2 weeks. 9 more oboe lessons to teach. 8 more services (4 performances, 4 rehearsals). 1 concerto competition to judge.
I’m not packing yet, but of course I continue to “pack in my head”. And I do believe I have everything I need.
Okay, I know I have everything I “need”. It’s really more of, “Is there anything else I want?”
And yes, in case you’re wondering, we have decided to take our trekking poles. Better to have them and not need them than to wish we’d brought them and have to go out and buy ‘em. It does mean we have to check luggage, but that’s not a horrible thing … right?
First of all, in case anyone is reading … yes, we heard back from the final restaurant and yes, our table is booked. So we have everything set for our Great Glen Way walk, aside from the one place that is walk in only. I trust we’ll manage to make that one work: it’s certainly nothing worth worrying about.
Someone on Facebook (there is a Great Glen Way group) wrote to say some routes on the Great Glen Way have been closed, so I’ll be curious to see how we are rerouted and how many more miles we end up walking due to that. But what’s a few more miles, right? Perhaps our packet from Mickledore will even fill us in on all of that. Sadly, it’s yet to arrive! They had warned us that it could be FOUR weeks after sending it that it would land in our mailbox. Ah, snail mail! Getting more “snailish” all the time, I guess.
I heard back from one (Rick Steves recommended) B&B (in York) this past week. Turns out the place next to them has sold and there is major renovation going on. I hated saying goodbye to the place (it’s called the Bronte Guest House and doesn’t that sound great?), but if we are paying for something I think we need to get something that doesn’t drive us bonkers with noise, so we had to move. So it goes. Still, I will hope that, should we ever return, we will book with them. I’m sorry they are dealing with this issue, but I greatly appreciate them contacting us about it.
Ch-ch-ch-changes. If one is a traveler one must accept those and not stress. Right?!
My phone now informs me that we leave in 23 days. This means it’s definitely time to see what clothing I’ll bring and if I need to get anything else, since so much has to be ordered online these days. I try so hard to shop local, but stores are carrying less and less. I already have a pair of sandals coming. (What?! Sandals for the UK? What about rain. Yeah … I know ….)
Side Note: I have this awful tendency to want to have something new for a trip. This is absolutely ridiculous and I wish I could rid myself of the bad habit. So will I? Hmm. Stay tuned ….
BUT, regarding clothing … who knows what the weather will be like? Someone wrote to say that they did the GGW (see how savvy I am? I am now calling the Great Glen Way the GGW. Yep, I’m that cool.) last May and it was HOT. Now keep in mind “hot” is a relative term, but if the temp is 60° or higher it can really feel hot if you’re walking a lot. Trust me. I know. I’ll be checking weather eventually, but it’s simply too soon to bother now.
So either tomorrow or Tuesday I will be getting things out and seeing if I have things that will work. As any reader knows, we attempt to travel light, and that means clothes must all coordinate so I can mix and match. Easy to do, really.
Oh … and I have been wearing the shoes I’ll take on the Great Glen Way to make certain they work. So far, so good!
The other thing I’ve now done is purchase our “Two Together” train pass. This is a pass that makes our train trips much less expensive. It requires us to travel together (not a problem) and requires, as well, that it is always the two of us, so I can’t switch partners. Um. I think that works just fine.
Okay, this is enough of me for now. I hope this is all readable. I just finished with a week of opera and my brain is entirely fried.
(The above is on my phone’s Home Screen. It makes me smile!)
When I received the information from Mickledore about where we’d be staying on our Great Glen Way walk I was informed that some of the villages only had one restaurant so it would be a good idea to book a reservation. These past few days I’ve been working on this. Some restaurants have a reservation portal (if that’s what one calls it … sounds good anyway, right?!), with one I went via Facebook, and some do email. But at this point I’ve done all the restaurants but two. One wrote back to say it’s walk-ins only, so we’ll just take our chances, and the other, which had a form to fill out online, hasn’t replied. Trouble with this last one is that they really are the only restaurant in town! The backup plan there, though, is that the place we are staying at does offer up dinners … or so our info said. So maybe it’s true. But the info from Mickledore also included something about another place we are staying, saying the owners were happy to drive us to a nearby town for dinner. Writing to the owners I asked them, and was informed that they don’t do that; ownership has changed and that was the old owner. Ah well. We are at that lodging two nights and will eat twice at the only restaurant in town. The owners did kindly book the restaurant for us since I would have had to call them and I prefer not making an international call.
But, ramble, ramble … I’m nearly done with all of that.
We are still pondering the “poles or no poles” thing. I’m betting we take them if we have to check luggage due to the amount we have to bring and we won’t take them if we only do carryon.
News you canwon’t use!
Sometimes I wish I’d timed all of this planning to see just how many hours — or is it days?! — it has taken me thus far. But too late now. I just know I spend a huge amount of time researching, reserving, canceling, reserving again … the fun and joy of trip preparation!
No, I’m not being sarcastic. I really do love doing this!
We began our day (once we got out of our room) with a bit of breakfast right across the street. They had lots of healthy things, and great vegan options for Kelsey.
Speaking of Kelsey, it’s her birthday! Happy Birthday, dear daughter ‘o mine!
From there we went back to the hotel so Kelsey & Mel could get their luggage, check out, and head home. We said our goodbyes, and Dan and I, who asked for a late checkout, hung around the hotel for a time.
Lunch was across the street, at the same spot where we ate when we arrived on Saturday. Then it was time to catch a Lyft to the airport.
Turns out the airport was quite close, AND it was nearly deserted when we arrived so there was no line for security and we got to the United club lounge in no time.
Question: why did we not just get lunch at the lounge and save money? Answer: because we simply weren’t thinking!
Oh well.
We sat for a good long time, enjoying a few drinks and snacks, and then boarded the plane for a very non-eventful, direct with no issues
After the flight home we picked up the car from the long-term lot, and got home with no traffic. Realizing we had no food for dinner we went to Halal Amigos for dinner and of course, while “only” ordering a burrito, I ate too much!
I’m sorry, but I neglected to take any birthday photos of Kelsey. Rats! I guess my brain was on disconnect.
