West Highland Line

Una experiencia genial. Después de una paliza en bici por la Great Glenn Way, nos pegamos el descanso del guerrero en el Jacobite, un tren a vapor que te lleva desde Fort William hasta Mallaig por unos parajes de vistas espectaculares. El sonido y movimiento del tren son de cuento para niños, el ambiente es alegre y las zonas por las que pasa son de no cerrar los ojos ni para parpadear. De precio, no recuerdo si unas 70 £ dos personas.

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ATTENTION ATTENTION
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Ladies and gentlemen. Did you see it? Of course you didn’t see it, because you can only hear me.
Ok, listen carefully. There is an undescribable chaos! 5 stars is not enough to rate this thing. Absurd! Should be 10 or 100 stars.
Amazing train ride up the highlands. Through peat bogs, rolling hills, lakes, lochs, rivers, impromptu bodies of water, viaducts, horseshoe curves, coastal ridges, green pastures, deer and sheep, sun, rain, snow, mountains, and everything in between.
Words cannot describe how awesome this ride was. You have to do it yourself once before you die. Otherwise I won’t approve.

It’s a tired cliché in Scotland to harp on about the stunning countryside «on our doorstep» that we pay little attention to, but a trip on The West Highland Line proves that even if Scotland is a country filled with bitter, self pitying drunkards, it’s an exceptionally good looking one.
This rail line is considered amongst the most scenic in the world, and takes you through Loch Lomond, various mountain ranges, past Oban then onto Fort William. The scenery really is beyond belief at some points, with notable money shots being the Loch Lomond section which is viewed from halfway up a mountain (or a big hill, I’m not sure), and towards the end of the line when the train crosses the Glenfinnan Viaduct, a magnet for tourists as it was used in the Harry Potter films.
There is one slight downside. Despite the summer months being packed with bumbag wearing tourists, Scotrail use an older, slower, and sometimes quite uncomfortable train for this service. It’s either down to bad business sense or deliberate usage of a slower train for lovers of the rugged terrain, but it grates that they don’t even bother with the buffet car. It’s not too huge a deal though, and shouldn’t detract from what’s always a jaw dropping journey.