Another night of restless sleep. This time a stupid dream woke me. So it goes. Thankfully I seem to be okay during the day. But since I’m so awake, I’ll write about what I wear here in the colder climate:
Merino wool leggings, merino wool pants, wool socks (2 pair!), merino wool turtleneck, cashmere turtleneck plus a wool “shacket”, or heavy (non-merino) wool v-neck sweater, down thigh length coat, wool hat or merino wool beanie, cashmere lined gloves, and wool scarf. I can wear my raincoat over the down coat, and it is also thigh length.
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 villa we stayed at in Croatia had a swimming pool, and of course there were also beaches that others went to. I brought no bathing suit. When we took our Italian vacation some years back I did take one and never put it on so I decided it was stupid to bother. This time, though, I sat by the pool and dangled my feet in and there was a part of me that wished I had a suit.
It’s time to take inventory of all the clothes I took and, yes,, I took too many! This is primarily for me — so I can convince myself to pack less — and I know it’s boring for most other folks. Had I left a few things at home I believe I could have taken a smaller second bag rather than the Cabin Max bag.
Shoes Aetrex Jillian black leather sandals Merrell Bravada 2 hiking shoe Rieker Nikita black synthetic flats
Yes, three pair of shoes. I wore the Merrill’s and packed the others, stuffing the Rieker’s with socks.
From now on it’s one pair for wearing, one for packing. In summer I would do the Merrell’s or something similar (but they were wonderful so why switch?) and the sandals, since sandals can be used if I want to look a bit dressier. The Riekers, as nice as they are, were not at all necessary. For winter I still have to decide what to do. The Merrell shoes won’t work in rain, so I have to investigate what will be better. I think the Rieker’s would work well for a dressier shoe, and I put inserts in that make it easy to wear them without stockings.
Next trip: two pair of shoes will suffice!
UPDATE: Never mind the Riekers! The velcro is no longer holding. I’m sad about that, since they looked rather nice. Ah well.
Pants (and no photos from here on out … it’s just too much work!) Land’s End cropped pants (black & off-white with a bit of a pattern; cotton jersey) Eddie Bauer ankle pants (black; polyester/spandex) REI Co-op Trailmade pants (black) Alfani pants (black & white pattern; polyester/spandex Alfani wide leg pants (striped, black, gold, white; polyester/spandex) GAP wide leg pants (ticking-type look; cotton/linen blend)
TOO many, and wrong, wrong, wrong for the weather, aside from the GAP pants. The Alfani are so comfy here at home, but in the heat and humidity they stick like crazy. The Land’s End fabric was just too darn heavy. The REI were fine for hiking, which is why I brought them, but we didn’t do any serious hiking. The Eddie Bauer said they were moisture wicking but they were sticky as well. Even the GAP, while I wore them the most, weren’t perfect: they were not true linen.
Biggest lesson (which I already knew but didn’t pay attention to) is that polyester is a big no-no in summer heat. Linen (true linen!), while wrinkly, would be much more comfortable. That being said, I am very fussy about fabric and linen can scratch. I need to ponder a solution for that.
Next trip: better fabric, and a maximum of four pair of pants (even four is one pair more than I truly need, I think).
UPDATE: Forget the Gap pants. They shrank horribly. I’ll look for higher quality linen next time.
Skirts JM skirt (black & white; handkerchief hem; polyester/spandex) Amazon skirt (some cheap-o, chiffon thing with a mock button front)
As much as the polyester/spandex pants are a pain, the skirt sufficed. I’m not sure it was the BEST thing, and I didn’t wear it very often, but it was okay. The Amazon skirt was a piece of trash and why I brought it at all is a mystery. I wore it once, and eventually I left it behind.
Next trip: one skirt only! Search for a nicer fabric if possible.
