Train ride from Penzance to Edinburgh

I love riding trains almost as much as ferries.  And since I have been driving, I have hardly gotten enough trains around here.  So, as I am ending my stay in Britain, I decided to take one of the longest train rides available.  I traveled from Penzance, Cornwall to Edinburgh, Scotland where I am spending my last few days before leaving the country.

Thanks to my Senior Railcard, and to purchasing ahead, I saved so much money that I felt able to upgrade to first class.  As you see in the above photo, not that many others were traveling first class on a Sunday morning from Penzance.  The car filled up later though. But all I had to do was sit back and enjoy the scenery, order coffee, relax with my books and sudokus, chat with fellow travelers as they got on and off.  A sweet day.

Plymouth Harbor, the first big city from the Penzance end.  I am reading the Patrick O'Brian series of seagoing adventures in which Plymouth figures prominently.  If you have not read them--they are a great read about a naval captain and his surgeon sidekick during the Napoleonic wars. A great read and just the right thing for a long train journey.

The midlands with farms and wind farms.

The northeast, farming and old industry.

Crossing the River Wear at Durham just at dusk.

Waverley Station in Edinburgh.  I took this the next day as it was dark and dreary on Sunday evening.

Taxi to my temporary home in the New Town neighborhood of Edinburgh.