England and Scotland - Part 2

 North to Scotland

After spending a few days exploring Kingston upon Thames and then London, it was time to head to Scotland.

When I first thought of expanding my business trip to a full-fledged vacation that included both London and Scotland, I wondered how to get from London to Scotland (and once in Scotland, where should we go?).  

Of the travel options, flying seemed like a waste and driving on the left side of the road was out of my comfort zone. That left the third option - take the train.

A google search of trains from London to Scotland quickly led me to this superb website:

https://www.seat61.com

Which is run by an ex-BritRail employee who loves traveling by train (and not just in the UK).  I have used that site, now, not just for information about train travel in the UK, but also in China!

We decided to take the high-speed "Flying Scotsman" from Kings Cross station in London to Edinburgh - 4 hours at 125+ miles/hour.  I used the information from https://www.seat61.com to reserve first-class seats (on the right-side of the train) and book tickets on the LNER website, https://www.lner.co.uk/travel-information/travelling-now/personal-travel-planner/. 

At the Kings Cross train station, if you're a Harry Potter fan, you'll find Platform 9¾ for a photo op

Once on the train, my lovely wife and travel-companion and I were able to sit back, relax and leave the driving to LNER!

A view of some sheep and the sea from the right-side of the train...

Passing through one of the picturesque cities along the way...

Once in Edinburgh, we walked from the train station up a short hill to our hotel on the "Royal Mile", the Radisson Blu.  Definitely use a roller-bag for this hike!