Accrington to Mallaig 1103

Photos from the train and Central Glasgow

We walked down to the train early because I'm always anxious when catching trains and buses. Found ourselves propped on one of those bum-rester shelves in a cold wind for more than half and hour but were provided with free entertainment in the form of a young girl on the phone to someone she kept saying “bring it on boy” to so I assume it was a boyfriend. Her Lancs accent wasn't as broad as some but it was still riveting entertainment. Changed trains at Preston and then on the Glasgow train which took abuut 3 hours. The Glasgow Central train station is very grand. We had to change to another station in Glasgow so decided to walk and were pleased we did. The centre of Glasgow has a huge square with stately buildings which shows optimism. We all hear about Glasgow as a murky city with slums and a high crime rate but the city centre is very grand. The train to Glasgow had a hot spot so I was able to check emails.
From Glasgow to Fort William was a very dramatic train ride skirting Loch Lomond and the Trossachs. From central Scotland there was snow on the hills and occasionally snowing outside while we were very toasty in. From Fort William to Mallaig is the famous Jacobite line and it lived up to expectations. The mountains, above and the glens and the lochs below: every view was picture perfect. Ben Nevis overlooks Fort William which is where, we found out from Steve's mum, Steve's dad was stationed at times during World War II.
We arrived in Mallaig after about 5 hours and walked to find the Backpackers hostel we had booked in for the night (16 pound per person for dorms with 6 beds). There were several others staying but it was very pleasant. When we went out for a walk at night we discovered there was no ferry to Skye on a Saturday (woops!) The owner of the Youth Hostel we booked into had suggested we couldn't sail at night so we took his advice only to find the next available ferry was at 4 pm on Sunday afternoon. Now we have to put our thinking caps on.