Georgian Cottages and self catering...

Today is Xmas day, and I've just received an email confirming we can have a cottage for five nights in Sandwich, Kent. (Interestingly, there is another town nearby called Ham!).

Sandwich is an historic town, and only 20 kms from Dover and/or Canterbury, so well placed for lots of things. It's also not far from the coast.

So, we will do the usual thing and send a deposit, and this is the last place we might book, and just try our luck where we end up in other places. We will have twenty-six nights of self-catering, twenty-one nights where we are cruising, and the rest is either booked or arranged or we at least have an idea which area/town/city we might be in.

What we have always enjoyed about doing our own thing is that you get to have a kitchen, usually a sitting room/lounge area, and a separate bedroom. What you also get to do is to be able to cook for yourself and it need not be expensive. There are always supermarkets or if you strike the right day in a particular town, local markets from which you can buy stuff, e.g. fresh veg, etc. Of course there is always the local pub, or fish and chips.

Overall you can end up saving a lot on accommodation, because our 26 nights have averaged out at $89 per night, which is pretty good considering what you'd pay in some motels and hotels, and you have the chance to make toast, and have a fridge handy. Very few motels in the UK seem to have fridges in the rooms.

Well, that's all for now, and we'll be back in the New Year.

Water, water everywhere...

As though it weren't enough that we've booked two separate cruises during the holiday, we are also having a few crossings to some of the islands on the west of Scotland. On one jaunt, we are sailing across to Arran, spending the night, and then leaving Arran at the top of the island and continuing on up to Oban, where we take the small cruise for six nights out to and around Mull, and hopefully a visit to Fingal's Cave.
The island-hopping ferries are run by Caledonian MacBrayne, or Calmac, and they service just about every island in that part of Scotland. Later on, we are going across to Lewis/Harris, having a couple of nights there and coming back to Uig, on the Isle of Skye.

Don't know where this love of "sailing" came from, but ever since we had the first cruise to New Zealand, and didn't suffer from sea-sickness, we've loved the idea of being on the water. Seeing towns and coastlines, and countryside from the water is a totally different perspective, and just the usual calmness of gliding over water is very restful. Mind you we had 10-metre seas on our second cruise to N.Z., but even then we were OK. Can't wait!!

Not long now, but still things to do...

All at once, Xmas is here again, and a reflectful time for us with it being twelve months since Sam died.
However, we have had to get on, and are at the point where there is not much more to do, but pay some balances of things already booked, and tidy up some last details. I have to do the last minute stuff in the New Year, like the travel plans on the Foreign Affairs website, and have a "practice pack". We do not have a good past history of packing just what we need, but this time are determined to try and be good. To be away for over three months, and include two different cruises, and think about what we might need for Japanese / English / Scottish / Welsh / Norwegian / Icelandic / French and Belgian spring & early summer weather, and allow for space to bring stuff back, it's not easy!!!

The other thing we have to do is get the house in order, and make sure the garden will cope. As our block is 99% garden (we have no lawn), it is fairly self-sufficient, and recent good rains won't have harmed it's chances of survival. It's no use asking anyone else to water for us, because nobody ever does it the same way you do yourself. Anyway, plants will be shutting down for the cooler weather, so it will just have to be OK, and if we lose things, then so be it. 

So, once we get past Xmas and New Years Eve and all the crap that involves, (bah humbug!!!), it will be all stops out and only just over two months before we go. Won't actually believe it 'til we're on the plane.