LEJOG Day 2 – Penzance to Perth

I had hoped for a reasonable night’s sleep ahead of getting the 6.28am train from Penzance but I ended up co-sleeping with Sophie whose dreams clearly featured her as a Riverdancing octopus if the amount of fidgeting was anything to go by. Thankfully my sense of adventure overrode my usual morning grumpiness and although it was a bit of a rush to get to the station, at least I wasn’t too zombie-like!

Jessica standing outside Penzance station with the text "LEJOG Day 2 - Penzance to Perth"

The train journey from Penzance to Edinburgh was our longest at around eleven hours so we had treated ourselves to First Class seats. We’d booked early enough to get a good deal price-wise. Having a table, a little more space and being kept fed and watered meant a much happier journey for all of us. Both Jessica and Sophie coped amazingly well all the way to Edinburgh. We looked out at the scenery, played Bus Stop and did lots of drawing, colouring and sticking – and of course the iPads helped occupy the girls too! As we crossed the border into Scotland, Sophie dozed off for a while. Her sleeping position didn’t look very comfortable to me but she was clearly ok with it!

Playing Bus Stop together on the train

Sophie falling asleep in a yoga pose on the train

There was time for a short stop at Edinburgh where we managed to catch up with our friend James and stop for a drink at the Scottish Storytelling Centre. The girls and I quite enjoyed playing with the story stones. We also visited one of Chris Hoy’s gold postboxes which was one of the first ones we visited when we started our Olympic gold postbox challenge almost exactly four years ago.

Hubby, me and the girls standing in front of one of Chris Hoy's gold postboxes in Edinburgh

Our friend James with Jessica and Sophie

We had originally intended to stay overnight in Edinburgh but with the Fringe taking place it was a bit too busy (not to mention expensive!) so we booked a room at the Premier Inn in Perth which was a much more reasonable price! As it turned out, we could have stayed in Edinburgh as James very kindly invited us to stay overnight, but we couldn’t cancel our booking in Perth so decided to continue onwards instead.

Sophie swinging from the luggage rack (while being held by Daddy)

I have to say I have been so impressed at just how well the girls have coped with all the travelling but the journey to Perth was really one journey too many as far as they were concerned. It wasn’t helped by having to squash into a corner for the first part of the journey but both girls were very tired. They both react differently when overtired – Jessica by getting over-sensitive and weepy and Sophie by becoming very hyperactive. The train journey to Perth felt like a very long one!

 

“The moon” (Premier Inn) was about 15 minutes’ walk from the station – not ideal with two tired children and a hangry mummy and daddy. It was a relief to get some food and get the girls to bed!

 

Thankfully we don’t have to get quite such an early train tomorrow – hopefully the girls will sleep in a little as well!

 

We are doing our LEJOG challenge in aid of Little Hearts Matter, a charity which supports children like Jessica who have half a working heart.  If you would like to find out more and/or sponsor us on our challenge, please visit our fundraising page.

 

Cuddle Fairy

13 thoughts on “LEJOG Day 2 – Penzance to Perth

  1. That’s a long journey to Edinburgh so well done on that. It’s definitely crazy busy right now there with the fringe. Hope you get more restful sleep for the rest of the week x

  2. Oh well done everyone! It sounds like you are all doing really well. I can’t wait for the next installment 🙂

  3. You and your family are having such a big adventure. It really is inspiring. I hope you manage to get some sleep without being danced on by the lovely Sophie 🙂 Also well done to the girls for being so good so far. I think my kids would be terrible. Keeps updates and have a great time X #triballove

  4. What an epic journey. When I used to live in the north west I’d occasionally see the train to Penzance and think about what an adventure it would be – but from there to Scotland really is a tour of the country. It’s amazing how well the girls coped with it and the sleeping pose was hilarious!

  5. I’m so impressed with the girls for surviving an 11 hour train journey! Even with comfier seats and food and drink, that can’t have been easy. No wonder the trip to Perth was a step too far for them!

  6. That’s lovely of your friend to have offered you a stay at theirs. I can truly understand how tired the girls got with the travelling. I’d love to hear more about the Scottish Storytelling Centre you visited. #BloggerClubUK

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.