Today is our last Harry Potter themed tour – not the end of the trip but the last official Harry Potter item that won’t just be part of the Universal parks. We have a twelve hour driving tour planned. It’s unfortunately twelve hours mainly because we have to drive halfway across Scotland and, given the timing, we have to hurry in the morning – so one long drive with only one or two breaks – and with luck nearly four and a half hours later we’re going to catch a view of the Hogwarts Express going across the famous viaduct seen in the Harry Potter films.
We met our driver at the hotel after a great breakfast (I can’t say enough good about the Balmoral – seriously. See this picture above? I wear contacts during the day and glasses at night. They cleaned my glasses, even left me a new cleaning cloth. It’s the little things – I can’t believe they took the time – but wow. How cool is that?). The food is delicious, the options are fantastic, and they remember the guests day-after-day. They greet you, offering you some of the same preferences from the day before. It feels like you’re the most important person in the world to them, it’s listed as one of the best hotels in the world, and there are so many reasons why!
But enough of that, let’s get on the road.
Headed out of town
We left Edinburgh and cut across Scotland to the Northwest. The top path was our morning trip (nearly four hours) to Glenfinnan before heading back along the southern route indicated above (with a few more stops along the way). It was a long drive, but the driver did a good job to keep us engaged a bit and stopped quickly for two things – “Coos”, as they call the hairy ones here – and ice cream.
See the coos? I’ll zoom in a little…
There they are! Yep, we stopped by a farm for highland cows. You can usually feed them and maybe pet them a bit… but they weren’t cooperating today. So after a brief walk we waived goodbye, tossed the goodies they were supposed to eat in their feed trough, and headed back out onto the road.
Our next stop had to be a quick one if we were going to make the train, our driver said, a small ice cream shop that sold whiskey ice cream! This sounded delicious – and… it was. I’d go again. I’d even make this drive again just for a scoop or two! Okay, maybe not quite that good, but it sure was close. The ice cream shop is actually just behind The Scottish Shop in this photo below, but you can get an idea of the store from this view
Mmmmmm whiskey ice cream!
We took our ice cream to go, and back on the road… we made it with about thirty minutes to spare for our 1:10 PM train viewing. We got out of the car, saw the gift shop and cafe, and the hill we’d have to climb to get to the viewing area… only to find out the train was cancelled at that time. We’d have to wait another two hours to see it. Our driver offered to either let us hang out at the cafe (which would have gotten pretty boring pretty quickly if I’m honest), or to head out to find out. Want to guess which one we picked? – Oh yeah – food.
After a suggestion from the parking attendant.. we stopped here. There’s no name on the hotel, just a sign that says it is one. And and this is the lobby you walk into – it looks like you’re walking into someone’s home.
Thank goodness a staff member came around the corner, I was about to back out thinking we were in the wrong place. I have since discovered it’s called the Glenfinnan House, which is, of course, fitting. It looks, uh, ’boutique’ – and by that I mean a bit quirky, a lot extravagant, and probably just as expensive as our time at the Balmoral. I mean, I can’t prove that, nor will I, but… it does have some things going for it:
This Fish n’ Chips was one of the best on our trip in my opinion.
And just look at this view…
Finally, as the time grew near… it was time to go see the Hogwarts Express. We returned to the viewing park, and the driver pointed to the trail and told us to get up it. He wasn’t coming with us. That seemed weird – but it turns out it’s a short hike – but it’s pretty vertical for a flat hike, it’s a tough ‘trail’ with rocks as steps randomly, and… well of course it’s Scotland – so they’re wet, and slick. Sound fun? Yeah… I wasn’t thrilled.
It looks way less steep in pictures – and it really wasn’t too bad but… I wore the wrong shoes and was not prepared – so I’m sure I mentally remember it worse that in it really was.
After about a ten minute climb walking, with a good few stops to catch my/our breath (okay maybe fifteen minutes) – we found ourselves at the viewing area. You could still climb higher (some of my family did), but I was good. You can see the viaduct in the background there!
Those who climbed higher for a better view
Hey, I can see our lunch stop from here!
So after four hours on the bus… and two hours of waiting… and lunch… we got to see the Hogwarts Express – well, or officially “The Jacobite Train” – which is what looks like and passes for the Hogwarts Express these days on this route. It was cool! It was also only visible for about thirty seconds – and during that time I was hastily getting a video. So there’s no pictures. I’ll try to update this post with a video after I get back home – I’ve managed to lose the password to the Free Range Hobo YouTube, so, bear with me!
Suffice it to say it was cool. How many people can say they’ve seen the train that actually inspired the Hogwarts Express, and have seen the viaduct where it runs in Scotland?!? Life goal? Yes. Worth the time and effort it took to get here? Mmmm… more on that in the whole trip wrap-up. I don’t want to spoil that for you right now – especially not before I get the video live.
After the train drove by, we let most everyone else go past, and made our way slowly and carefully down the slippery trail. Nobody fell, I am actually shocked by this – not because we have a clumsy party but because that trail is a bit, erm, rustic for tourists. It’s fun they leave it ‘natural’, but it’s also too big a spot I think for that kind of train now, especially with the volume of people who traverse it. Maybe I’m just getting old and aware of my frailty – but either way we kept it safe and headed back down into the gift shop. We bought some fun things, and got back on the road.
And from here on out… the tour was a mix of ups and downs. Scotland, for its part, is beautiful. There were so many things to see, lakes (locks) to view, mountains, cows, and history… and driver did a great job. We saw the “turf house”, so named because it shows how the Scottish people of old likely lived and kept the roofs on their houses in high winds. We saw the history of the land and landscape, we even stopped one more time to see some more cows that were maybe more friendly and active – but they weren’t. We tried to stop by a lake – but it was closed since we were two hours behind (this was kind of a theme). Even the shop at the cows was closed – we were after hours. It was disappointing, but it didn’t seem to be anybody’s fault. And the driver was great to us with waters, snacks, and keeping spirits up. He even got my nephew and others to jump up on a platform for some pictures and started a trend at The Three Sisters, a grouping of mountains with local folklore.
The Turf House
Scotland is beautiful – really. This house is the “dream house” – see the waterfall on the right? Amazing.
“The Three Sisters” mountains
Doune Castle – used in a lot of shows including Game of Thrones and another one I don’t watch or remember that our driver named…
These cows were, unfortunately, also non-plussed. We were too late, they’d already eaten and were over it.
We finished the day by seeing someone more… recent. We stopped by an area known as “The Helix”, featuring two very large horse heads known as The Kelpies.
So in Scottish folklore… Kelpies were sea creatures that took the form of horses and would emerge from the water to entice children. I think this was mainly just to ensure children stayed away from the water and minded their manners, but… either way the statues were cool – made of many sheets of metal, and very large. It’s hard to tell scale in the pictures but you could easily stand under the nose of the one under the left with ten or twenty feet to spare before you’d touch the nose. They’re *huge*.
And with that… we headed back to the hotel. It was nearly 9:15pm – everything around for dinner was closed or closing. So we got room service. I had the ‘steak frites’, which was actually way better than I expected – but of course it was from the Balmoral.
Food eaten, I headed to bed. It was a long day. I haven’t been that exhausted by watching somebody else drive in a while! We had one tour left the next day in Edinburgh – and I had actually changed it mid-trip from a Harry Potter tour that mostly overlapped our Monday tour to just a tour of Edinburgh Castle. My family had a few plans I’ll explain tomorrow which meant keeping the morning short was a good idea – so with a castle tour on the docket I tucked in, and got some rest before another day of walking.
