How the Decision Was Made (2)

Hi, Welcome back.

I’m so happy you are going to share the fun with us.

When we left you, we were thinking about going to Scotland for an extended stay.  And we had decided that we were going to do it for three months in the fall, October to December.  You wondered

      “Scotland?

                                                   On the North Sea? 

                                                                                                                   In the winter?”

We were thinking the same thing.

We were there in April one year.  It was cold.   Of course the picture below was taken in the mountains, in the Trossachs , at a ski resort.  But April.

Anne is cold,  waiting for the bus.  (April)

         Cold in St. Andrews.  April.

It’s not always that cold in Scotland.  In later posts I will show you some really beautiful, sunny weather.  Of course, it is northern UK.

But there’s a good  reason for the timing.   It is a very practical reason.

Anne was retiring end of September.  The lease on our apartment was up end of September.  Not a coincidence. She planned her retirement to coincide.  If we put our things in storage and left for Scotland right away, we would have to pay rent in only one place.  It is really the only way we could afford to do this.  We are retired.  We are not rich.

Then the time came February, time to buy our airline tickets.  Anne asked, “Why don’t we stay for six months instead of three?”  We are limited to six months, as that is the maximum amount of time we can stay in UK without some kind of special visa.    So, of course I said, “Why not?”  So six months it is.

We will leave the beginning of October and return the end of March.  These are some of the holidays *While we are there we plan to attend as many festivals as possible and to participate in all the holidays there are.  Here are a few I am looking forward to.

Hogmanay     Boxing Day           Candlemas Day            Up-Helly-aa

Samhain          First Footing        Sowans Nicht                Guy Fawkes Day

But for now, there are many, many details to work out. For example, we have two pets; a dog and a cat.  What to do with them?

I will be talking about all of this and more in subsequent posts.

Plan to join us on our adventure.  Also, we welcome your comments.  And thank you for visiting.

Linda