Holidays expectations are of sunshine, unfortunately we choose the Autumn so there is a fair chance of rain. Oh how it rained abroad, and I see it continues. BUT on returning to Scotland and checking the forecast we saw it was giving clear, sun and calm. A very unusual combination for the North West. And so it was, Saturday morning last as we set off on the new Rona ferry, the MV Aspire.

Negotiating the Departure

With the able assistance of Dan we left Portree slip mid morning for a suinny calm sail up to Rona.

The changeover

Calum and Irene were waiting for us and after a brief exchange they set of (excited) for a return sail equally as pleasant as ours was out the way.

Could be Summer.

Since then it has been head down sorting out travelling bags, washing and getting back to normal. The weather helps for sure and it is a bit mad to be sitting here ‘doing the blog’ on another sunny day. However I am multi tasking and doing other things because the internet is so slow, you could paint a room the time it is taking to upload. Talking about paint it was very refreshing to come back to a freshly painted downstairs in Rona Lodge. A job I particularly don’t like but Calum and Irene are a good team and with the poor weather when we were away they got stuck in and got the list completed.

Seems the Applecross broadband has packed up and the engineers were over ably helped by Calum. Our BB is satellite and it still works, slowly!! The sheep are all sorted but you cannot take your eye off them for a minute, L found a lamb caught up in brambles last night. The deer are about but once I start culling hinds they will surely disappear.

Back to the holiday, if we wanted weather we could have tried Africa I guess but a road trip across Europe sounded a good idea and despite the heavy rain (some days) it was a great success. We reached our destination without any trouble the trains were fine Europecar were not. The car we were given was not good and a letter will be sent!!! The road trip to Italy was wet but the scenery was just as stunning.

Our First Overnight Annency/France

The view from our hotel above was incredible and thank goodness for Booking.com, this was a 4/5 star hotel with dozens of rooms and we were the only ones in it, great! It was off season so the area was quiet which gave us  trouble free roads, I cannot imagine what it must be like in summer. Moderno was the same, very quiet and after taking the first wrong turning we arrived late to meet Vibeke who was waiting for us.

Destination Toscalano/Moderno

The house in Moderno is fab’ and it was good to get in and settled.

Next Day, Waiting for the rain to stop

Just as well there were umbrellas, but unlike Scottish rain it is not accompanied by gale force winds so it was easy to get about and the brollies were soon down.

Crossing Lake Garda

We did all the tourist stuff but very leisurely, we drove into the mountains, crossed the Lake, ate too much and enjoyed the end of season feeling.

Italian Coffee Shop at its Best

We drank too many coffes and ate too many croissants but hey, that is holidays.

Drying Corn up in the Mountains

All too soon it was time to say goodbye and off we went on the next part of the adventure. Without any thought to accommodation you really don’t know what is next and it is always great to find that Booking.com has done it again. After driving through grey wet Italy it was a surprise to come out of the Mont Blanc tunnel into sunshine, we headed up to Chamonix then climbed up the mountains to Clusaz. The hotel was just superb and quiet. We were told that there was ‘maybe’ 1000 people here off season but if the snow came there would be 20, 000 in a fortnight. Oh how lucky we are to live in the NW of Scotland!

Clusaz in the morning

We headed off to Lyon but had plenty time so we enjoyed French hospitality at its best on route. The views from the car were amazing as we sped through the countryside.

Car Tourism

We stopped in a small town for lunch and found a market which was music to the ladies ears and the ‘last minute’ shopping was satisfied in full. Faverge was full of surprises and we couldn’t get over the Morris shooting brake passing us in tip top order.

Lost?

We are looking forward to getting back there.

The rest of the journey was trouble free and it is always a relief to see a forecast that is kind to us. Here we are back at the coal face and the list of jobs is getting longer and longer.

I must head outside and get the most of the day, I see the wind has dropped so the wind turbine recently replaced on the broadband mast will not be charging so the mainland area we beam the signal too will be off for a wee bit longer.