Friday was a bright morning so we decided to head down towards the Cairngorms and go up on the funicular railway. The drive is picturesque and you can go via Carrbridge and Aviemore, or go down to Grantown on Spey. Either way it is about an hours drive from Caravan 109 at Nairn Lochloy Holiday Park.
Rather than go straight up the mountain we went for a treat at Jack Drakes's Inshriach Nursery. It is a great place to indulge yourself even if you are not a fan of plants and all things Alpine! They have a place called the 'Potting Shed' which serves teas and coffees and the most amazing Norwegian cakes. You need to go as no description does them justice! While you sit and indulge yourself you look out on to an amazing array of bird feeders and there are regularly Blue Tits, Great Tits, Coal Tits, Siskin, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Pheasant and best of all, Red Squirrels. They come and feast themselves on the peanuts right in front of you giving great views.
We left the Potting Shed (stuffed!) and headed for Cairngorm Mountain, which is about 8 miles outside Aviemore. The trains run every 20 minutes and take you up to 3,600 feet. The views were spectacular on the way up with Loch Morlich looking great way down below. We got out at the Ptarmigan building which includes an exhibition, a shop, a restaurant and a viewing gallery. June the 5th was a cold day!!! The temperature on the viewing gallery was zero and it was snowing! The restaurant girls had built a snowman with all the snow. Sadly the views were not great but the snow did stop for about 5 minutes and the clouds cleared to reveal a wonderful vista. There was also a Ptarmigan skulking in the rocks below the viewing gallery. Lunch was good, the shop was ok (although they do have a great machine for pressing a penny coin into a memento of the mountain) and despite a faulty train on the way back down (a couple of sudden stops!) it was a great day out.
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