Category: Scotland

Tyke’s travel tips

Tyke tips

Here are some travel tips for those planning a trip to south america.

1- NEVER ARRIVE AT NIGHT – chances are you’ll be making those gruelling 20 hour plus bus journeys, the last thing you want is to be wandering round a strange town with all your stuff at the dead of night.

2- YOU WILL GET ROBBED – depending on your outlook, this may be funny, mildly annoying or a personal tragedy. Keep you passport and sexually integrity intact, these things are more difficult to replace.

3- BRING A RUCKSACK NOT A SUITCASE – it may have handles, but I’m afraid that won’t cut it. Lima doesn’t have a Marriott, holiday inn, motel 8 or McDonald’s. Expect to get sand in your wheels and strange looks.
my advice buy a nice purple rucksack (like mine :)).

4- LEARN TO SPEAK SPANISH – better than waving your arms around, you can make friends and get yourself out of trouble, converse in shops etc. etc.
it costs nothing.
invaluable.

Fort William – MacTavish’s Scottish Sword Dancing

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MacTavish’s is a Scottish Theme restaurant, one of the popular places on the drag of Fort William.

The service is abysmal but the food is excellent and you have the additional treat for £2, of being entertained in an authentic Scottish style whilst you eat.

I have captured a little of the Scottish festivities – click for a video.

Jacobite Steam Train – Mallaig

If you are going to book the best tickets are the ones with the lower numbers 12 represents an aisle. People aren’t enthused about swapping.

6 station stop offs along the way and many photo opportunities. The train stops in Mallaig, terminus fishing port.

Mallaig

Sheets of rain flush the streets as I make my way round.

Mallaig is a fishing port which in the summer receives a lot of tourists.

After two hours in windy, rainy conditions, tourism aesthetic has given way to grim realisation that Mallaig is a dirty fishing village with knobs on.

The novelty is how it has become a tourist destination in the first place.

The fish and chips are rated the best in the country and you can catch ferries in many of the Scottish islands, but I would rather catch a flight to the south of France or Spain.

This is what the Scottish tourist industry is up against.

Jacobite Steam Train – Harry Potters Hogwarts Express


Jacobite steam train to some – Harry Potters Hogwarts Express to others, this is the legendary train which takes Potter above the Scottish Highlands to the mystical Hogwarts Magical Academy.

The railway is run by West Coast Railway Company and is not part of the services offered by Scotrail, tickets are sold separately.

Glenfinian Viaduct
The train takes you to Mallaig and back via Copach and Glenfinnan, the Glenfinnan viaduct is featured in the Harry Potter film. Past Loch Shiel and the statue of Bonnie Prince Charlie then Arisaig and Morar to stop in Mallaig.

You can get all the way there and back for £22.00 per person (1st class).
Hogwarts Express
It was funny the way the journey reduced grown men to little children all jostling and excited, crowding around windows with their video cameras, needless to say I did not partake in this childish behavior.

REAL Hogwarts Express! – !!!***The Movie ***!!!!!

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