Taking the Train

..because they bite.

Now, this is the first time Scott had taken a train anywhere for a significant trip. This was a 7-hour trip, so Scott had mental images of something like this:

but, when the train came zooming up, it looked like this:

There was no big puff of steam, no "whoo-whoo," nothing but the same electric whirrrrrrrrr that you hear with mass transit trains. What a disappointment!

Ah well. We had booked first class, as it was only 10 pounds more. That was a worthwhile investment. We had good food and nice seats. It was a little eerie, as the doors all opened with the push of a button, Star Trek style (whoooosh.. whooooshh).

Along the way, we got to see some beautiful natural stone monuments. Last time, we saw Stonehenge; I wonder what the meaning of these things is?

I guess they are so powerful that even local steeples are affected...

So, here are the happy travelers.

There are several things to notice here:

1 - There is a woman to the right that is obviously not very happy with our photo-taking shenanigans. You can see a close-up of her scowl in the bottom right corner of the picture.

2- When I showed this to a Ph.D. student upon our return, he exclaimed, "Scott, why in the world are you reading 'The Conduct of Inquiry' on vacation?" For those of you who have not read this work, it is a very slow theoretical read about research methods in the social sciences. I was building my theoretical framework for library evaluation, and turning to the shoulders of giants.

After too long of a trip, we arrived in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was late, so we went to the hotel.

The next morning... Scotland!

Back to Scott Nicholson's Travel Page.