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?
Trains are done, although we still need to get our “Two Together Railcard” which is good for a year. When I purchased the train tickets I included that card on the order which lowers the price significantly. I don’t have to purchase the card quite yet, so I am holding off, in case we visit the UK again within the year. It just might be used for more than this trip if that’s the case, and who knows?
Travel insurance is purchased. It’s a requirement for the walking portion of our trip, but it’s also just a wise thing to get and something we never bought before because we were simply unaware. Our credit card covers things like lost luggage and trip cancellation, but getting coverage for things like medical and evacuation is pretty important should we have an unfortunate incident.
AND our Mickeldore packet is available online so I can see where we are staying! That was fun to receive. It makes the trip all the more real.
Next up is figuring out places to eat while on our walk. I’ve read that getting reservations is recommended and I sure do want to be certain we have places to eat after a walking day.
Then it’s “do we want to schedule any visits?” There are distilleries we can check out, and of course there are some castles. I know we’ll want to see Stirling Castle, and I’m assuming we will also want to visit Edinburgh Castle. Might there be a concert somewhere? Have to check! Is there a pub that will have live music that would be fun to hear? Possibly. So more research is necessary.
Oh … and one other thing. I’m a bit obsessive (can you tell?) so I check our United seats pretty much daily. One leg seated us pretty far back so I was hoping for a change. Well, there WAS a change on one leg … a change of plane, which then put us in seats we didn’t want! Apparently United does this without notifying the ticket holders. I find that so odd. Thankfully I could move us to seats we preferred and take care of that issue. But honestly … shouldn’t they notify ticket holders who are paying SO DOGGONE MUCH for seats?! I’ve since been informed (from a United group) that others have had the same problem, and that sometimes they even separate a couple. One man said his seats were changed the day of his trip. So I guess checking is helpful, but until we are IN our seats there are no guarantees!
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.
I’ve been spending far too much time at the computer figuring out … drum roll … our trip to the UK!
Yep, I’m back at it.
I’ve frequently said I really wanted to do one of those walking holidays. Plus I’ve always wanted Dan to see Scotland (I was there in 1976 and while the memories are vague, I know I loved it). For the walk I first looked at what is called the West Highland Way, but it turns out one needs to plan much earlier and things were full when we decided we were ready to go for it. So instead we are doing the Great Glen Way. That was the first bit we knew we had to get scheduled, because we didn’t want to do any more until that was absolutely set.
In reality I think the Great Glen Way walk is better for a first walk. It starts out very gently, and there are, I think, maybe two days that might have climbs. It begins where the West Highland Way ends, so perhaps we’ll run into people who are finishing with that and can hear about their walk. We walk for seven days — yes, we took the most days we could so we can amble and not feel at all rushed. The company I used to schedule our lodging and luggage transportation is Mickledore, and so far they’ve been great. We don’t yet get the full itinerary, though: we have only paid our deposit and they send the entire packet out after we pay in full and it is maybe a few months before the trip (in case they have to change things up). I know some people do all this planning on their own, and part of me feels as if I’m wimping out having a company do it, but I was just too unsure of what I needed to do. When we go out on the walk we do it on our own: the company only plans for us and then is there to answer calls should we have any problems.
Of course if one goes all the way to the UK one shouldn’t “just” do a walk and go right back home, right? Besides that, our son Brandon will be in London at the start of June so it seems to me we have an obligation to meet up at least for a day. So as it turns out we will end in London, and we needed to fill in the space between ending the walk and “landing” in London. Including our day of flying to our first destination (via FRA), we are out and about for a short 27 days this time.
Stay tuned for more to come about the planning of the trip and all. For now let me just say I’m pretty darn excited and even while we don’t leave for 119 days (not that I would be counting or anything) I am starting to pack in my head! (I’ll have to write about what we will pack later as well, since a walking holiday means a slightly different set of clothes and also means we can’t do all carryon.).
Oh … and our house sitters will be back. Thus, I can write about things here!
