Scotland Day 3: Edinburgh to Inverness
A marathon, a broken train, Canadians and the hotel. 12,214 steps/5.32 miles.
Sunday AM we had to catch a 9:35 train to Inverness. Our hotel was across the street from the main train station.
Easy peasy.
Nope. The Edinburgh marathon was on Sunday, and even though it was supposed to start at 10am - it was already going well before. That meant a long walk around a long block to walk over the road to get to the train station.
And while we had tickets booked, we needed to print them via a kiosk and then find our platform. Sorry, no photos since we had our hands full with luggage and I had a coffee.
Trains were comfy and we found an open 4 seater with a table and charging plugs. Take that NJT - this was a commuter train! I was excited to have Jeff experience the view and the tea trolley!
Alas twas not to be - the train broke in Perth and we had to get off and wait for the next train. Or the train after that. The next train which would be there shortly, was short a few cars - so the conductors asked us only to take that one if we were making a connection. The one an hour after that would have plenty of seating. We chose that one. And my observations are as follows:
The conductors gave clear and timely infomation that came across clearly.
Perth knew about the issue, so there was a ScotRail employee holding the gate open so we could go to the Costa coffee shop and be able to get back into the station.
The new train came on schedule and we were on our way.
While ScotRail is bashed locally, with the bar being set so very low by NJT, we were…happy. The guy at the gate didn’t understand why were weren’t upset…
If you’re on the fence about taking the train vs renting a car and driving, take the train. You can sit back and relax and Scotland has a very extensive public transportation network. And you can’t beat the view.
Inverness is no Edinburgh.
They roll up the sidewalks at 5pm. Due to our plans the next few days, we had 2 hours to explore shops in this small city. The only retail open after 5pm were the tourist souvenir shops and M&S (7pm) and Tesco 8pm. Restaurants and bars were open, of course. We checked into our hotel dropped our bags in our room and explored.
The hotel…was interesting. The location was great. A block from the train station and centrally located. But it had a weird 1980s nursing home vibe. The lobby area was nice enough and seemed recently updated, but the stairwells and hallways looked like they last had an update when I was in college. The room was small - not an issue for Europe - but oddly laid out and with little storage. Pros: Bed comfy, shower hot & good water pressure, the view. Also the room was facing the river and was quieter. Cons: furnishings were clearly past their prime, stained lampshade - which made me not look for more stains, broken lamp base, and the desktop was sticky. And requests for anything had to be done by WhatsApp. The quarter glass ‘wall’ in the shower…why? Because it’s less maintenance than a shower curtain? Pretty much and there’s no real way to avoid the flood.
Dinner was at an Indian place called Rajah.
Did I mention that the Scots love their sweets. Everything we ate had sugar in it. Including the naan. It was unexpected, tasty, and we ate it all, but still…
Details:
Rajah - dinner cost us about $80USD. We had 2 entrees one chicken, one lamb, naan, water and dessert. They do charge for water.
Mercure Hotel Inverness - not bad, but not great either.
ScotRail but there seems to be LNER as well.
Travel agent: Vacations by Heather. 2nd European trip with VBH - excellent.