Scottish Honeymoon: Days One and Two

Day One:

Dad came to get us at an only slightly unholy 6:30am, whisking us to Euston station for our 7:22am train to Glasgow. At the last minute, we'd decided to forego the train tickets from Glasgow to Fort William and drive from Glasgow to Ballachulish, which actually takes less time and gives us a car to play with when we get there. It meant a little bit of money lost but a lesson learned and convenience gained.

The train took just under five hours. I had Twilight to read - it's rubbish, but beguiling rubbish - and posts for BitchBuzz to write, one of which became about vampires, so there was plenty to entertain oneself with. The train was a Virgin Pendolino and we got a table and, thanks to Ashley's office Christmas gift, an Acer Aspire One. All went well.

The drive from Glasgow took us through some extraordinary scenery, shifting colours and temperatures (lowest -5, highest 2) and rocky, desolate, bewitching expanses. You feel incredibly tiny in the pit of these intimidating valleys, and it's a surprisingly positive feeling.

We arrived at the pleasantly creaking Ballachulish Hotel, overlooking a glorious expanse of Loch Linnhe, just in time for tea and the oddest-tasting cake ever, and then had a boozy dinner of vegetable soup, roast lamb and Eve's pudding washed down with a heady rose. Then bed, and a comfy sleep.

Day Two:

After a breakfast of proper Scottish porridge oats, scrambled eggs, sausage, toast and tea, we decided to drive in the direction of Glen Nevis and see if we could get a good glimpse of the vertiginous slopes of Ben Nevis. Having seen that Inverness was just 80 miles away, however, we carried on, along the banks of Loch Lochy, Loch Oich and finally the entire length of a disappointingly monster-free Loch Ness. A brief stop at Urquhart Castle, then more gorgeously winding roads, flanked with ice-capped trees that waved their white fronds as invitingly as Anne Shirley's White Way of Delight. The scene would suddenly shift to rich reds and glowing greens and then suddenly we'd be back in a monochrome Christmas Card again. I've never seen such a gorgeously changeable and impressive scenery (suddenly you understand how so many die icy deaths on the treacherous slope, and shudder in your safe, warm car) and wonder why it's taken me so long to cross the border.

Inverness itself has little to recommend it. A resolutely functional Highlands capital; a handful of pretty buildings are about all that stop it from being a veritable blot on the landscape. It really is just a place for everyone from the villages to visit a Marks and Spencer every few months.

The drive back was as stunningly beautiful as the drive there. Four hours (two each way) of glorious natural beauty is quite a way to spend your honeymoon. We returned to tea, caramel chocolate tray bakes and mince pies. Then a shower and down to a cocktail reception (woefully underdressed!) and six course New Year's Eve meal including shockingly lovely venison haggis, neeps and tatties (why are swedes neeps?) and a fabulous roast beef. Then we rushed up to bed and snuggled like kittens in a basket, fast asleep long before the bells rang in the new day.

Day Three to follow... frustratingly, uploading the pretty photos we took with our wedding present DSLR is impossible on the hotel's slow (but free!) Wi-Fi, so these will have to be added when we get back. Happy New Year, Voxers!