Four go wild north of the border UPDATED 6/23 About This Page:

[Cam22]

Planning is moving along smoothly!

[chezp]

Pre-trip report – part four: a favour backfires…

Monday 23 January

I ended up off work sick with what turned out to be a bacterial throat infection. You always know it’s bad when you walk into the doctor’s, and literally a minute later, you have a prescription for antibiotics. They just never seem to give them out these days, but I got them no problem, which gave me an idea this wasn’t good. I spent my time just generally chilling, and waiting for the antibiotics to start kicking the throat infection into touch, but of course, my mind kept wandering. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s very rare I just sit and do nothing. I’m usually researching, reading (either online or in a real book), as I need to do something.

I spent some of my time reviewing our itinerary for this trip, and trying to work out one thing in particular. We’re going to the Isle of Skye for one day, and I wanted to see whether we should take the ferry over the night before, and stay the night on the island or stay on the mainland, then go over the next morning. The original plan I had was to stay on the mainland, then we’d take the 9:40am ferry (it’s a 45 minute crossing), but then I started to worry that we had a lot to cram in that day, and it would be a lot of driving for Mark. Maybe we should cross over the night before?

It sounded like a good plan… until it came to trying to find somewhere to stay over there. My goodness, I do not know what the heck is going on, but just about everywhere I tried was either fully booked, stupidly priced (like £250 ($300)) a night, and I couldn’t see why we’d pay that much for somewhere quite ordinary, or the places that were reasonably priced were badly rated on TripAdvisor. Oh boy, this was not promising.

I went back to my original plan, and looked again at the ferry schedule. Well, there was a crossing at 7:40am. Not ideal to be getting up that early in the morning, but that was looking like the best plan. I emailed Mari to see if they’d be Ok with that. I mean, it’s only day we’d be doing that, so hopefully they’ll be fine with it…

Tuesday 24 January

Tonight, football (soccer to you guys ) was on the TV, and I’m never allowed in the same room as where the TV is on, as apparently I’m a bad luck charm for Liverpool. Personally, given how Liverpool are playing right now, I really don’t think it’s me – honest!

I took the opportunity to have a look though our itinerary, and concentrate on getting from Loch Ness to the Cairngorms National Park. I just hadn’t been able to find anything that really worked for us around Inverness. Sure, there were hotels and bed and breakfast places, but none of them grabbed me. I didn’t look at any of them and really want to stay there. I was like “whatever” with all of them, which wasn’t sitting right with me. After all, we were talking about spending £100 ($125) a night per couple, and that’s a fair chunk of change to not feel comfortable with a place…

I decided to search a bit further afield. We’re travelling from Loch Ness towards the Cairngorms National Park, and in the end, I found a place called Kingussie, which isn’t too far from the Cairngorms. That seemed to have a number of bed and breakfast places at a much more reasonable rate, so that might be an option….

Sunday 29 January

I finally heard back from Mari to say she was Ok with taking the early morning ferry over to Skye. That’s good to know.

I went ahead and booked the West Highland Hotel in Mallaig, and I have to say I was very relieved to have that in the bag, given the lack of options I’ve found on Skye. It’s a shame, as I’d have loved to have spent the night there, but it patently just wasn’t to be.

Mari did ask me about hotels in Edinburgh, and at the time, I assumed she was asking more for herself and Raleigh, as they’d be staying on there a couple of nights after we leave. She gave me a couple of options, and I told her that one of them looked Ok, which was called Channings Hotel. I have to confess I didn’t look into it that carefully. I looked into where it was, and I did go back to ask her what public transport was like, as I could see it was some way out of the city centre, and I was worried about them being able to get around after we left. I figured she’d come back to say they’d booked in for their three nights in Edinburgh, but she was to surprise me on that part…

Monday 30 January

I had an email today from the bed and breakfast place we’re staying at on Loch Ness, saying that unfortunately she wouldn’t be able to offer us breakfast during our stay, and we had two options. She could either refund us for the night, and we could choose to stay somewhere else, or she’d knock £20 off the price. I went back to ask her if there were any breakfast places nearby, and she came back to confirm that there was, giving me a couple of names, so I went for the option of still staying there, just with no breakfast.

Wednesday 1 February

Mari sent me what I thought was a bit of an odd email today, which I just didn’t get. It was a confirmation for the Channings Hotel, but it was just for one night, which I was very surprised by. I could understand them booking for three nights, but just the one? I said to Mark at the time that I was almost a bit put out by it, as it seemed they’d sorted themselves out, and left us to it, although honestly, I’m more than capable of sorting myself out.

Thursday 2 February

Tonight I decided we might as well sort ourselves out for Edinburgh, so I went for a nearby B&B that seemed to me to be much better value. It was cheaper, and it came with free parking on their driveway and free breakfast, which you didn’t get at Channings. I was very happy with it.

