Whoo hoo! Got my tickets and I'm on my way . . . .
I called Scotland yesterday and spoke to the receptionist of the last lodging arrangement I had to make. She had a wonderful Scottish accent, took my credit card information then made my reservations. I received the confirmation e-mail this morning. So that's it. I even got my car reserved to be delivered to me upon my arrival in Fort William to begin what I can only think of as an adventure (so I don't get too nervous about the prospect of driving on the left side).
As I mentioned in a previous post I have four very important things on my must see list, Edinburgh, the Highlands (and some Scottish sheep), the Isle of Skye and thanks to AnnieNC (HERE's her wonderful post about them)these remarkable and beautiful Baby Highland Baby cows! Then throw in a museum, a couple of cathedrals, castles, lochs, some sunrises/sunsets and I will be very happy.
I have been reading the blogs of two fellow Slow Travelers, Deborah (Old Shoes-New Trip) and MaryT (Reflections of My 40 Years in Umbria). They both wrote about their wonderful experiences during their visit and shared several of their beautiful photos. And Deborah took a couple of great photos of these beautiful Highland cows HERE, that Annie posted about, which is pretty cool!
Thank you so much to all my blogging friends for all the encouragements for staying on course with my plans. I honestly wasn't sure that I could pull it off! Stay tuned . . .
Such exciting plans. I'm so thrilled for you and will be anticipating all your adventure stories and photos. Congrats you're all set! Yippee.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, Kathy! Fantastic news -- it's always so exciting to have the tickets purchased, the itinerary sketched out, an idea of the cows you'd like to meet......
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to hear more about your trip. Scotland looks so beautiful and I've been avidly following Mary's posts, your plans and I love Deborah's pictures of Highland cattle(with their long, shaggy hair in their eyes, they look like 1960s-era Beatles!)
Woo hoo and congratulations! I know it feels great to have the tickets and lodging done, now you can just move into that wonderful anticipation phase. You are going in November, right? Not too long to wait! I bet you're going to come home with great stories and photos. And LOL at Sandra saying the cows look like the Beatles (they did call them the Mop Tops!).
ReplyDeleteCongratulations. I always love it when I have all my travel plans completed. And it is exciting.
ReplyDeleteHow exciting! Looking forward to hearing about your trip. We never made it to Scotland when we were in Spain. Funny, one of the reasons we didn't visit was because my Husband didn't want to drive on the left hand side of the road, but look at us now!!
ReplyDeleteHi Everyone, thanks so much for your comments! I'm totally excited...
ReplyDeleteBarb, thanks so much. I look forward to sharing some of my stories and photos with you all. Hopefully I can manage to do the beauty of Scotland justice! Yippee is right. :)
Sandra, thanks so much. I wouldn't mind meeting George like Deborah did. I would love to get a nice close-up. That was such a great photo. Deborah and Mary did such a great job blogging about their experiences. Hopefully I can do as well with my visit. I love the highland cow bangs! So chique ... :)
Annie, thanks so much for your comments. Yes it feels great to be done with the airfares and lodging. The wait for after Labor Day paid off a little. The prices came down although not as great as they did before. Still, I'm very grateful that they did dip a little. Yes I'm going in November and it's not much time to wait (yay) or prepare (yikes)! Peaks and Valleys again. It's going to be rainy and cold but I hope to luck out on a few good days. :) I love Sandra's Highland Cow hair doo comparison to the Beatles too. :)
Marta, thanks so much. I love it too. Logistics planning is not my favorite part of the trip planning so I like to get it done and out of the way. So now that it is done, I can relax and enjoy the reading a bit more. Well, I just need to get the train schedule from Glasgow to Fort William and Fort William to my final destination before returning home, beautiful Edinburgh. :)
Maya, thanks so much for your comments. That is so funny about your husband not wanting to drive on the left side of the road! The good news is now it will be very a very easy transition when you get to Scotland. I'm taking a sign to post on my dashboard to remind myself. :) It seems that in the summer months, Scotland would be a great place for you and your husband to visit with all the wonderful hiking opportunities there. I've been reading about the incredible walking trails. There's a short one that I'm going to try to attempt (rain or shine, well hopefully no rain). :)
Thanks again everyone for your comments. I'm very excited to get the opportunity to be able to explore and experience a wonderful destintation like Scotland soon. I haven't been back in the UK (other than a stopover) since 2005 and I'm looking forward to it. Whoo hoo!
