The town of Fort William isn't anything spectacular, but the drive leading up to it certainly is. (It seems like it might actually be hard to pick a bad drive in Scotland. So far, all have been spectacular!) We came here to catch the train to Mallaig, on the west coast. The ride roundtrip is do-able in an afternoon and boasts some of the best landscape in all of Scotland. We had hoped to ride The Jacobite, made famous by Harry Potter as the train to Hogwarts, but missed the summer schedule and had to settle for the Scotland Rail ticket. No terrible difference really - same tracks, less romantic train, fraction of the price.
The two little kids weren't nearly as excited to take in the scenery as the rest of us. They worked on their travel journals and feasted on the forbidden Pringles (aka: "Prinkles"). They did manage to get up and cheer both times when we crossed the 21 arch aqueduct, featured in the movie series. Little else matters to them these days than food and Harry Potter.
Mallaig is a quiet town offering ferries to the islands. Then again, it was a Sunday. We had lunch, grabbed our daily fish and chips, then an ice cream, and walked around the docks until our train's departure. Once we got back to Fort William, the kids were begging to go back and play in the ruins of a castle they'd spotted earlier. We did that for a little bit - you know, just until someone got hurt. ;-)
From Fort William we had an hour drive to Newtonmore, where we checked into a tired hotel, slightly misrepresented online, but somehow still able to pull off an awesome dinner. Steak pies and more fish-n-chips. We've had our fill!
Meet three of my all-time favorite people: Mr. Noodle, Miss Frijoles and The 8 year old.
