Jeepers, Sleepers!! Taking the midnight train to Edinburgh....

All aboard the midnight train to.... Edinburgh!!  After a simply spectacular day at Hogwarts, we returned to London ready to embark on the next (and last - sob!) part of our adventure!  En route from Victoria back to the hotel, we stopped and had dinner at a spectacular Indian restaurant.   It was seriously good!  If you are ever in South Kensington and fancy an amazing, subtle meal, then I can heartily recommend Thali on the Old Brompton Road (www.thali.uk.com).  The crispy spinach was especially delicious and even convinced a reluctant non-curry loving B.Squid that Indian food can be yummy!

Stuffed and happy, we finally waddled back to the Beaufort Arms for the last time, collected our bags and headed off to Euston Station where we were to catch the Caledonian Sleeper train up to Edinburgh.  We'd booked First Class sleeper accommodation and had 2 sets of 2 adjoining berths assigned to us.  We weren't quite sure how it was all going to work, but we figured we'd get the lay of the land when we boarded the train and sort it all out then.  The train was scheduled to depart at 11.50pm, but you could start to board the train anytime after 10pm, as well as have access to the First Class Virgin lounge prior to boarding.  The lounge wasn't anything that special (basically slightly higher end than a caff with a ton of vinyl seats, but that was it - certainly no First Class Virgins anywhere to be seen (much to ManpanionTM's disappointment).  So we stayed in the lounge only slightly longer than it had taken us to figure out how to find it/get into it (cue comedy lift capers) and long enough to cull some overnight supplies from our luggage, so we could store our main bags when we got on the train.

At around 11pm, we headed down to the platform and were met by a lovely lady who would be looking after us for the evening!  Its always nice when you are met by someone who has a ton of papers on a clipboard - and you are listed on them!  Yey!!  As it happened, it was a very light evening - she told us that she only had 8 people in First Class Sleeper accommodations that night - and we were 4 of them!  She asked us about our breakfast preferences ("highland breakfast, please!") and whether we'd prefer to dine in our berths vs the dining car ("dining car, please!") and, with those formalities done, led us on to the train to show us our beds for the night. 

Where's the James Bond Villan??

Yes.  It did feel as if we'd stepped into an Agatha Cristie novel or James Bond film.  Any minute now, you expected Jaws to come slamming round the corner or to catch a shadowy figure lurking in the corridor.  I've been on the sleeper train once before, many many years ago - that time, I was in a standard class berth - the difference being that they contained 2 beds, rather than just the one.  Other than that, everything was remarkably unchanged from before (I guess there's really not much you can do with a sleeper train to get that creative!) - perhaps the toiletries were also marginally posher too.   The cabins were small but actually laid out pretty well as the interconnecting door between each set of 2 cabins could be closed, thus giving each occupant complete privacy.  (I'm sure the Squids were happy about that!).  

Our lavish quarters

After we'd "unpacked" and got acquainted with our rooms (which did not take long!), we - of course - repaired to the dining car for a round (or two) of drinks and some cards.  The Squids joined us and we first played a quick round of the Hogwarts board game I'd bought earlier on in the day from the Harry Potter studios (I'm such a sucker for a gift shop - i just couldn't resist!).  The idea was to move around the board to various Hogwartian locations and to collect the most house points - I barely made it to 2 locations because someone (you know who you are....) kept sending me back to the start!  Hurrumph.  While we were playing Hogwarts, our train huffed into life and slowly drew out of the station - so we were officially off on the next leg of our adventure!   

The name is More.
Strathmore.

After Hogwarts, we played Euchre for a bit - it was pretty late by this stage (about 1am) so the Squids were dying of exhaustion.  They finally staggered off to bed and ManpanionTM and I stayed up for a bit longer, just chilling out and enjoying the ride (OK, OK - and by "ride" I mean "extensive on-board whisky selection").

After quite the lengthy decision-making process,
ManpanionTM studies his choice of nightcap
whisky, as recommended by our jovial bar steward!

We retired around 2am and I was looking forward to a solid 4 hrs sleep before our wake-up call at 6am (ugh) for breakfast.  I think within 60 seconds of crawling into his nest, ManpanionTM was dead to the world and in deep sleep.   Me, on the other hand - well... not so much.  I'd made the rookie move of not putting in the earplugs and wearing the facemask that had been supplied in our toiletries kit - I thought i was so tired, I wouldn't need them and would simply fall deeply asleep.  Wrong!  I totally underestimated how loud the train was and, unfortunately, the movement of the train served to keep me awake rather than to gently rock me to sleep!  I think i dozed on and off until I woke up again completely at around 4am - by which point, obviously, I needed to get up and have a pee.  I wandered out of my berth to head to the loo - and noticed we weren't moving, but were instead parked up at some random station.  I figured it was some scheduled service stop, so didn't think much of it but instead went about my business, then came back to the berth and this time, put in my earplugs and tried to sleep.

The Sock Monkeys get weird in ManpanionTM's cabin.

Until 6am when our lovely lady knocked (loudly!) on our cabin door to wake us for breakfast - only to then inform us that we were running 2hrs behind schedule as, during the night, we'd gotten stuck behind a broken down freight train.  So, instead of arriving in Edinburgh at 7.30am, unfortunately we wouldn't be arriving until 9.30am.  Which meant an extra 2hrs of sleep!! Hurrah!!  Brekkie was now at 8am, instead of 6am and - for an extra Brucie Bonus, because the delay was just over 2hrs, we were eligible to receive a full refund of our trip!  NICE!!  We get to have a lie-in AND its free??  Yes, please!!   

I think i managed to get about an hour so felt marginally refreshed when it was finally time for our Highland breakfast - and, oh dear - I'm not sure it was really worth the wait!  The tea was good and I enjoyed bits of the breakfast, but ManpanionTM was singularly unimpressed by the entire offering ("worst. breakfast. ever!") and went back to bed in protest.

Breakfast. 

By this stage, it was light outside and we were rolling through some absolutely gorgeous, wide-open expansive scenery.  It reminded me of Patagonia a bit - just the wild countryside and that was it.  As i supped my tea and gazed out of the window, I got chatting to our lovely lady hostess (I wish I could remember her name).  We were talking about the delay, getting stuck behind the freight train and as we stopped again in Carstairs to divide the train in two (front 2 carriages go to Glasgow; the rest to Edinburgh) she told the story of how 2 inmates, back in the 70's, had one time escaped from the Secure Mental Unit in Carstairs and how - allegedly - they had considered trying to board the train during this very stop, to try and escape.  Interesting story - but not perhaps for the faint of heart, given I could look out of the window and see the prison right there in front of me!!  Its a bit of a gruesome story, actually - if you are interested, here are the salacious details....  https://www.sundaypost.com/inside-the-sunday-edition/inside-carstairs-robert-mone-exposes-full-horror-of-escape-night-killing-spree/

The morning after.

The Secure Mental Unit at Berwick.  Some
seriously dangerous people in there.

And so, finally, we started to leave the hills and countryside behind and roll into Edinburgh itself.  And, then, all of a sudden - there it was - the absolutely beautiful vista of Edinburgh Castle and the Scottish Parliament building, high up on the hill overlooking the valley and the train line.

We had arrived.

Not the sleeper train.