For the past few years we’ve had our summer holidays on the idyllic Isle of Muck in the Small Isles off the west of Scotland (map).
The sea may look like the Mediterranean but, believe me, it’s much more bracing. With our dear friends Kerry and Athena (and our other dear friends Chris, Angeni, Michele, Emma, Yoni and Daniel — but they don’t come into this story so much) we rented a lovely cottage just 20m from the white sands of Gallanach Bay and a great time was had by all with lots of swimming and walking, finding of shells and milking of cows, eating cakes in the tea shop and falling in bogs.
Then came the dreadful news: the cottage was fully booked for summer 2009! Of course, we immediately booked for 2010, but what should we do for fun and frolics in summer 2009? Kerry had mentioned that she might go to Greece with Athena. I’ve never been there (sounds warmer than Scotland, which is a plus for me). Jane went on a walking holiday in Amargos once, many years ago and would like to go back. Athena had heard there was a goddess named after her.
But no firm plans were made, and besides we didn’t want to destroy the planet with any more air travel…
But by the spring we started talking some more about it, and it began to seem like a possibility. We definitely didn’t just want to jump on a cheap flight (I’d just been to see The Age of Stupid), and besides a train trip round Europe sounded a lot of fun. I remembered the trip to Croatia with Jane, the year before Callum was born: supper in Paris, breakfast in Venice, a stopover in the Swiss mountains on the way back (croissants delivered to the campsite).
So that’s how the plan started. The idea of the blog is to tell you how we planned it, the frustrations and excitement, give some pointers to useful resources, reflect on some issues. Jane no doubt will give you her slant on it all, and Callum will throw in some off-the-wall comments and Monty Python quotes (and maybe some weird drawings Callum?).
Please add your comments and responses!
beth // Jun 18, 2009 at 1:06 am
yay. But I’m very jealous.