. She would only be traveling with us to Mallaig, which was the end of the line, and then taking a ferry to the Isle of Skye, while we would be taking the train back to Fort William.

In Mallaig we found a nice little pub for lunch and did a bit of shopping, before re-boarding for the trip back.








We got some great shots

and video of the curved viaduct the train travels on near Glenfinnan, made famous in the Harry Potter films. We also found out that if someone opened a window, as one idiot did to take a picture, the smoke from the coal fired steam engine would fill the car with a choking, dark cloud! That was not pleasant. The whole round trip to Mallaig and back took about 6 hours.

On the way to Glasgow were treated to some fantastic scenery and landscape shots from the bus.

We also made a quick stop at Glencoe the site of the massacre of the MacDonald clan in the late 1600's. The views of the surrounding countryside were just beautiful.


Boarding the coach once again, we finally arrived at the Apex City of Glasgow Hotel, a nice modern hotel located right in the heart of the city. Being it was pretty late, most had dinner at the hotel restaurant.