Day 1629 flying ✈️ from Dubrovnik 🇭🇷 to Glasgow 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

It was cloudy from about 3.30pm yesterday so we didn’t do much after having a late lunch.

We did have an ice cream which melted soooo fast!

We went back to the room to sit and read for a while and to admire the view before it got dark.

I watched a guy with his remote control yacht… it was strangely hypnotic watching it sail around… and very cute 😆

We went out for a last walk, at sunset, around Cavtat as the sun broke through the clouds again.

Funny that my last photo is one of the Adriana after its last run of the day. Heading into the next bay to….. park up (!?!?!?) for the night! 😆 I am fully aware that is not the terminology but I can’t for the life of me, think what it should be. We’ve been on the go for 8 hours now and we’re currently up on the air somewhere between the M1 and the M6 apparently! 😆

We wake up this morning to very dark and heavy skies with a forecast of high winds and torrential rain. The best kind of day to be heading home.

A cloudy selfie outside the hotel 😆 not another one that face says!

So it turns out we hadn’t booked transfers for this holiday.

I may have said before but we book through Love Holidays so that we can pay the holiday monthly in advance. It’s a great idea but it does mean you’re not guaranteed transfers despite the fact that Tui ran us to the hotel on the way here…. We need to be more careful in future ensuring Love Holidays have the correct baggage and transfers selected… per person. We’ve been caught out with both on this holiday…. Never again. I will amend that to say that WE have selected the correct baggage and transfers through the Love Holidays app….. it’s all on us 😆

Tui offered us a €30 transfer but the hotel arranged a taxi for €20. It only takes 8 minutes which is really good. We were at the airport just after 8am this morning.

We got chatting to a lovely lady in the airport, she was flying to Gatwick. She really helped pass the time and we had a great chat. I think you meet people for a reason.

We didn’t board until about 11ish and the transfer bus tried to drop us off at the Newcastle flight 😆 we made sure the plane was for Glasgow when we go on.

I really like this photo of us…. I’m in control of the emergency exit again, so that Craig can have more leg room…. The things you have to do eh?!?

The flight went really smoothly despite my fears over the last few days. I was convinced it would be super bumpy based on the forecast.

My anxieties have been on high alert this week. I’ve had a wonderful time and been really relaxed but there’s been an underlying fear at times, a kind of dizziness. I’m not sure if it’s been a form of vertigo, if it’s my varifocal glasses or not but I have been really anxious about travelling home. I have to spend a bit of time on this and try to figure out what it might be.

And yet it went so smoothly.

I THINK we flew over our village….. 😆

After nearly 9 years of living here…. Finally!

So, not gonna lie, I’m knackered. We got home just before 4 and the dogs were over the moon. We’ve sat outside in the sun and played with them. Glasgow was lovely when we got home. We’ve come in now to get some food. I had a lovely salad. (Stopped at Morrisons on the way home).

We have honestly had the best holiday. I highly recommend it. I’m back on the couch with my comfies on… the cases will have to wait until tomorrow.

Stay safe everyone 🇭🇷✈️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Day 1457 trip to the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill 🏛️🇮🇹🍕🍝

Ok so the Star Wars observant among you will soooooo know it typed Palpatine Hill to start with….. I am my husband’s wife 🤦🏻‍♀️😂

Another amazing day and my last full day in Rome. I will sleep for a fortnight when this is over.

Today I had booked with Crown Tours for the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. The tour lasted 3 hours but they left us in the Colosseum to wander for the rest of the day if we wanted.

It was such contrast to yesterday but only because it was all in ruins…. This ancient area of Rome was as beautiful in its day, if not more so than the Vatican.

I’m not even going to remotely try and regale you with the history of the area. A tour is an explosion of information, while trying to get sunglasses on and glasses safely put in the bag, then glasses on and sunglasses put safely in the bag… while trying to listen and take photos…. you get the gist.

When you travel alone there is no one to hold anything. You just have to try to manage everything as best you can… while ensuring pickpockets don’t see you as fair game.

Palatine Hill is seen as the birthplace of the City of Rome around 1000 BC. It’s where all the upper class lived and all the imperial palaces were built. It had stunning views.

Everything was marble and decorated, even the servant quarters although not to the same extent and the imperial rooms.

