The Royal Scotsman Train’s Grand Tour of Scotland: Review

I’m fiercely independent and averse to small talk, but I wasn’t going to let that get in the way of my dream. When my French partner declared that he had “zero interest” in boarding the Royal Scotsman, a Belmond Train—a journey I’ve dreamed of taking since it took to the rails in 1985—I went ahead and booked a ticket anyway.

I hoped that the random group of strangers with whom I’d be sharing a 10-car train for the next seven days wouldn’t be too intolerable. Especially since the American political situation makes travel especially fraught these days; one never knows when they will encounter an elephant in the room, so to speak.