So many things you try and plan out for a trip like this and one was our travel from city to city. In Europe most of the time we tend to use trains as they are frequent and generally reasonably on time. Today was one of those where it seemed like things were going to go against is but at least the frequency part of the statement above helped us keep moving along. We got up and knew we needed to catch a train at 10:12 AM to Lancaster and had a quick change there to a train on to Edinburgh. Pretty straightforward…… We headed over to the station planning to grab a breakfast bite there but the first thing I noticed was there was not a scheduled train to Lancaster. That didn’t seem ideal so I asked a couple of station employees and they didn’t know the details but agreed that we needed to find other ways to get moving. We went through the ticket barrier as a train at 9:13 was a possibility but it had just left the station. Becky and I started researching options and found a route that left at 1025 and had to change in Newton-le-Willow and then again in Leeds so when that train came.in we verified with a ticket agent that we could get on that train for a reasonable change fee so we did that and hopped on.

Newton-le-Willow was just 15 minutes away so we just opened on and stayed with our luggage ready to hop off at the next station. After a few minutes there we got on the 1.5 hour or so train to Leeds and it was a commuter train and was pretty full so that meant standing with our luggage for the full ride though I did convince Becky to sit for most of it.

I took that somewhat in stride as it was just a commuter and not a train meant for luggage and longer distances and hoped for better on the 3 hour train to Edinburgh. I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up. At Leeds station we grabbed a couple of pastys (I’m hooked) as we hadn’t had breakfast and it was now past noon. We ate those while waiting for the next train but quickly realized with the crowd at the station and the fact that the train already had passengers we were going to be lucky to find luggage space or seats. Sure enough we were crammed in the connection area between 2 cars with several other people including a bachelorette party group (more on that later). As the train moved on there were announcements of delays on sections of the line and the train got further and further behind schedule (apparently many delays and cancelation had happened all day on northbound trains from all over). We rode like this for about half the ride and then some seats and luggage space opened so we could get Becky’s suitcase stowed and she grabbed a seat. After some complete stops coming in to Newcastle more passengers left and there was room for my suitcase as well and several seats open. A nice man let Becky swap seats with him and we rode on in to Edinburgh together. Oh i forgot to mention outside of when the train was stopping there was little air movement and the train was hot and humid and kind of stifling as well. Fun times. Back to the bachelorette party they were loud and talkative before the 3 or 4 bottles of champagne but about the time i sat down they broke out some sort of harp or guitar and began loudly serenading our train car with everything from Beatles tunes to Teenage wasteland to Bonnie Bonny banks of Loch Lomond as we entered Scotland. This totally didn’t get old quickly 😂. One thing I will say is as we entered Scotland there was a sudden mist over the landscape and you could just feel like you were in a different world somehow. So travel delays and fun aside we made it to Edinburgh in one piece. None of that would have been possible with the woeful Amtrak system as missing a train generally would mean waiting a minimum of a day for moat routes. We walked over to our hotel and dropped our bags then headed out to explore a little and grab dinner at a little Italian cafe near the hotel. We are now just relaxing and planning out tomorrow’s activities.

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