After I’d bought it, I discovered we wouldn’t have to pay until we got there. Ok, that meant I had a little bit more money left in the budget to book the final night’s accommodation for our trip with Mari and Raleigh. It was the night I was struggling with, where nothing in Inverness was working, and in the end, I did opt for a bed and breakfast place in Kingussie, that was very cheap, and very well rated.

Wow, I can’t believe we’re now done… well, all apart from the two nights we’re taking to drive home, but that’s down to us to sort out, and we will… in due course.

Your hotel reservation is complete.

However, things were about to take a turn for the worse….

Suddenly Mari’s email from yesterday made more sense. She came back to me to say she’d booked a room for the two of us at Channings, as well as for them. At first she didn’t seem too worried, saying she’d check to see if it was non-refundable, although she knew theirs wasn’t. Then her next email said it wasn’t. Oh wow, I felt so bad. She’d tried to do us a favour, albeit she hadn’t explicitly set it out like that for a bear of very little brain like me, and now it had all backfired…

Next: does our membership cover Scotland?

[chezp]

There will be an update tomorrow and it may be at the usual time, but it may be later in the day, as we're heading out for the weekend.

[disney_duke]

Ahhh, the details. And are you still searching hotels? I only ask because I sometimes still do that too - right up until we leave! Just in case a better deal turns up. I've got to stop doing that.
I hope you all like the Channings Hotel!

[SuperDave]

Plans are shaping up with quite a variety of stays, sights and some good dining planned! Hope all works out with the place Mari booked for you that is non refundable!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by disney_duke

Ahhh, the details. And are you still searching hotels? I only ask because I sometimes still do that too - right up until we leave! Just in case a better deal turns up. I've got to stop doing that.

No, we were done on all the hotels for the four of us some time ago... we finished off the hotels for the two of us on the night home a few weeks ago...

I hope you all like the Channings Hotel!

Ah, well.... about that...

[chezp]

Originally Posted by SuperDave

Plans are shaping up with quite a variety of stays, sights and some good dining planned! Hope all works out with the place Mari booked for you that is non refundable!

More to come on that one....

[pamcarey]

Oh boy, sounds like a bit of miscommunication about the hotel. I hope it all worked out okay.


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[Colexis Mom]

It sounds like the trip is coming together!!

[Cam22]

Glad you've gotten your accommodations pretty much settled now.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by pamcarey

Oh boy, sounds like a bit of miscommunication about the hotel. I hope it all worked out okay.

Details coming up....

[chezp]

Originally Posted by Cam22

Glad you've gotten your accommodations pretty much settled now.

It's certainly not easy planning a vacation from both sides of the pond...

[chezp]

Pre-trip report – part five: does our membership cover Scotland?

Friday 3 February

I emailed Mari back, explaining I’d totally missed what she was doing, and saying I thought it was a bit odd that she’d sent through a one night booking to us, but I just assumed it was theirs. I apologised profusely, but having looked more carefully at Channings, the parking is limited on street outside, and it says if you’re staying for more than four hours, then you need to park at a multi-storey car park that’s 20 minutes’ walk away. Not what we wanted.

I was worried about sending the email, as I didn’t want to offend Mari after such a wonderful gesture, but heck, if you’re good friends, you can deal with things like that, and so it turned out to be.

Thankfully Mari came back to me and was absolutely fine about it, albeit with the problem that she couldn’t cancel the reservation without penalty. She said she’d totally forgotten to check the parking, and she didn’t want to inconvenience us. She’s going to email the hotel to see what they say.

Sunday 12 February

I woke up to find an email from Mari saying she’d sent the rest of the money she owed us for the various purchases I’d made for this trip, along with a Paypal email confirming that. That means I can now get this month’s credit card paid off before we go away – one less thing to worry about!

Monday 13 February

I got another email from Mari, confirming they now have the equivalent of National Trust membership. I’d advised them to join via the Royal Oak Foundation, as we’re lifetime members, and we have a number of properties lined up to visit this trip, and I didn’t want them to be shelling out money every time we stopped somewhere. It costs $95 per couple, which may sound like a lot, but given how the exchange rate is, I think they’ll easy recoup that money this trip. Let’s put it this way – we plan on visiting two National Trust properties on our first day, and the cost of those in dollars would be $46. That’s without adding in all the other stops we’ll be making in Scotland.

Saturday 18 February

We were watching a programme all about rail travel in the States, and they were on a steam train, when Mark commented about how much he liked steam trains. That reminded me that the last time I’d checked, the Strathspey Railway didn’t have its dining available to purchase yet, but maybe now it did? I checked their website, and sure enough, the traditional Sunday lunch is now available. They do a standard one at £36 each, and then the first class option (and I couldn’t work out what that entails ) comes out to £174 for four people. That’s only £15 more per couple, which works for me.

I was going to email Mari to put the idea to her, but I didn’t have to, as she got in touch with me to say their Royal Oak Foundation membership pack had arrived.

