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After another hearty breakfast- this time muesli with yogurt then potato scones with sautéed mushrooms- we were picked up for our final day of the tour. First stop was a small stream on the Isle where our guide told us the story of the two warring clans (McDonald's & McLeod's) marrying their children to stop the fighting & how the wedding went wrong but was saved by Elfin & the magical powers of the stream. Our final stop before leaving Skye was the Clan Donald Centre with the remnants of the castle which was only abandoned in the 1960's but was already just a shell. We also wandered around the gardens & visited the museum which told the story of the clans & highlands. Next we had a lunch stop at the port before the ferry from Armadale over to Mallaig. The highlight of today's touring was a ride from Mallaig to Fort William on The Jacobite steam train, the train which features in Harry Potter! I had bought tickets for Sean for our anniversary although the whole tour group also all travelled on the train. It was a very scenic trip, besides the smell of coal burning & the soot fluttering into the carriage. The rain chuffed its way past calm lochs & over the 21 arch viaduct. Arriving into Fort William we barely had time for a photo before we were back on the bus heading for Edinburgh. We had a quick photo stop at Glen Coe & a 'comfort' stop then finally we were navigating the streets below Edinburgh castle about 8pm. We dragged our bags across the North Bridge as we were staying at the Thistle St James which was a little warn in some corners for a 4 star hotel but luckily we had breakfast in the morning & it had a ceiling fan which whirred away all night despite it having cooled down outside. For an easy late dinner we just went across the road to the Omni centre & shared a pizza at Pizza Hut which luckily came with free salad bar. We did some internet bookings while we still had wifi then called it a night- it's a big day tomorrow getting to Newcastle to board our cruise!!
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