On board the Highland Chieftain

We have had a wonderful couple of days exploring the area of Aberdeen to Inverness and am sending this from The Highland Chieftain, the fast train service from Inverness to London. Aberdeen is all built in grey granite, and felt and looked cold and rather uninviting. The hotel room had  a distinct slope on it, but no one fell out of bed so all ok. Being bitterly cold did not help to appreciate this old  Scottish city, so apologies to those calling this place home. Inverness, though with a significant amount of granite buildings, offered a lighter,brighter presentation. Set on the pretty, fast. flowing Ness river ,it is a lovely city, which we really enjoyed wandering around.The surrounding countryside is green and lush, gentle hills stretching to higher mountains which define this part of the landscape. There is evidence of quite a low snowline, so it must be pretty chilly come wintertime. Interestingly, there are few verandas on shops in the main streets, there must be a reason, but thy do have quite large shopping malls, with plenty of shops, eateries and cinemas, a one stop place to go in the chilly winter months, when the daylight is very short.
The train trip offers amazing, ever changing views from mountains with snow, to lush green pastures, and neat farms., little gorges formed with the slurry coming after the snow melt.
More soon

 Main street of Aberdeen - very grey!

 New and old in Aberdeen - both very grey.

 Peak hour in Aberdeen - our afternoon walk.

 Inverness - main street - our walking time after arrival by train from Aberdeen.

 The River Ness at Inverness - fast flowing and very cold looking.

 View of Ness River over to Inverness Castle.

 Sign post in Inverness - in Gaelic and English - test your skills.

Cairngorms Railway Station enroute from Inverness to Edinburgh (and thence down to London). Recent snow on th esurrounding hills - so much for Spring let alone Summer.