England and Scotland, May 2005 : Day 12
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Day 12, Monday: In the morning, Les drove me to Fort William to catch the train. We had some time, so we drove up Glen Nevis for the views, turning around at the Lower Falls. We got some breakfast at Safeway (!) right next to the train station. I didn't really have time to comfortably do any exploring in Fort William by this point, so Les hung out with me until the train arrived. He pointed out that I could have caught the train a bit earlier than Fort William, and that's really what I should have done - I would have had a better choice of seats before the larger Fort William crowd boarded. We said our goodbyes and I loaded my bags and myself onto the train and headed out for Glasgow, my first stop on the way to Bath (not to be reached until the next day).

The stretch between Fort William and Glasgow is part of the famous West Highland Rail Line, known for its scenery. (The other portion, and supposedly the better bit, being between Fort William and Mallaig.) It was quite scenic, but the train didn't stop every time I wanted to take a photo like Les did, and the reflections on the windows diminished many photo opportunities. (Note to mass transport designers: if you use darker colors for the interior decoration, the opportunity for photography is greatly enhanced.)

Great Glen Cattle Ranch Shelter, on the way to Ft William

Lower Falls, Glen Nevis

Still in Glen Nevis

Highland cattle

Various views from the train
between Ft William and Glasgow...

What are these? Saw lots near cities.



While initially researching my trip to Britain, I noticed that the guidebooks seemed to recommend visiting Glasgow, but that the descriptions didn't much appeal to me. When I arrived, my opinion changed: my exposure was brief (walking several blocks between railway stations), but it looked like an interesting and photogenic city. I'm not sure how much time I would want to spend there, but I would certainly like to actually visit the city rather than just pass through.

I arrived in Glasgow at Queen Street Station, and had to walk several blocks to Central Station to catch my train to Carlisle, my stopping point for the night before heading on to Bath.

Queen Street Station, Glasgow

George Square, Glasgow



By the time I got to Carlisle, the local tourist info office had closed and thus I couldn't use them to help arrange a place to stay for the night. Still, I didn't expect much trouble finding a place to stay. I grabbed a magazine from the train station with lots of B&B listings and headed out to the street where most of the nearby B&Bs seemed to be located. All the closer ones had signs saying that they didn't have rooms available, then I started noticing that a surprising number of them flat out seemed to be closed due to construction. Eventually I found one that looked promising and knocked on the door. A friendly man answered and explained that they were closed due to flood damage, and that indeed all the nearby ones had the same problem: recent floods had put a massive dent in the local B&B availability. Ultimately I completed a long circle back to the train station, and paid for a double room at a hotel a block or so away as that was all they had available.

Having finally procured a place to stay (and to drop off my bags - at this point I was really grateful that I had packed lighter than I ever had before... except for the heavy camera and lenses, of course), I headed back out to see what I could see in the remaining light, which was not much. The photographs of Carlisle Cathedral and Carlisle Castle suffered significantly from lack of light. Finally, food then bed.

Carlisle Cathedral

Carlisle Castle

Passage under the road
beside Carlisle Castle



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