My Hovercraft is Full of Eels

To Greece by train - and other journeys of the mind, body and soul

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How it started

June 17th, 2009 by chris · 1 Comment · Greece, Uncategorized

Amy at the Mermaid's Pool, Isle of MuckFor 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.

Hebridean BreakfastThen 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!

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