The Roman Forum is in the low lying area between the hills and this is where everyone gathered for open air meetings from around 500 BC.

Before the Roman Forum and Colosseum were built, the whole area used to be marshland it was drained around 620BC due to constant flooding. That drainage system is still in use today.

The Roman Forum housed some of the most majestic temples and monuments.

The Colosseum was obviously where all the blood sports took place…. Animal against animal, animal against criminal, criminal against criminal and obviously the gladiators, some of whom became as famous as current footballers would do. Some 450,000 people were killed in the Colosseum in its day…. That’s a sobering thought as you stand inside it. that was all stopped by the Christians in the 6th Century.

The Forum was abandoned in the 7th century for the river area. A huge earthquake in the 9th century toppled many of the buildings and by the Middle Ages it had all been built over. Hence the ruins.

In true Julie fashion I got there early as this was by far the biggest distance I had to travel this weekend.

So many people told me that everything was within walking distance…. But it’s not when you don’t book the correct hotel and you have 45 minutes worth of train journey to get there.

I boarded the train at Balduina and had to take 6 stops to Roma Ortiense.

I chose to wear my short shorts this morning. Until now I’ve been blending in with the Italians wearing long trousers, they also have long tops and jackets with scarves. That’s a generalisation but there are a lot of them dressed for Scottish winter!

Today I stuck out like a sore thumb and I had the only visible legs on the first train!!!

I had to change at Ortiense onto the Metro and it was a good 6 minute walk with my legs on show through Italian suburbia. I only relaxed when I saw other tourists, once I got to the Colosseum. It shouldn’t matter what we wear and I tried to tell myself that the whole way there!

I got to the Colosseum for 8.30am and my tour was at 10. This gave me time to get some photos. The queues were already massive!

I found a nice wee cafe on Via Poliveria (reminded me of my friend Alice as it’s nearly her surname!!) and had a decaf espresso…. Yup I know…. 😂😂…. And a lovely pistachio filled croissant. It was so good.

Our tour started at the Roman Forum.

This old church was only opened in October having been closed for 50 years… they have managed to clean some of the art on the walls.

You can see Jesus in this one.

We are starting to climb up Palatine Hill now.

Looking down to the Colosseum.

I honestly have so many photos I don’t know where to start. I also don’t know that they all load up properly when I publish the blog. I’ll do a minimum for now.

That green door is the one of oldest doors in Rome… believed to date back to 300 BC.

We headed down into the Colosseum.

This was also incredibly busy. Thousands of people wandering around…. Just to give you some perspective.

My tour was the Arena Tour so you get right out into the main arena.

I finally left the Colosseum about 2.30pm… and was ravenous. I tied to go to a recommended restaurant but it was queued out… so I just pick a random roadside eatery and had some garlic bread and another veggie pizza….

I’ve already warned Craig that the garlic from the garlic bread will still be there when I get home tomorrow!!! It was soooo strong.

I didn’t have any plans for the afternoon so just wandered aimlessly, with a metro station always in mind.

I found some really lovely buildings and fountains.

I’m sitting on a comfy seat in the hotel gardens writing this…. As the pool is not open yet…. But I’ll head up soon and that will be me for the night. Pick up is at 9am tomorrow so I’ll get a lie in!!

I’ll be bombarding you with videos and photos when I get back. I’ve been so lucky with the weather. Not a cloud in the sky.

Stay safe everyone ☀️☀️☀️

Day 1276 our last day soaking up the glorious sunshine in Turkey ☀️🇹🇷☀️our last day of summer!!

For those of you who know me well, you will know that I’m already pre-sad about having to head home tonight. Craig knows that I love him and knows that I am looking forward to seeing him, but I am so sad to be leaving this incessant sunshine. Wall to wall sun for 7 days…. It’s been glorious.

I am truly in my element in the sunshine. I’m vitamin D’d up to the eyeballs.

I love the clothes I’ve brought to wear, I’ve felt comfortable in everything, in fact I’ll go so far as to say, I’ve felt great in everything.

I usually spend a holiday over indulging and I feel fat and frumpy in everything. I’m bigger than I ever was on holiday, when I was younger, and I just do not care at all.

I love the sunshine, I thrive in the sunshine. I can’t get enough of the blue sky. I can’t get enough of the sea.

