hazelchaz | There's a voice on the phone who just called in to say "Mr. Jones isn't home...

Friday, from Inverness to Northwich, Cheshire, part 1 of 2.

Folks we met and photographed today: Margherita Arrigiu, Nicola Campetti, Sue Mason (

frostfox), Kieron, and Molly.

We got up bright and early Friday morning, had breakfast at 08:00 with an Italian couple, and trundled out the door to the train station. We knew we'd be spending a lot of time on trains. Kieron could have driven us if we had less luggage; the main reason why I had so much is because I had a bunch of

inter_action stuff -- stuff for the convention, or picked up at the con. The folding trolley to handle our three big suitcases was more convenient than just hauling three suitcases around, and I think that even if we'd only had two big suitcases we would have been happier bringing the trolley than not -- especially considering that by the end of the trip, only one of the three new rolling suitcases still had a pair of working unbroken wheels.

On the streets of Inverness, when they have a "walk" signal, most of them also have a beeper that sounds when the light turns to "walk." In the evening, and to a certain extent in the morning, when the signal finishes going beep beep beep beep beep, you'll hear a seagull replying caw caw caw caw caw, if you're downtown. As monotonically as the beeper was, and spaced evenly too. And not too long after the gull finishes its cry, it'll be time for the light to turn green for pedestrians again, and the light will reply. I think the seagull's in love with the traffic light, and we're hearing their mating calls go back and forth, and the gull keeps trying to figure out where its exotic lover is and can't see anything that looks remotely like another bird. But optimistically, it keeps trying.

The first train we had to catch was from Inverness to Glasgow Queen Street, retracing our route from three days before. That was about three hours of scenic beauty, as we worked our way down from the Highlands to Glasgow. When we got to Glasgow, we had to transfer from Queen Street Station to Central Station. We'd made our reservastions at the Inverness station the day before, and our printed reservation itinerary clearly showed the transfer as something to do on foot... it listed it as being a 30 minute walk. (It's closer to 10 minutes, actually.) As we headed out the front of Queen Street Station, past the statue of Robet Peel in the square, we heard bagpipes playing. More live music, that piping festival was in full swing in that square in front of the station.

We had an hour or so between trains, so even with our baggage I knew we'd make it. Queen Street Station is northwest of Central Station, so we went west a block, south a block, west a block or two, and south on this big pedestrian promenade that I recognized from my frequent trips to Vodafone. I knew that if we took that south, we'd hit Argyle Street, and once we got there a right turn would reveal "Central Station" clearly posted in giant letters on an overpass. On our way down the promenade we saw numerous stores and restaurants, including another TGI Friday's, and when we got to Fraser's I was surprised to see how big the place was. I'd only seen the corner and the south side of the place; it actually takes up the ground floor of several buildings that have all been built next to each other. Reminded me of Disneyland's Emporium and adjoining shops, actually.

We also passed a clothing store called "T.K.Maxx." The typography and the wares for sale were suspiciously similar to the USA store "T.J.Maxx." Strange coincidence? Trademark infringement? An affiliated store chain that picked a different set of initials because of local preferences (and if so, which side is the original)?

We passed Blue Lagoon and another place for a quick bite, made it into Central Station, and stopped for lunch at a sandwich shop there.

library_lynn was ready to eat by that time, and we still had one last Scottish banknote that we needed to cash in before we left Scotland. It all worked out.

In the lift, I was surprised to see buttons labeled for 1, 0, and -1 -- we were on level 0 (Hope Street), and wanted to be on level 1, and level -1 was the Link Corridor which took you to the low-level trains (like the one that we'd taken to Exhibition Centre when we first arrived Glasgow ten days previous.) We went up to the platforms in the lift, and we were back in Central Station with the many shops clustered around the waiting area. (Including Thornton's and West Cornwall Pasty Co., as mentioned previously when we arrived in Glasgow.)

The train from Glasgow Central Station to Manchester Piccadilly Street was listed on the boards without a platform yet, but it wasn't hard to figure out which train it had to be -- it was probably going to be the same platform where a train had arrived from Manchester Piccadilly, and when I went over to look I saw that they'd already changed the destination sign at the end of the train to read "Manchester Pic."

library_lynn went off in search of a snack, and came back with a chocolate chunk shortbread from Starbucks. They have Starbucks here -- they're everywhere, I understand -- but their selection of sweets is different from ours.

I asked if we could put my luggage in the baggage carriage. Throughout the trip, we had a number of railway employees ask where the trolley had come from -- some of the stations are equipped with luggage trolleys, and my folding one didn't look anything like theirs. So it's always a little surprise to them (to say nothing of the reaction I get at airports, of course) when after I've shifted the three big suitcases off the trolley I fold up the cart and hand that one up too.