Snow capped mountains
Collected bright and early by Jade and Sam. A cold day and were driven north for two and a half hours to Aviemore in the Cairngorms. Quite amazing to be driven along through a great -- to Sassenach eyes -- empty landscape forested with bleak snow capped mountains. Loved it and I had never seen this part of Scotland before. We reached Aviemore where Jade had booked us all on a steam train ride. We clambered aboard and it was a Santa Special, so had Santa and a host of naughty elves cavorting through the coaches. There were lots of kids on the ride, for obvious reasons. Our first elf was called Crackers, a male elf, a bit extra and ebullient, who took a shine to Sam. Then there were women elves hiding and leaping about running up and down the aisle while shouting, and exciting the children no end. Then there was a magician style elf, and finally a rather quiet Santa whispering to children about Christmas. Meanwhile the steam from the train hung low among the trees, and the whole thi...