Yep, we are heading to the UK this evening, and we are packed and ready to go. Today was the day to tidy up the house, wash linens, and just generally wander around seeing what needs some attention. The house won’t be as clean as I would like, but I do have to be careful with this back of mine! Last night I managed to nearly trip and fall when my foot caught on a piece of luggage (it was dark in the room), but I managed to catch myself with the help of some furniture. Whew! As I told Dan, it really could have been a major catastrophe. Instead it’s rather minor, but I can tell my back wasn’t happy with me. So it goes …
We will be off in less than two hours. There is a Polaris lounge just calling our name!
But first … take out trash, check lists again to see what I’ve missed. And maybe attempt to relax.
When I work on these trips they seem so far away, and time moves at a slow pace.
Until.
Now? I just can’t believe how soon we leave, and I’m going over checklists (both written and in my head), trying to get things done that need doing. Of course I’ll probably forget something, but I’m hopeful the most important tasks get done. I simply must make time for those.
Today it was tidy up the kitchen. Wouldn’t you know as I was doing that the sink clogged?! But better now than when our house sitters are here. In addition, it reminded me to put the sink plunger under the sink in case they need it. I always keep toilet plungers handy, but I forget about the sink since we never (hah … never say never!) have issues there.
I also cleaned up the outside of the house … so many webs that have collected dust. I will NOT get the windows done, though. I simply can’t do them at this point. Dan set up the patio furniture, and I’ll be cleaning up the patio so it’s not a mess: it’s actually nice to sit out there for dinner when things are neatened up.
Some things, of course, have to wait until Tuesday morning after we get dressed: washing linens, changing the bed, all that jazz. I also want to completely clear out my closet (it’s already almost empty) and I did empty some drawers earlier this week, so the sitters have at least one closet in which to hang things, and a few drawers to put clothes in. I just don’t like asking them to live out of suitcases when they are here for nearly a month.
So prep is going on, and of course I’m quite excited. Oh, and my back is improving. It’s not 100%, but I’ll get there.
This very well may be my last post before we start the trip. We’ll see.
Anyway … tick tick tick … that clock is getting mighty noisy!
One week from today we will board a plane heading to Frankfurt and, a few hours later, get on another flight to Glasgow. Wow. The time is rapidly approaching.
Today a final pair of pants arrives and I’ll see if they will work for the trip. I have a sneaking suspicion I purchased the wrong size. Not a huge deal, as I have a different pair that will work. I was just hoping for more merino wool since it washes easily and is so comfy.
As to my back … well … I’m sorry to say if it feels like this on the 19th, when we are to start our walk, I simply won’t be able to do the walk. The pain is so great and there are times when I can’t even move. But I am reminding myself that the walk is still 12 days away and a lot can change between now and then. If you are a person who prays, I would covet your prayers.
As a friend of mine says when she is discouraged, “Onward!”
Indeed, between having work and doing various tasks, time is flying by.
Both Dan and I are now getting all the things we need out and our bedroom is a wee bit of a mess! I have a bag that contains things that I must take in carryon. Then I have a stack of things I know can go in the (sadly) checked luggage, including new trekking poles. Why new, you might ask, since we already have excellent poles? Well, Dan got ours out yesterday and we realized they don’t collapse small enough for our smaller suitcases! I, at least, will be taking a smaller case, while Dan will have to see if all his clothing and gear will even work in the small one. (Men’s clothes take up more space, wouldn’t you know?!) I did a bit of a search and found some, via Amazon, that will work (15” when collapsed!) and reviews said that, for cheaper poles, they were pretty good. I ordered them yesterday and they were outside our front gate early this morning. (Sigh: I have clear instructions about leaving things inside the gate. Oh well.)
Next up is a bit crazy; We have to pack our suitcase with everything we won’t be taking on the Great Glen Way walk. We need to be sure everything will fit in the suitcase that gets transported from place to place by a company that is doing that for us (Mickledore takes care of arranging all that). If it all fits we are set for that. THEN we redo the packing for our flights, so that the essential things that must not be lost will travel in carryon with us. Some of that isn’t necessary for the trail (like charging gear and whatnot), but we do need it with us during flights and layovers and we definitely don’t want to lose it. For carryon we will use our daypacks and the “personal item” we are allowed when we fly United. Our second leg getting to Glasgow is on Lufthansa and then we are actually allowed two carryon items plus our personal item, but weight is the issue there. At that point I will probably have to take my camera out of the daypack and carry it as the second carryon piece. Crazy, right? I wish airlines could all have the same rules, but that’s never going to happen, I’m sure.
Anyway … to clarify: first we pack as if we are on the walk, then we repack as if we are heading to the planes.
Meanwhile … this was bound to happen, I suppose, pessimist that I am … my back went out last week. The day it happened — all because I was changing the guest bed sheets — I could barely walk. The second day improvement had happened, but it still wasn’t great. Gradually, though, it felt better, with only minor twinges. This morning, however, it went bad again. Not to the “can’t walk” stage, but not good at all. So this week I have to be extremely careful. The house won’t get as clean as I’d hoped, but I’m sure our housesitters will understand. AND Dan’s hip has been giving him problems!
