Aberdeen to Inverness

The train station at Aberdeen is quite amazing.  Victorian style, with metal archways and glass walls and ceiling, it must be two and a half to three stories tall.  The floors are white and flowers grow in hanging baskets at both ends.  I was greeted on my entry by one of the locals, soon to be joined by a second.  Though two legged, these were of the feathered variety.  Pigeons, hoping to be fed, rushed me as quickly as their overweight waddling would let them.  Once assured they were getting no breakfast from me, they staggered off to the next potential sucker.



Gull at Aberdeen Station



I had just managed to offload all of my assorted crap and got myself sat down, when a seagull marched up and demanded something or another.  I talk cat, but not gull, but I figured he was after the same thing as his pigeon friends.  He didn’t look like he was any more need of food than they.  Entrance stage right, a man runs for the platform, startling said gull.  Bird also runs, wings outspread for balance.  Bird then decides he has gone far enough and it’s undignified anyway, so calls a halt.  Almost.  The trouble is that the floors are marble and as he puts the brakes on, he skids and just about ends up landing on his tail feathers.  If a bird can have any kind of look on its face, it was priceless.  I near piddled.

The trip to Inverness was uneventful.  I got the right train and as there were no changes, didn’t have the opportunity to have another “oops.”  As Calvin said, no railroad jail this time around either. 



The River Ness



It seems the further up country I travel, the more I love the cities I’m seeing.  I liked Edinburgh very much, but Aberdeen more.  After a rocky introduction, when I was expected to pay 20p to have one, I decided that Inverness takes the cake.  And for some unknown reason, the mall charges an extra pound 30 for the privilege of eating your lunch in the food court.  Despite what our nattering Loch Ness guide had to say, there is a lot to do and see here.  The city is split by the River Ness, but foot and road bridges every few blocks connect the two.  There are walks for miles along each side of the river and footbridges let one cross over to the Ness Islands.  The walks and bridges are strung with lights for the evening hours.  I didn’t see them lit, as I was in my bed in a coma by then.  Nor am I likely to see them, as dark comes late here.