Scott and I accompanied Robin to Scotland to start a year of university at Edinburgh. We included a trip to Inverness before going to Edinburgh to get Robin settled for his year abroad.

We flew Air Transat to Glasgow arriving at 7:15 in the morning. The international airport is outside of Glasgow. About a 30 minute taxi ride took us from the airport to Queen’s Street train station where we would catch the train to Inverness. Our Scottish driver knew where Calgary was when we told him where we were from because his son was playing hockey for an NHL farm team.

We had some time to wait so we put our bags in left luggage lockers — £4 per locker — and went to look at downtown Glasgow. We first looked at George Square which is pretty much across the street from the train station. It is named after George III but the guy on top of the column is Walter Scott. The City Council chambers fills the east side of the square.

City Council chambers

We bought some breakfast/lunch and enjoyed people watching. We boarded shortly after 10.

There were a number of stops. Some of the passengers were members of the Scottish National Party heading to a party convention in Inverness. Scott liked a guy who announced, “Never trust a man who doesn’t drink heavily.”

English and Gaelic signs

The River Ness was much shallower than I thought it would be.