Sunday 19 February

I woke up to just a few emails from Mari! I asked her what happened with the hotel in Edinburgh, but she never heard back from them, so in her words “I guess that means no cancellation”. I did feel really bad about it, and frankly was on the verge of ringing the hotel myself to give them my version of what had happened, and how appalled I was with their customer service, but I had another email from her this morning, saying that it was fine, as where she’d expected to spend a lot of money on another night, a friend had invited them to stay with her, so she’d saved a lot of money there, so she was fine with it.

Her next email was a bit tougher to answer, as she was asking about weather and what my suggestions would be for clothes to take. As she rightly said, when we travel together, she’s used to temperatures that are hotter than hell. When we’ve visited them in California, the weather is always unseasonably hot, often over 100 degrees, and it was the same story on our eastern Mediterranean cruise and our road trip through Italy. Hopefully that won’t be an issue this time.

As for my response? Well… here you go:

Hmmm.... ok that's got to be the toughest question you've asked me so far and honestly the answer is I don't know.

I'd expect for our temperatures to be pleasant in June, in the 60s or perhaps low 70s, but I know that Scotland is a good few degrees cooler, so maybe more like the 60s. Also of course it can rain whenever it feels like it, so goodness only knows! Hopefully at least it won't be too hot for this trip!

So basically, I have no idea!

Later on, Mark found a programme, Secrets of the National Trust. I knew it was coming, as I’d read something about it in the latest member magazine, but I didn’t know when it was on, so that was definitely a happy coincidence. It turned out to be a lot about the Lake District, and featured on Beatrix Potter’s 17th century cottage, Hill Top. Hmm… that doesn’t appear to be on our itinerary… well it is now! It’s only about 15 minutes away from Coniston Water, and I figure we’d be crazy not to go there, considering we’re going to the Beatrix Potter Gallery, and Wray Castle, which I know she was involved with to. I’m glad we saw this, otherwise we might have missed out on seeing this…

We also watched the last in the series looking at Britain’s Greatest Bridges, and it was all about the Humber Bridge in the north east of England. Not something I’ve ever had any interest in seeing, but after learning about it, it sparked an interest in both of us. Independently, we both went and looked and how far out of our route home it would be to cross over that. Well, it’s do-able, so heck, that may be added to the itinerary too…

Wednesday 1 March

Ok, a very, very quick update here, as heck I’m right in the middle of a Disney trip, and we all know how hectic those are, right? Anyway, I happened to have a little bit of time (something to do with hiding in our room away from the heat ) so I created a new ticker countdown for this trip on the boards, and would you believe it, it’s 100 days away? That means it’s double digit dancing tomorrow, so heck, as I probably won’t have time to do it tomorrow, I’ll do it today!

Sunday 26 March

Wow, it’s nearly a month since there was last any update on this trip… how time flies!

I had an email from Mari this morning, saying that she’s checked through her Royal Oak Foundation membership, and there’s no detail that they’re entitled to free entry to National Trust Scotland properties. If that’s right, then I am really annoyed on their behalf, as it’s marketed as the American membership of the National Trust, and British National Trust members get that included. If Americans who join don’t, then that’s wrong. I hope it turns out they are entitled to that, otherwise they’re going to have to shell out another £63 ($75) for National Trust Scotland membership, which would be really unfair.

I did go back to her to say that I needed to book the Sunday lunch on the Cairngorms railway, as I realised I never did that before we went away. I discovered that the first class option is literally just for four people, so for £15, we get it all to ourselves! I went ahead and booked it before it got sold out, so we are now confirmed for that.

I’m also having a change of heart about our return journey back south from Edinburgh. Our plan had to be to head down the eastern coast, but the more I think about it, the more I’m thinking of making a stop at my parents on the way back instead. Of course, it would save money but that’s not the real reason. Usually I see my parents in May or early June to collect all the plants for our garden, as my parents grow literally thousands for theirs and I get a few for our (much smaller) garden. There is no way we can pick the plants up when we visit them at the start of our trip, as we’ll then be picking up Mari and Raleigh, and while our car has a big trunk, it’s not big enough to take all our luggage and a heap of plants.

If we stopped on the way back, then we could stay the night, pick the plants up, and drive down to see Maureen the next day for lunch, then we’d home on the Friday night. This would give me the whole weekend to get all the plants out in the garden, as they’d need to go out quickly by then. Last year, by comparison, everything was out by the end of May, although in fairness, that was partially because we were going away on a two week Baltic cruise in early June.

Monday 27 March

I heard back from Mari today, and she managed to contact the National Trust, and they’ve confirmed that their membership is good for all the properties in Scotland – yay!

Next: “Lighthouse - bit of a journey but worth it”

[disney_duke]

So glad the National Trust program will work out for Mari and Raleigh! That would have been a pain otherwise. Your additions to the itinerary sound good too, especially first class lunch on the train. Fun!!

[pamcarey]

How cool to visit Beatrix Potter's cottage!


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