You can't just stay in the city when you come to Edinburgh and like London you can escape to complete wilderness in an hour and a half or less. We had a choice of the line/road to Inverness over Loch Lomond and chose Pitlochry because of it's fast direct service. They are fast but there is only one every two hours with the first leaving at 06:40 but it is possible to change at Perth. Britain is known for scenic rail journeys and after crossing the Forth Railway Bridge we were treated to views of successive estuaries to the East that looked even better as the Sun was going down on the way back. There is a trolley service of light refreshments but I personally felt it a bit early to try one of the local malt whiskys.
Looking South towards London Kings Cross. Note the sign in Gaelic one of the UK's three native languages. Visiting Gaelic speakers might like to tune their car radio to the Gaelic radio station run I believe by the BBC - check their website before traveling.
The iron man of Pitlochry welcome weary travelers and acts as an ambassador for the thriving local arts scene.
A couple of local shops sited near the station so that visitors dress like the natives or their ancestors and blend in which is important in places like this. No doubt the assistants who tend to have more time than their big city department store counterparts can advise in these matters.
Onto the main road and the street furniture reminds us we are in the United Kingdom. The sign says THE NORTH and Inverness to the left and THE SOUTH and Perth to the right. But where does The North begin ? Now that the West Lothian question is being freely asked in the London's Westmister parliament we plan to ask the question that no other site has dared to ask come back to the UK home page at around 20:00 CEST (19:00 BST, 18:00 GMT) Sunday 10th August and complete our very simple survey. Just to get you talking the choices will be:
Don't worry we will provide a map.
four shots of the River Tummel but we never saw a salmon. Sorry about that.
Another one through the trees.
The small man-made Loch Fiskaly. Bikes are for hire but check local weather forecasts before venturing out as it can change very quickly. Even if you cycle round the loch the "ch" Dutch g but slightly softer - similar to the G in Gouda you are either climbing or coasting. The roads are reasonably quiet and drivers good and courteous
Oh OK I'll do a political joke. Welcome to New Britain - Straight ahead for Blair Castle but you can veer sharply to the left though reds must wait at the lights when directed presumably by Alistair Campbell and Peter Mandleson.
An almost Alpine river bed forged by melt water.
The country is far too rough for cattle but fine for sheep.
A chance to make a quick phone call to your stockbroker broker and post a sell order in case you heard some bad news on your car radio.
After taking the bike back we went for another cheap and excellent curry before taking shelter in a solid brick built structure as the weather looked to be closing in. Hence no shots of the town. This one is the coach park just before the station we had to enhance the coach to bring out the Scottish flag by the way.
"Another Town, Another Train, waiting in the pouring rain - I seems I spend my life on railway stations" sang Bjorn from Abba on an album track that springs to mind on situations like these. Someone is sitting in a car listening to the BBC Six O'clock news on the radio so we stand and catch the headlines but we find ourselves gazing at the small print in the time tables just to kill a bit of time. Time not wasted as we see that there are two or three direct services from London Kings Cross and a sleeper (night train) from London Euston. Ironic really as they go down completely different routes but the end destinations are around a mile (1.6 k.m.) apart Always check the time of the last train - there was a late one here but it involved a change of trains in Falkirk around midnight.
Pitlochry is not a good place to have any sort of English accent even though some people were wandering about in Celtic and Rangers football shirts. We have to say were incredibly relieved to see some Americans but contrary to popular think you can still go there if you don't have an attitude and your voice and accent doesn't stand out. If it does South of the Border it will do here. Just one of those thing you'll be fine up the road at Avimore where people come from all over to ice climb and ski.
