Tuesday, July 9

Since we had tickets for a train that left at 10:50, we had to get our butts  out of bed and on the road. An  hour over to Crianlarich, a quick coffee, not an espresso, at the  tea house on the train platform. A three hour train ride took us through the country of increasing bareness. The hills look soft and somewhat velvety. The soil is very thin, so only a little ground cover or what you might call thick moss is in evidence. On some hills, there are clumps of pine trees surrounded by this green moss-like ground cover. We learn later that they are planted there because that is where the best soil is. We spend most of the 3 hours  trying to take pictures of the lochs, marshes, valleys, and mountains as best we can from a train traveling at about 60 mph.

We arrive on time at Mallaig at the seashore where you can see the Isle of Skye and eat lunch at the Green Garden Tea Room, sitting outside, just as I had envisioned. I had fish and chips with a Black Bitter from the Isle of Skye and Linda had haggis (cooked like a hamburger patty) with oat cakes and a cider. The oat cakes were like eating cardboard. Oh yeah, she drank some of  my bitter too. We ended with a double espresso. After that, we only had time to wonder around the small  town a bit. We walked over to the harbor and took pictures of the ferry to Skye as it was leaving.

We boarded the train and napped off and on for the first hour because a fog had moved in and there was no picture taking. Later, a guy named Larry pronounced with a Scottish accent, boarded the train and sat next to us. He had spent the day hiking. There is a lot of that around here. He told us about his walking and the way they plant trees and  a little about gold mining in the area. Nice guy. He reminded Linda of her grandad. He had a ruddy complexion from long hours outside, a long nose, and no hair. And, he claimed as a youth he had red hair like her Pap Pap. She  is wondering if her ancestors are more from Scotland then Germany because of the red hair and the long nose - we have seen a lot of that.