Christmas Hobo Tour Part 1

The good news is the house in England is sold. The bad news is we have to wait a wee while to buy the house on Mull and so we are homeless for a bit.  The Marie and Joe Christmas hobo tour begins.

Any resemblances to a Christmas tale of a certain Mary and Joseph who were looking for room at the inn are purely coincidental. I am happy to confirm I am not pregnant with any form of deity.

And let's face it, we should be able to do better than a stable.

The move to Mull from beastly Eastleigh did not get off to a flying start. The lorry suffered a case of deflated tyre on the road up and a very nice man from ATS was needed. Unfortunately he was fairly incompetent and at the second attempt, further up the road, another man from ATS fixed the problem.

During all of this, and whilst suffering a prolonged wait in a service station, we received the news that we would not be able to move into our new home until the 9^th January, and would therefore be homeless for longer. Hey ho!

Despite the delays we managed to get to Oban on schedule on December 11^th to put our things into storage.  Joe’s sister Val, and her husband Malcolm accompanied us on the difficult journey, and many thanks must go to them for their help.  We had a nice curry and a beer to celebrate in Oban.

The next day after leaving them at Glasgow airport we stayed in Glasgow for the night.  Nothing too eventful occurred, just some pasta and vino.

We then travelled to Edinburgh and stayed there for two nights. We enjoyed the Christmas market, the national gallery, and even managed to climb up Arthur’s seat.

The bright shiny lights of Edinburgh Christmas market

Joe looking rather pleased with himself at the top of Arthur's seat

Wind swept and interesting at the top of Arthur's seat

Time to move on again. Hotels get tiresome after a while, so a week in a self catering cottage was what we fancied next. I had always wanted to see the Cairngorms so that's where we went, and as I write we are still here!  We have not been disappointed. This area of the country is beautiful, especially with snow on top of the big hills.
The cottage is really nice too. Really clean and modern, as it was re-built from a near ruin not very long ago. It's really toasty and warm with under floor heating too. We don't really need the log burner, but as Joe likes a nice fire, it is getting some use. It is probably a good job the place has good heating as Joe informs me we are just up the road from the highest town in the Highlands. It is a bit wild out there!
Here is a link in case anyone fancies a trip here.  http://www.balnedensteading.co.uk

And here is the view!

At the cottage we have some friendly neighbours of the feathered kind. The next few pictures are just for Jayne!

Good Morning! Where's our breakfast?

Extreme chicken close up!

Happy chickens wandering off after scoffing our scraps

So far this week we have been doing a lot of relaxing, which has been most needed.  But we have managed to squeeze in a trip to the top of Cairngorm mountain. Admittedly we had the assistance of the funicular railway to get to the top. We were some of the very few passengers not to be equipped with either skis or a snowboard. Perhaps we'll tackle the winter sports next time.

Joe at Ptarmigan restaurant on top of Cairngorm

Me on top of Cairngorm

After we came down from the mountain we saw some wonderful views and had a nice long walk around a loch. Unfortunately it was getting dark during our walk which made it a bit more interesting! It was a good job there was a crescent moon up to give off some light.

Loch Morlich

Loch an Eilein

So that's it so far. The next stage of the tour will be spent with family. Unfortunately my father is not so well, so Christmas will be a bit fraught.

Here's wishing us all the best Christmas possible.