I’m not a lover of the beach as such… sand disturbs my need for cleanliness…. But I love the sea. A beach deck is my idea of heaven. We’ve been lucky enough to enjoy this beach deck for most of the week.

Yesterday was a lot. I chose it, I wanted it but even for me, it was a lot in one day. we had about 4 hours driving in Turkey before we even thought about the boat over the Greece. I’m still glad we went but I’m not sure I’d commit to that big a trek on a future holiday…. She says 😂 I just wanted to use two country emojis 😂🇹🇷🚐⛴️🇬🇷🚶🏽‍♀️🚶🏽‍♀️⛴️🇹🇷

We have another 9 or 10 hours of travelling tonight, which seems a lot after yesterday. We get home at 2am Scottish time which will be 4am Turkish time. Least we should sleep on the plane.

It’s lovely to be back on the beach deck today. I’m not reading, I’m not listening to music. We’re chatting but other than that I’m just listening to the sound of the sea under the deck…. And obviously writing this.

We’ve got on great. No hassle, no stress, very similar likes and dislikes. I wouldn’t have said anything if we hadn’t… but it’s important for me to say that we did. I’m not great in company 24/7…. I need my space. I think when you come in holiday with a husband or partner, you make assumptions about how they feel, what they like and dislike all the time. You put words in their mouths, you don’t always like to do the same things… we’ve just settled into a way of life here that suits us both. We had no pre-conceived ideas. We just went with the flow and it seemed to click. Overall you are probably way more polite to another person that you are with your partner. No snapping…. Note to self Julesie 😂😘

Being all inclusive was probably pointless but it’s allowed us to have what we want, when we wanted it and not had to think about paying as we go. It cost what it cost.

The hotel is beautiful. Big bungalow style rooms with a huge reception area, a shopping mall, 2 pools, flumes, huge restaurant (with outside balcony) and the one night a la carte.

The local “town” is not my favourite. It’s just full of shops with knock off sports gear. One is called English Primark, one of called TK Max and one is called JDe Sports to name a few. We don’t feel we need to buy anything as the world is smaller now and we can get things just as cheaply at home. I wouldn’t rush back to this area. We both saw what Bodrum has to offer, as we left the boat yesterday and Gayle reckons, any resort that has cruise ships is likely to have much better facilities. The restaurants were everywhere in Bodrum, with fantastic shopping scattered through them.

This hotel has done everything we needed it to do… gave us a chance for a relaxed week away in the sunshine. I’m so grateful to have been able to do this. I’m very lucky that Craig doesn’t fancy Turkey and allows me to come away with my friend.

We had to be out of our room by 12 and turns out our neighbours had organised a golf buggy for their luggage so we hopped on that!!

I’m pre-sad we’re about to go for our last lunch but I’m looking forward to a lovely salad.

And now we have precisely 4 hours left in the sunshine. Current view!

I’ve been in the sea and need to go in one last time!! I totally count everything down by “the last time”…. Torturing myself 😂😂

The last pirate ship parade….

It’s 3.15pm now and I feel I should put this out rather continue the countdown. I am looking forward to being back home. Once the sun goes down I’ll get over the fact that this might be the last heat I feel on my skin until March or April 😱😱😱

Turkey you have been everything I needed and more. Thanks to Gayle for coming with me as I’m absolutely certain I wouldn’t have enjoyed it anywhere near as much on my own.

Stay safe everyone 🇹🇷✈️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Day 1275 from Turkey to Greece and back 🇹🇷⛴️🇬🇷

It’s 5.30 when the alarm goes off but we were both awake earlier….. we have to be in reception for 6.15 as we’re taking a day trip to Kos, Greece 🇬🇷

It’s very early when you’ve not surfaced much before 8am but my sense of adventure is tingling. I’m excited about my day. Through tired eyes! 😂

A picture of a massive lake we pad on the way there taken through the bus’ very dirty windows.

The bus journey is almost 2 hours from our hotel to Bodrum. That’s why we left at 6.15am.

Bodrum is beautiful. Would really have loved some time to spent some time here. There is A lot of money in the harbour… some very expensive boats.

Craig’s says I’ve to bring this wee guy home!

He sat on my foot. 😂

Check the size of the Virgin Atlantic cruise ship in the background.