Ah, timing! But this is one reason we decided we MUST have our trekking poles with us.
I will now put on an optimist’s hat and say, “I’m sure all will be well.”
My pessimist voice is arguing, but I’ve put him out the door and I’m not listening! Instead I’ll pray that, indeed, all will be well. 😊
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!
My bags are packed and yes, I’m ready to go. But I also know when I’ll be back, God willing.
And yes, I’m flying United. No, I’m not worried.
I will be attempting to put up images with my daily posts, as long as I can manage to reduce their size. This is my first attempt at doing so. We’ll see how it works!
Update: yes, it looks like the photo works, but it’s not working the way I prefer (although with this image it doesn’t matter). I like it when you can click on an image and it is then shown on its own and is enlarged. I’ve no clue how to set that up on my iPad … but maybe I’ll learn.
Okay, so really the trip to the UK is just one trip — and what feels like a short one at that! But it also feels like we have to plan for two trips: obviously there’s the Walking Portion, and then there’s the Rest ‘o The days.
While we are on the walk we have to be prepared for, as one person put it, all four seasons in one day. I doubt very much that will actually happen, but certainly we have to be well prepared for rain. Sadly we also have to prepare for midges. Those are pesky tiny flies that bite. They don’t carry diseases like the mosquito, but I hear they are a terrible nuisance. I’m hoping they hatch later this year and maybe we’ll avoid them, since May is only the start of their pesky lives. We also have to bring trekking poles.
Guess what isn’t allowed in carryon luggage?!
Yep, no poles.
Now some people on various message boards have said they brought them on the plane with no problem at all. Fine. But what if there is a problem and the confiscate them? We are out some rather expensive poles. Others said they ordered cheap poles from Amazon and had them delivered to their first hotel prior to the walk. We are attempting (though not always succeeding) in avoiding Amazon if possible, as so many local stores are failing and I’m pretty darn sure Amazon is part of the reason. In addition, there’s a possibility that the order doesn’t arrive. Who needs that worry? So we will have to check a bag this time. But so it goes. It’s not a huge deal, although we do have a plane transfer so any vital stuff will be in our carryon bags.
We are also doing things that require clothing that is a bit less “rugged”. I already have one reservation for a restaurant in London that does require nicer dressing. So while we have to walking clothes we do have to think about being presentable at places like this restaurant … and maybe a concert if I can find one we want to attend. Time will tell. My hope is that I can still get away with just my boots for the walk and one other pair of shoes. I think it’s possible, but we’ll see.
I’ve already started my mental packing, but I will probably start a written list soon. I use Numbers for all of this: the itinerary, reservations and all pertinent information, possible things to do in each city, and of course the packing list. A couple I follow online both at their website and on YouTube said it’s very handy to have the itinerary and reservations easily accessible so that when you go through customs and are asked for an address you can easily find the first hotel. I’d not thought of that before, but I’ve always had my spreadsheets in any case.
About the Retirement Travelers: They, John and Bev, are such fun to follow, by the way: they sold everything and are doing the full time traveling bit while they are able. I think that sounds absolutely fantastic! And yes, they only do carryon as well. Check ‘em out!
No pictures yet … I’ll post them when we get closer to the trip to show what I have decided to pack. (Not that I won’t change my mind seconds before we head out the door!) We still have a whopping 108 days before our departure date, and I have three symphony sets, two opera runs, and a movie to play, along with teaching my students.
I probably mentioned this when I was working on The Big Trip, but finding lodging sure is a challenge … and a game.
I had everything booked for this upcoming trip. I do this task by first putting a spreadsheet together. I compare booking directly (which I prefer), to Expedia, Booking.com, and United’s hotel link. I also look at Trip Advisor to see how a place is rated there. I now also look at Oyster.com to see what they have to say.
I then look at a map to see how far the place is from the Center Of Things and any places we must visit, as well as from whatever transportation we will be using in and out of the city.
And I did all that. I was slightly uncomfortable with a couple of places, but I booked something just to make sure we wouldn’t be stranded with no place to sleep.
Then I step away from the computer. This time I did so for … well … maybe 12 hours or so.
And then I go back, because I think, “Hm. Can I do better?!” And today I could. I had already canceled a B&B that made me just a bit concerned: it seemed a bit too difficult to get to (they said not to follow the GPS) and possibly too many stairs for lugging luggage (gee, those two words are obviously related, yes? How did I not think of that before?). I found a better hotel, and was going to book it directly, but thought I should probably check Expedia as well (even though I really dislike using a service … money is money), remembering that on the phone you get more points or whatever it is they give you AND sometimes there is even a price difference compared to the web. Sure enough, it was less — over $100 less than I had expected to pay.
But it’s dominoes, folks.
Since I did that I thought, “I wonder if the next hotel I booked is cheaper that way as well?”
Yep. $165 cheaper in fact. (Still doggone expensive. but that’s the UK for you.)
Now that I’ve gone down the rabbit hole I’ll probably end up looking at ALL the other places I’ve booked to see if I can do better with those as well.
