Caledonian Sleeper

Euston Station, the end of our train journey.
We are both home now having decided to take a break from our adventure for a couple of weeks. I will be blogging again once we resume our trip but in the meantime I had to do a quick mention of our journey home on the Caledonian Sleeper, the 19.50 from Platform 1, Fort William (there are only two platforms!) We decided to come home on the train because Josh doesn't like flying and mainly because we could get the train right there at Fort William and it would take us straight to Euston. Then a short walk to St. Pancreas where we could both get a train home. The price was unbeatable, £55 each and with our "old farts card" a third off that! What's not to like?

I have experienced the overnight sleeper train from Shanghai to Beijing and back and from Moscow to St. Petersburg and back. I have to say the Caledonian sleeper beats both of those in terms of comfort, friendliness, facilities (the lounge bar felt more like a private party rather than a public lounge bar) and the scenery.  We had booked the sleeper seats but we got upgraded, so the on-board hostess showed us to a very neat little cabin set up with bunk beds and a sink and plenty of space to hang clothes and store cases. Lovely clean, crisp white cotton sheets, two plump pillows, a towel, complementary Scottish bottled water and a tea or coffee delivered to your cabin in the morning with shortbread biscuits! We unpacked and ventured into the lounge bar, which was buzzing with conversation. Travellers from Scotland, England, USA and Holland were all chatting away, with interesting stories of walking the wilds of the Highlands, politics and all sorts of other interesting tales of working and travelling around the world. This motley group of international travellers were all relaxed and chatty, sampling the large choice of Scottish Whiskey on offer and I even had my favourite Scottish Gin! The restaurant car was busy and the menu looked lovey, sourcing local Scottish food including Haggis, neeps and tatties. (No Macaroni Cheese.)

It didn't get dark until 11.30 so I sat and looked out of the cabin window, absolutely mesmerised by the views. The Highlands are so desolate and empty with no sign of human habitation (even no pylons) except for the occasional tiny isolated station. Some stations didn't even have a road going to them. Further South in the Trossachs it becomes more forested and you can see glimpses of lochs with twinkling light of hotels. There is at least one spectacular viaduct, not dissimilar to the Malaig line, tunnels blasted through solid rock and many rushing burns that you can look down on as the train rattles over the top.We slept well and woke up to our complimentary tea and coffee delivered to our bunk and opened the blind to see Wembley passing by. So  exactly 12 hours later we pulled up at Euston Station on time, in fact 5 minutes early.

 I recommend everyone to have this experience if you can.  

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