Since I have been a little kid, I have always loved trains (like honestly who doesn’t lol? 😂) Building model trains and watching the trains moved across the landscape as I fantasied about travelling on them were all such wonderful times back then. 🚂 🚂 So it should come as no surprise that a long dream of mine is to ride a steam train across the British countryside (and watching great railway journeys during lockdown definitely made me feel more enthusiastic about it haha!) At last, this dream finally came true!
For the start of our road trip up north, my mum and I dropped by Aviemore, a town situated within the Cairngorms National Park in the Scottish Highlands. The town itself is a popular tourists’ destination (evident in the lack of vacancies for accommodation when I booked two weeks ago! 😅) and the Strathspey Steam Train is a particular attraction there. The train journey itself is about 1 and an half hours long and travelled across the scenic countryside, passing Boat of Garten and Broomhill stations on the way before returning along the same route back to Aviemore. The afternoon tea ticket cost a very reasonable price of £35.25 each (comparing to the more luxurious train journeys in London such as the British Pullman which are more than 10 times the price. Probably will never be able to get on those in my lifetime! 😭 😭)
The afternoon tea set is all inclusive in the price including teas/coffees plus a free, small bottle of Prosecco per person! 🍾🥂 You will be asked to pick the options for the sandwiches (we chose the egg mayo and tuna mayo) which will come along with the scones and cakes. Honestly I didn’t have high hopes for the food, but they all turned out to be of good qualities. Tuna sandwiches and the fruit cake tasted great! And I have never been a fan of scones and Victoria sponges, but they were both surprisingly good and moist. (I used up that whole jar of delicious strawberry jam 🍓🍓 to spread on the scones hehe. Perfection with the clotted cream! 😋)
FYI the first part of the journey was very bumpy, so we were swinging side to side as we drank our tea/coffees. (Almost spat it out! It was hilarious!! 🤣🤣🤣 🫖 ☕️ 💦💦)
Beside the food and wine, we certainly made sure we didn’t missed any of the beautiful scenery along the route! So many cows and sheep 🐄 🐑 across the vast land and the nature just looked amazing!
Finishing the train ride, we settled for an early evening in our B&B and were greeted by the two very friendly owners! They were both so attentive and welcoming that they have made it such a nice stay! (We got some Chinese takeaways for dinner and they were so nice setting up tables for us to eat the food in their dining room. 🥰)
The next morning we explored Aviemore a bit more before departing on the bus to Perth, changing to Aberdeen.
Tango's Baking 