The traveller returns!

image from Clipart Library

Did you miss me???  No??? How rude 😆

As you have probably guessed, Adrian and I have been south to visit family.  We normally travel down in March, but the 16th April marked one year since Mum passed away and obviously I wanted to be with Dad.  My sister had to be out of the country for work during that week but she was able to Komp with us on the day during a break from the meetings she was there to attend, so we were all together despite the six hour time difference 😊  To be honest it hardly seems possible that Mum has been gone for over a year now, but time relentlessly marches on no matter what may be happening in our lives.

Our trip was complicated somewhat by Easter being late this month so there were more folk travelling, and as usual the journey didn't run as smoothly as we would have liked!  The ferry crossing on the 14th was absolutely fine with only a very slight swell now and again; the taxi was waiting for us at Scrabster, and the train from Thurso to Inverness was running on time.  Adrian had reserved seats on what should have been a ScotRail intercity train running from Inverness to Edinburgh, although we were breaking our journey at Perth.  Unfortunately the train was replaced with a ScotRail local train, which would have been okay had it not been for three of the six carriages being out of action due to no electrics, water, etc 😒  I'm glad we weren't going all the way to Edinburgh, although we were decidedly less than impressed with the hotel in Perth we stayed in ~ one to definitely avoid if we ever stay in the city again!  We continued our journey south on the 15th and thankfully it was uneventful.  We got off the intercity train from Edinburgh at Peterborough and there was a local train to Hitchin, where Dad was picking us up, already at the station.  We will be reconsidering our journey south in future, most likely flying part of the way.

Amanda and Liz came down on Easter Sunday; we all went out for lunch, and had a lovely catch-up 😍  Adrian and I stayed with Dad until the 22nd when we set off for Leeds to visit Sam who moved there last year.  We decided not to go to Hitchin this time around, so didn't get to see our friends who we like to visit when we can ~ hopefully we'll be able to do that when we are next down in September 😊 

Dad took us to Hitchin station and our journey to Leeds was uneventful, thankfully.  The intercity trains don't stop at Hitchin, so we got a local one to Stevenage which is only one station away, where we picked up our train to Leeds.  Sam had taken a couple of days annual leave; he met us off the train and showed us where our hotel was, which was only a short walk away.  We stayed at the Malmaison and would be happy to stay there again.  I'm so unfit and overweight right now that I could only manage to walk about in the mornings, but Sam and Adrian went out after lunch whilst I had a rest at the hotel.  We had dinner at the hotel, too, in their restaurant and all our meals were good.  Hopefully when we go down in future I will have got myself a little fitter to do more exploring.

I can see why Sam likes living in Leeds but although it was nice to visit, living in a city is not for Adrian and I ~ we prefer the quiet life!  I am looking forward to future visits, though, to explore more of the city.

We started our homeward journey on the 25th, travelling from Leeds to Edinburgh, changing there to get the Inverness train although once again we broke our journey at Perth.  We stayed in a different hotel, but it was as just as unimpressive as the one on the journey down 😒  The following morning, when the Inverness train came up on the board at Perth, we were once again confronted by a change to the service from an intercity to a local train ~ with only three carriages!  As you can imagine since it had started out from Edinburgh, it was packed with people and their luggage.  Luckily we were able to get seats but our suitcases (like those of other folk) had to clutter up the aisle as there was no room in the luggage racks.  We were greatly relieved to get to Inverness where we promptly trundled over to The Royal Highland Hotel for lunch, which is next door to the station.

The journey from Inverness to Thurso was uneventful albeit running a few minutes late.  The taxi we ordered was waiting at the station to take us down to the ferry terminal at Scrabster ~ I'm sure you can well imagine how happy we were to be on the last leg of our journey 😄  The ferry left early and once again the crossing was smooth.  There was a slight hiccup in that our friend had been going to meet us but totally lost track of time, and as we couldn't get hold of him we ended up walking from the ferry terminal.  I was pretty knackered by the time I'd trundled home; it is a tiring walk for me at the moment at the best of times, but having to push a suitcase and carrying a backpack made it even more so.  Nevertheless I did it, and although I was absolutely pooped and my feet were sore by the time we got home, I was still pretty proud of myself 😊