The Jacobite Train
We left Edinburgh early in the morning for Fort William where we would board the Jacobite train for the east coast of Scotland. We left early enough that we should have arrived hours before our train, but ran into a massive traffic jam due to an accident near the Corran ferry. We sat for over an hour not moving and feared we would miss our train. J. R. went walking to find information while Alex called the railroad to see if we could change our train time. As J. R. was walking up, he saw a pair of cars on lorries coming the opposite direction, one of which was missing its roof. He walked back to the car as traffic started to flow and we made it with enough time to eat before our train.
The Jacobite train is an 84-mile round-trip that starts near Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Scotland. After leaving Fort William, the train passes over the Glenfinnan viaduct, made famous in the Harry Potter movies as Ron and Harry fly near the Hogwarts Express on their way to school in their flying car. We stopped at the Glennfinnan train station and then re-boarded the train. Due to delays, we did not stop at Arisaig but instead went straight on to Mallaig. Alex and J. R. had coffee and tea respectively from the trolley and then J. R. and Janie traveled to the dining car to get hot chocolates for Janie and Rebecca.
Mallaig
The fishing village of Mallaig is the end of the line for the train and was our primary stop. We were hungry so we walked around a little and settled on the Cornerstone Seafood Restaurant where fish and chips was the order of the day. We walked around the docks for a bit before buying some drinks for the train ride back.
We reboarded the train for the reverse trip and came back to Fort William. We drove to our hotel for the night, The Ben Nevis Hotel and Leisure Club. When we booked the hotel, it looked a lot nicer than it turned out to be. The decor was rather dated and while the room had a nice four-poster bed, it felt cramped and dated as well. The lack of Wi-Fi in the rooms got a serious thumbs-down from Rebecca. So we moved down to the lobby for a few drinks and were able to order snacks before the kitchen closed and used the Wi-Fi in the lobby for awhile. We finally turned in when the accordian player started playing. The hotel was filled with a lot of old people, mostly from Sweden or Norway.
