{"id":6220,"date":"2025-03-17T23:55:37","date_gmt":"2025-03-17T23:55:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/?p=6220"},"modified":"2025-03-18T11:32:02","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T11:32:02","slug":"thurso-to-inverness-to-aberdeen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/?p=6220","title":{"rendered":"Thurso to Inverness to Aberdeen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My traditional paranoid room check involved looking under the bed, which answered the question of &#8220;how come the shower drains so slowly? are they not clearing the trap?&#8221;. Given that the under bed area had an empty water bottle and a large-size beer can, I&#8217;m going to guess that deep cleaning isn&#8217;t a thing that happens too often.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>In fairness, all the bits I interacted with were fine, and I suspect the older-than-me couple running the place were all the staff there are,<\/em> <em>so things out of sight being missed makes some sense?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There was a three hour gap between hotel checkout &amp; my first train, but this time there were cafes open, so I spent a pleasant couple of hours in a not particularly busy place until it felt close enough to train-time to wander down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1214238486934320335619468-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6218\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1214238486934320335619468-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1214238486934320335619468-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1214238486934320335619468-150x113.jpg 150w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1214238486934320335619468-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1214238486934320335619468-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1214238486934320335619468.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">There&#8217;s a Doctor Who &#8216;regeneration&#8217; joke here, I think; The role of Thurso station will now be played by Little Kimble station<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1215366129443046758613567-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6219\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1215366129443046758613567-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1215366129443046758613567-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1215366129443046758613567-113x150.jpg 113w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1215366129443046758613567-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1215366129443046758613567-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1215366129443046758613567.jpg 1728w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As the pictures hopefully show, it was clear day, so pleasantly warm in the sunshine, and definitely not in the shade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I had about 50 minutes to kill in Inverness between trains. There was an earlier one from Inverness, but it didn&#8217;t give much time for the transfer; A few minutes of delay, or someone taking a long time to get their luggage out of the rack, and I&#8217;d have missed it, so I went with the safer option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" data-id=\"6213\" src=\"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1251268855295837050005492-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6213\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1251268855295837050005492-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1251268855295837050005492-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1251268855295837050005492-113x150.jpg 113w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1251268855295837050005492-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1251268855295837050005492-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1251268855295837050005492.jpg 1728w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" data-id=\"6214\" src=\"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_130454958555251837805502-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6214\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_130454958555251837805502-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_130454958555251837805502-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_130454958555251837805502-150x113.jpg 150w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_130454958555251837805502-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_130454958555251837805502-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_130454958555251837805502-2048x1536.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" data-id=\"6211\" src=\"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1533388069686792030317680-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6211\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1533388069686792030317680-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1533388069686792030317680-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1533388069686792030317680-150x113.jpg 150w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1533388069686792030317680-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1533388069686792030317680-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1533388069686792030317680.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" data-id=\"6210\" src=\"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_15332580922731016629406-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6210\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_15332580922731016629406-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_15332580922731016629406-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_15332580922731016629406-150x113.jpg 150w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_15332580922731016629406-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_15332580922731016629406-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_15332580922731016629406.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" data-id=\"6212\" src=\"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1742131019725858892656207-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6212\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1742131019725858892656207-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1742131019725858892656207-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1742131019725858892656207-113x150.jpg 113w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1742131019725858892656207-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1742131019725858892656207-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1742131019725858892656207.jpg 1728w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" data-id=\"6215\" src=\"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1743026866537295228314455-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6215\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1743026866537295228314455-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1743026866537295228314455-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1743026866537295228314455-150x113.jpg 150w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1743026866537295228314455-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1743026866537295228314455-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1743026866537295228314455.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" data-id=\"6216\" src=\"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1750522039545297721888706-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6216\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1750522039545297721888706-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1750522039545297721888706-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1750522039545297721888706-150x113.jpg 150w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1750522039545297721888706-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1750522039545297721888706-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_1750522039545297721888706.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" data-id=\"6217\" src=\"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_2005312869262595854558388-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6217\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_2005312869262595854558388-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_2005312869262595854558388-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_2005312869262595854558388-150x113.jpg 150w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_2005312869262595854558388-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_2005312869262595854558388-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/img_20250317_2005312869262595854558388.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All up, an uneventful couple of trips; 6\u00bd hours on trains, but I had a bunch of downloaded episodes of various Star Trek shows to watch. The hardest bit was finding somewhere to prop my phone up where the sun didn&#8217;t shine on the screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Something I&#8217;d not taken into account was St. Patrick&#8217;s Day, so central Aberdeen, or at least the bits near pubs claiming any Irishness, were full of people in various states of inebriation. The lobby bar\/restaurant at the ibis did not make any claims to Irishness, so I could get some dinner there &amp; use my welcome drink voucher in a blarney-free environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My traditional paranoid room check involved looking under the bed, which answered the question of &#8220;how come the shower drains so slowly? are they not clearing the trap?&#8221;. Given that the under bed area had an empty water bottle and a large-size beer can, I&#8217;m going to guess that deep cleaning isn&#8217;t a thing that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[94],"tags":[71,154,155,67],"class_list":["post-6220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sabbatical","tag-aberdeen","tag-inverness","tag-thurso","tag-train"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3O6N9-1Ck","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6220"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6221,"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6220\/revisions\/6221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}