Tops Land’s End trimmed tank top (white; cotton, modal, spandex) Hilary Radley short sleeveblouse (Costco; yellow print, polyester) Amazon round collar boxy short sleeve top (yellow; cotton/linen; crinkly cloth) Amazon round collar boxy short sleeve top (black; cotton/linen; crinkly cloth) Rox&Ali short sleeve top (black with gold zipper trip; polyester/spandex) Style & Co 3/4 sleeve top (white; embroidery & lace trim; viscose/polyester) GAP long sleeve top (white; cotton/linen blend) GAP long sleeve top (black; cotton/linen blend) Columbia long sleeve shirt (yellow and white; cotton) Alfani long sheer-sleeve tunic top (black with flowers; nylon)
Yes, TOO MANY! That seems to be the common denominator here, right? The Hilary Radley, cute as it is, was a bad choice. I also struggle greatly with no sleeve or short sleeve tops because I develop a rash sometimes. Sure enough, that happened on this trip and once I get it I can’t expose my skin to ANY light whatsoever (yes, even if I have sunscreen on!). The rash didn’t fully go away until I got home, in fact. I wound up wearing the white linen shirt OVER another top, and that’s fine. I must whittle things down and be smarter about the choices. Still, for those of you who thought I wore the same thing every day, as you can see I had a lot of choices and nearly every top when with every pair of pants! The Style & Co shirt, though, worked quite well. (I saw them on sale at Macys just now and I’ve been sorely tempted to buy a few, but perhaps I need to sit on that for a while: I have too many clothes! The tunic top was fun to wear for Dan’s birthday dinner, and it weighs next to nothing, but I only wore it that one time so that gets nixed for sure. (Update: or maybe not. Dan and I talked and it IS nice to have one nicer thing “just in case”.)
Next trip: ONE long sleeve linen shirt, and I simply don’t know yet how to resolve the sleeve issue with my sun problem. I think, though, I want to investigate other fabrics. Non-scratchy linen would be kind of nice! (But pants are more important when it comes to breathing and all.)
Jackets GAP lightweight jacket (black; linen blend) Ex Officio packable rain jacket (black; lightweight)
I wore the linen jacket on the plane over, and wore it one evening in Paris. From them on it sat in my backpack.
Next trip: find a sweater (fewer wrinkles!) and nix the linen jacket. A raincoat, while barely worn, is still a good thing to have. It did rain at some point so I did use it!
Underwear and Socks Just bring less! I hand wash things and so “one to wear, one to wash, and one waiting” should work just fine.
Now … just so you all know, I DID wear absolutely everything, aside from some socks and underwear. I was determined: if I brought it, doggone it, I was going to wear it! And so I did.
Today I finally found the last item I wanted for the trip: I had been looking for a very lightweight linen-like jacket. Odds are I won’t need it much, but I wanted it just in case, and it would be nice to have over no sleeve shirts, and I am bringing two of those. I have one other top arriving soon, but other than that I do believe I’m set. I put everything (including a “sub” for the one shirt not yet here — it’s the black and white one) in my packing cube, added other items I’ll need like my sandals, lightweight Merrel shoes for hikes, toiletries and a few other items, and weighed it all. It came in under 16 pounds. That’s good news.
But oops, neglected to add my pjs along with my very lightweight hiking pants and shirt! I’m guessing those might add as much as a pound. Every ounce matters, really.
Below is a photo of the clothes I will probably bring, minus the things I forgot to put out. The items at the far right are what I will wear on the plane, so those didn’t go in my bag when I weighed it, of course. But now you get an idea of colors.
Top row: long sleeve linen shirts and the jacket I purchased today. Second row, short sleeve and no sleeve shirts, including the white and black which will be replaced. Bottom row: lightweight pants, black and white skirt, linen striped pants, black culottes, striped pants for plane.
Call me crazy, but I just like these colors together. Or don’t call me crazy. You choose.
Oh … and I do have a hat coming soon, too, and I’ll either take that (a black and white fedora from Wallaroo) or I’ll take an even lighter hat, primarily white with black dots, again from Wallaroo, but with the latter I fear it might be TOO light should it get windy. I’ll be thinking on this and perhaps taking walks with them to see what works best. The latter can be packed more tightly, and the former has to have the “taco fold”.
Now of course this is the idea of clothing for today. Who knows how many times I’ll change my mind. Colors are set, for sure. The biggest issue is to not continue to add things just because I have room (and I certainly have a lot more room. Weight matters. Room does not. I need to keep saying that to myself!). I do have a pair of capri pants I’d love to bring. But should I? Probably not. Hm. Pondering … and only time will tell.
But, usually, when I ponder like that I end up taking them. Go figure.
