Travelling up to Scotland on the East Coast line is a treat on a beautiful sunny day like yesterday. The scenery past Newcastle up to Berwick-Upon-Tweed and beyond is breathtaking at times and when the sky is a deep blue peppered finely with a few clouds here and there and the mellow autumn sun is still low in the sky with its silver-gold rays reflecting off the water it is simply stunning. But whilst the scenery itself is enough to attract my attention, I couldn’t help but be drawn in by the conversations going on around me.

We were joined at York by a troupe of tourists travelling to Edinburgh and their first task once settled was to read the menu. When they found that breakfast was included in their trip it was bacon butties all round. This in turn stimulated a debate about the traditional English delicacy, fish & chips. It seems to all of us who were listening (compulsory for all those without ear plugs) that all they have eaten since arriving on our shores is fish & chips and thanks to them I now know many of the best, and worst places dotted around the UK serving our “favourite” dish.

Bacon butties finished we travelled along the coastline as the scenery gradually became more dramatic. I could hear people behind me scrabbling for their cameras but rather than the usual “oohs” ,“aahs” and gasping at the beauty of the cliffs and fishing boats we heard “get the sheep! get the sheep!” Silly me. I never knew that sheep, the stalwart of the English countryside, are a tourist attraction in their own right. Goodness knows what they’d make of the pink/orange sheep on the M8- They’d probably pull the emergency cord.

Bacon butties digested, and faced with all sorts of strange and wonderful dishes on the East Coast train menu it was clearly proving difficult to choose their next meal. Beetroot risotto was the vegetarian option and I had to snigger to myself when one of the gang asked their tour guide “What is beetroot?” The question however was nothing compared to the answer “red cabbage”. And just when I thought it couldn’t get any funnier, the guide was asked, “What’s risotto?”…..she replied “ Pasta”.

Pasta? Silly me again. I’ve been trying to make risotto with Arborio rice and all the time I needed pasta. Well, I certainly learned a few things on my journey yesterday.

I’m looking forward to the return journey already.