Kos. 🇬🇷

So the only negative of the trip was it took us about 1 hour 45 minutes between docking in Kos and actually getting out into Kos Town. I think we sat on the boat for about an hour before we got off as they said passport control had reached capacity. It’s a long day with a 4 hour bus journey, to be stuck for that length of time getting into the country.

That said, Kos Town is beautiful and I’m really glad I got to see it.

We stopped for lunch straight away as we hadn’t eaten much. We were in a lovely, leafy, roadside cafe bar.

Check the sign I’m pointing to!

We went for a walk around the old town. It’s really pretty with quaint wee shopping streets.

We wandered round to check the beach…. It’s tiny pebbles but really clear water.

Passport control was so much faster when we left. Only took about 10-15 minutes to clear. We were on the boat about an hour early as a result.

Our Turkish boat leaving Greece 🇬🇷

The blue dot shows where we are in relation to home!

Sailing back into Bodrum.

That Virgin Atlantic cruise ship is enormous!

After cleaning passport control in Turkey in about 20 minutes, we are finally on our way back to the hotel. Don’t think we’ll be there much before 9pm. A long day. I’m glad we got to see Kos but with hindsight it really was a bit too much of a trek in one day. I’d love to go back and visit sometime.

Thanks so much to Gayle for indulging me on this trip.

I’m too tired to spellcheck so sorry for any errors 😂😂

Stay safe everyone 🇹🇷☀️🇬🇷

Day 1268 Breast Screening appointment and OUT OF THE OFFICE is on!! 🏝️☀️👙🏊🏼‍♀️🌊

My out of the office was all set up and ready to go and 4pm. Truth be told I typed it all up on Monday, ticking off another thing on my to do list. The out of office voicemail is also on…. Wonder how many months it will take me to switch that back off?!?! Let’s not think of that just yet 🤦🏻‍♀️😂

I got a very teeny, tiny long lie this morning . Ok… so I was still awake but I stayed in bed a bit longer. I had my first over 50’s breast screening appointment at 9.06am in Morrisons car park in Johnstone.

I’ve had a few before (under 50 obvs!), as I’ve found lumps in the past, which have always been cysts. This was the first call just because of my age.

It’s actually very clever…. Reception is just inside the door at the top of the stairs, there are 3 cubicles… you are allocated one, you take your underwear off and put your top back on and sit and wait till you’re called.

You leave your underwear and jacket in the cubicle and take your bag into the screening room.

For all you men out there who have no idea… breast screening is where you stand top half naked and they whap a boob onto a plate and squeeze it with another plate until it’s as flat as it can be. 😧

You have to do each one front on and each one side on while your arms are up in the air and your hugging the machine. That’s FOUR boob pancakes…… It is fairly uncomfortable and a wee bit sore. After having had a few, I know not to panic but it really is the strangest thing. There surely must be an easier way to do it but hey….

It’s done and results in 3 weeks. We are very lucky to get this free in Scotland.

So back in Bertie Beetle and flying back to work. Did I mention I love driving again?!? It’s soooo much better.

I was already completely in control at work and ready to finish up, so today was about tidying up all the loose ends.

I feel like I’ve ticked all the boxes and crossed off all the lists but I’m sure there will be something major that I’ve forgotten. 😆

Here’s my last view of Tartan Campers until Monday 9th October!! That sounds like ages away, doesn’t it.

It was actually a lovely morning, a nice sky and very calm. The calm before todays Storm Agnes hits. Our ivy is starting to turn and is looking lovely.

The storm had already hit by the time I left Tartan. It had rained for hours!! To be fair, so far, I’m not sure why it has a name as it doesn’t seem that bad. It must be worse somewhere else.

I’ve finished packing and just have the last minute stuff to do tomorrow.

Tonight Craigie and I are having a quiet night with all the candles on. We were going to go out for dinner but we’ve both been out all day, so decided to stay in. It’s so autumnal today that the candles are lovely.

Tomorrow Gayle and I head to Bodrum in Turkey. Our flight’s not until 4pm so there’s still time to get organised.

My ramblings might not always be daily or on time… I’ll see how it goes. Stay tuned to my Fb page as there will most likely be photos!

