Hurrah for holidays!

[elspeth]

I've just started planning my next big holiday, I'm excited already even though I'm not aiming to go till next May... I love planning holidays! Nearly as much as going... there's so many possibilities, so many things I could do and places I could go...

In this case it's going to be Scotland. I've found a cottage on the coast complete with resident wildlife and a grand piano, so that's a week's occupation sorted! Now I'm just thinking about putting together a leisurely route there and back as it'd be an 8-hour train journey if I don't break it. Maybe Inverness for a night. Or I have friends in Edinburgh and Glasgow who would take me in. Choices choices!

[m1469]

Sounds cool 

I am thinking about going to Italy for a month next summer -- I have never planned anything like this before in my life.  What I can't decide is how many people I should go with ... choices, choices. 

I always marvel at people who can do lots of traveling.  Actually, when I was 20 I had planned to drop off the face of the earth and live out of my backpack for 5 years, making a few meals-wages wherever I went -- and generally traveling the world.  Some people might call that ... 'being a vagrant.'  I think, though, no, I KNOW, I much prefer the title of "troubadour" .

Anyhooo... somebody sensible talked me out of it ... or at least into postponing it for a number of years.

I think some part of me just wants to see what it all looks like now -- or, if it is still as I once knew it and imagine it to be  .  Some part of me thinks I will go 'there,' scan over the scene, and quietly think to myself (as I thoughtfully stroke my beard) ... "my, how it has/hasn't changed."

[elspeth]

I do the vast majority of my travelling alone... it's great, I love it! I do get a lot of funny looks ahen I mention this, and of course there is the constant running battles with hotels who try to make single people sleep in the broom cupboard and pay extra for the privilege or restaurants who think just because I'm on my own means I want to sit next to the kitchen door...

But besides that, travelling alone is fab. I don't have to be considerate or fit in with anyone else's plans. Don't have to do things I don't want to as a compromise for doing something I do want to.... it is totally self-indulgent, but that's not a bad thing!

A month in Italy, it sounds wonderful! I mean to go to Italy at some point, just need to figure out when! May not be for a year or two...

[thalbergmad]

Now I'm just thinking about putting together a leisurely route there and back as it'd be an 8-hour train journey if I don't break it. Maybe Inverness for a night. Or I have friends in Edinburgh and Glasgow who would take me in. Choices choices!

Inverness i would say. Lovely place.

Sounds lovely, i take it you are on north east coast as there are no trains on north west.

May and September are the best months for Scotland. No midges and not many tourists.

Thal

[elspeth]

I was thinking Glasgow on the way there and Inverness on the way back. Hmm, may have to reconsider that. There's a second-hand sheet music shop in Glasgow I want to go to, but there's a cracking second-hand book shop in Inverness too...

This is where the cottage I've got my eye on is https://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?pc=IV21%202AP&scale=1000000
The nearest railway station is the rather wonderfully named Achnashellach, about twenty miles away. I was quite surprised there was one that close, I was preparing to look for somewhere else on the grounds I couldn't get there!

[pianowolfi]

Sounds cool 

I am thinking about going to Italy for a month next summer -- I have never planned anything like this before in my life.  What I can't decide is how many people I should go with ... choices, choices. 

I always marvel at people who can do lots of traveling.  Actually, when I was 20 I had planned to drop off the face of the earth and live out of my backpack for 5 years, making a few meals-wages wherever I went -- and generally traveling the world.  Some people might call that ... 'being a vagrant.'  I think, though, no, I KNOW, I much prefer the title of "troubadour" .

Anyhooo... somebody sensible talked me out of it ... or at least into postponing it for a number of years.

I think some part of me just wants to see what it all looks like now -- or, if it is still as I once knew it and imagine it to be  .  Some part of me thinks I will go 'there,' scan over the scene, and quietly think to myself (as I thoughtfully stroke my beard) ... "my, how it has/hasn't changed."

  Hee hee I don't know exactly why but somehow I find this very exciting and original...Hi Troubadour, nice to see you (back?)

[thalbergmad]

The nearest railway station is the rather wonderfully named Achnashellach, about twenty miles away. I was quite surprised there was one that close, I was preparing to look for somewhere else on the grounds I couldn't get there!

That is a lovely part of the Country, but how you will survive without a car i don't know. Getting to your cottage could be fun as the busses are shall we say infrequent.

If you have a head for heights, i can thoroughly recommend a climb up Liathach.

Me and Mental Martin might drop in on our way to Durness.

Thal

[elspeth]

Feel free to stop by! I'm going to ring round places like the station and the tourist board this week and just make sure there is a local cab company... as you say, life without a car can be fun and games if you have a taste for staying in the back of beyond!

[ronde_des_sylphes]

The nearest railway station is the rather wonderfully named Achnashellach, about twenty miles away.

I'm sure Achnashellach had an entry in the Guinness Book of Records as the wettest place in Britain. I've not been there in 20 years or so, but I have a memory of a very pretty railway station almost swamped in rhododendrons.. and midges! Some of the Torridon hills are quite something - though I think the Black Cuillins on Skye are really spectacular.

[thalbergmad]

The nearest cabs would probably be in Kyle of Localsh.

The busses might only be 1 or 2 a day.

I would hire a car if i were you.

Thal

PS its OK to go to Gruinard island now. The anthrax has been cleared

[thalbergmad]

I think the Black Cuillins on Skye are really spectacular.

Indeed, and bleedin dangerous.

Especially for fatties like me.

Thal

[ronde_des_sylphes]

I think the Black Cuillins on Skye are really spectacular.

Indeed, and bleedin dangerous.

Yeah, I remember going to Skye with my parents a long time ago and trying to talk them into climbing Blaven  Apparently the rock is ferrous and confuses compasses.

Incidentally, Elspeth, I looked at the map and there is no way on earth that cottage is 20 miles from Achnashellach by road. As the crow flies, yeah, but by road I'd double that - possibly more. 40 miles of wonderful scenery though.

[pianistimo]

'the anthrax has been cleared?'  good grief.  a trip to the post office is only 2 miles here.