Have a great day today everyone!
Congrats, Kathy on such fabulous news! It sounds like you have all your travel logistics taken care of and now you can concentrate on the fun stuff.
ReplyDeleteI love your video. Your excitement comes through and I can see that you are on your way to a wonderful adventure. Don’t worry too much about driving on the left side of the road. If I did it, anyone can. Back in 1988 we lived for 6 months in England and I had to learn to drive the British way and with a manual transmission! It was a challenge but I made it and even dared to take my kids and visiting family around, driving an old Citroen.
You’ll have a great time and I can’t wait to read all the stories and see all your stunning photos.
Have a great Wednesday!
Hi Maria, thanks so much for your comments. Yes I'm very excited to get to the really fun stuff! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for liking my video. I started a tradition from last year when I did my video to Spain and felt like continuing on with tradition. :) Plus it was fun.
I'm so glad that you told me about your experience driving in England for 6 months. That is so great to hear. You must be a very good driver to manage driving a stick while driving on the left and having your two children in the car with you all at once. I can drive a stick very well too, but I decided to opt for the automatic since the price difference was very minimal. But more so because I was being a chicken. :)
I think my hotel on the isle of Skye has internet so you know I'm going to have to send a quick photo and report some of my experiences to date. :)
I'm looking forward to the experience and to seeing Scotland. I keep hearing references that it is considered "God's Country" and so I can only imagine what it is like! I can't wait.
Thanks Maria and hope you are having a great Wednesday!
I came across this blog post today and I thought I would share it. I think it is kinda funny - Vikings warned against travel to Scotland!
ReplyDeletehttp://blog.iloho.com/older/2009/9/23/vikings_warned_against_travel_to/
Enjoy!
Hi Marta, thanks so much for sharing the link. I will definitely read it when I get home tonight. I might get too anxious and want to try to read it from my phone. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link. I'm sure I'll enjoy reading it. It's so great to be at the fun stage of the pre-trip excitement, reading, learning , day dreaming. Very cool!
Thanks again Marta and have a great day today!
Hi Marta, I just read the entry.Great read! Thank you so much for sharing it. Great photography on some of those entries!
ReplyDeleteI call your Whoo hoo! and raise you to a Whooopeeeeee!!! How exciting to have your tickets and reservations confirmed. I'm sure you'll manage fine driving on the left side of the road, watch out for the roundabouts though, going around those in the opposite direction is really freaky!
ReplyDeleteOn a totally unrelated note...was just looking at your video on youtube "Churches in Venice - The Sacred Art". What is the song playing during the slideshow? I've heard it before and really like it, but can't put my finger on the artist or song title.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's very exciting - I wrote to you on your music post a few days ago that I was about to go.
ReplyDeleteNow, a few days later... I am leaving tomorrow morning!
Crikey, what an adventure!
Yours will be one of the first blogs I go to when I come back to see what you have been up to. :)
Hi Anne, thanks so much for your comments and your driving tips. I had an experience with one in Austria which did cause me to get all twisted around and lost for a little while. I'll be driving in the country side more so hopefully I won't be coming across any roundabouts. But then I'll be coming across some single track roads. It's all about the adventure. :)
ReplyDeleteI wrote on your blog about the name of the song on my video. I'm glad you liked it. It's pretty cool.
Thanks again for your comments and the driving pep talk. :) Have a great weekend!
Hi Leslie, thanks so much for your comments. I'm so excited for you! To be in Venice again sounds so wonderful. I'm looking forward to hearing about your experiences and seeing all of your beautiful photos. Safe travels and have a wonderful trip!
Woo Hoo!!! I am soooo excited for you! It must feel great to have everything booked. I can't wait to hear all about your time there. You are VERY BRAVE to rent a car, especially knowing that you will be driving on the *other* side of the road! Congratulations!!!
ReplyDeletep.s... love your video!!
ReplyDeleteHi Girasoli, thank you so much for your comments. I've driven in Europe before but this will be the first time to drive on the left. I'll be driving mainly in the small towns so I'm not as nervous but that could change once I'm there. :) I think the biggest challenge will be those single track roads, but I've read a couple of links and books to learn the driving technique for these scenarios. You tubes videos of people driving have been helpful to me too.
ReplyDeleteI'm very excited and looking forward to seeing Scotland too and hope to share as much as I can. Thanks for liking my video too! It was fun to make!
Thanks again for you comments. Have a great Sunday evening.