The Highlands...

After we dropped off our bags at The Prince’s House Hotel, we walked down to Loch Shiel for a picnic lunch.

Then we walked up a nearby hill so we could watch a steam train travel across the Glenfinnan Viaduct, as the Hogwarts Express does in Harry Potter. The viaduct was built in 1898 entirely out of concrete and is featured on the Scottish £10 note (side note: while the Scottish will accept British pounds, the British won’t accept Scottish pounds).

When I booked our overnight stay in Glenfinnan, I didn’t realize that there wasn’t actually a village. We had a great dinner at the hotel and weren’t surprised that the innkeeper suggested that we catch a train to a bigger town the next day. We went into Fort William, at the foot of Ben Nevis, the UK’s highest mountain. We wandered the main street with its cute souvenir shops, then took a walk to Old Inverlochy Castle. Dating to the 13th century, it was abandoned in 1654.