Stay safe everyone ♥️♥️♥️

Day 1175 one of the most beautiful days in the Scottish Highlands 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿☀️☀️☀️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

What a beautiful day at Clachtoll Beach.

It will turn out to be the best day of the week weather wise but we don’t know that yet. The joys of writing this a few days later. The sun shone all day.

It really is the most beautiful beach. There’s often no one on it. The waves have been high all week as it’s so windy but it’s lovely to see it in the sunshine.

I started the morning with Freya on the beach.

We both took a walk out in late morning to Split Rock, which Freya is showing off in this photo!

The colours are absolutely out of this world.

You can’t really see it’s a split rock when you approach it walking though… it just looks like a rock 😂

I was far too scared to climb up it. It looks like nothing here but I got a wave of vertigo and had to sit down!! Craig was off up there like a mountain goat!

I decided I would finally go in for a swim… checked the beach and didn’t see any jellyfish 🪼 so back to the van to get all my kit ready and back down to the near idyllic bay in the last few photos.

And there were jellyfish EVERYWHERE. All different colours, shapes and sizes. Now I know that many of them are no bother, whatsoever, when you are wearing a wetsuit, but sadly that seemed irrelevant at the time. I’m still putting my face in and snorkelling. Plus the wind is coming from the west bringing them all into the beach. I’m gutted to say I got spooked after only a few minutes of snorkelling. I saw two Lion’s Mane Jellyfish almost straight away. The sea was teeming with them. I admit to feeling marginally relieved when a couple and their son came down for a swim, fully suited up, and decided against it. Their son was at Uni studying Marine Biology and reported back that a good few of the jellyfish 🪼 were the poisonous ones.

I’m a bit gutted that we came here, or I did, a at least for the free water sports and it’s been too jellyfish-y (nope not even a word!) and far too windy for a novice to do anything else.

We sat on the beach for a bit enjoying the sunshine but came back up to get everything dried.

We cooked fresh chicken on the BBQ for dinner and had it in Brioche buns. Freya got a good few more walks too!

I take out the camera and boom, she hits the deck for a photo!!

It was a magical day today. Scotland in all it’s beauty.

Stay safe everyone 💙🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿💙

Day 1174 a day in Scottish paradise, 3 seasons in one day!

(Again posting on actual day 1176 as no signal on the campsite!!)

Oooh I did not sleep that well. I was shattered but between the heat, some strong gusts of wind, Freya panting in the heat and someone snoring, I felt like I was awake a fair bit. That is ok, I have all day to do absolutely nothing if I want to.

The campsite is very busy but generally quietened about 10.30 to 11 ish last night when I went to bed. We sat watching the bunnies in the field in front of us. At one point there were 5 of them running about right in front of us. Fascinating to watch them.

This was the view out the window at 4.30am. It doesn’t get that dark up here. Even at 1.30am there was light in the sky.

It’s forecast to be sunny this morning and it’s trying really hard…. Not quite managing it.

Freya has been exceptional. Honestly we are blown away by our youngest pup. She’s always been the youngest of 3 so has always been more of a dogs dog than a people dog.

She’s lying at my feet now, honestly barely a peep out of her… except for that exceptionally heavy breathing through the night. The material for the sleeping bag isn’t the best for the heat. It’s amazing in summer but it was holding the heat a lot last night. She got herself a bit too embroiled in it! By the time I moved her, she stopped panting almost straight away.

So it’s now 8.15pm and with all things it’s not always perfect in paradise. It was so windy that we had to pack up camp to a certain extent. Down came the windbreak and pop top and we wound in the Fiamma awning. It was wild.

We went for a walk before it rained and the scenery was still stunning.

We went to Flossie’s Little Blue Shop in the Clachtoll village. It’s the cutest little place. We had cheese toasties.

Then the heavens opened and it rained for about 4-5 hours. Solidly. We went for a nap and I read. Don’t know if I’ve said that there no phone signal so I’m not glued to my phone which is nice.

We had a lovely salad late afternoon and it brightened up. We took Freya our for a lovely walk up to Stoer, the next village.

We walked round the Stoer headland and found the famous Broch. This was a stink g place. Must find out the history when we have signal.

It’s now 8.30pm and the sun is shining. It’s much cooler than it has been these last few weeks but it’s beautiful and that’s the main thing.

Stay safe everyone ☀️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿☀️