Week in Review: Week 29 — Away On The Road

Nov 23

Nov 23 Week in Review: Week 29

Today marks 205 days of travel. That seems so much longer than 6.5 months! We’ve spent this week on our 5th pet sit of our trip, in beautiful Ayrshire, Scotland. Every time we are pet sitting we seem to slow down and relax quite a bit. It’s nice to take time to go on little walks and cuddle our new animal friends. It’s like a mini vacation for us!

Highlight of the week

Sharleen: Being National Trust for Scotland Members. When we first got to Scotland in early October, we visited a few attractions in the Royal Deeside area. At our first site we were told about the National Trust for Scotland, an organization that owns many of the countries castle, historical sites, and tourist attractions. For £96 Darrell and I could become members, which would give us free access to all National Trust attractions, and free parking in all of the National Trust parking lots. Without the membership, each attraction costs £29, so we figured the membership would pay for itself pretty quickly. So far we have used it for a handful of attractions in Royal Deeside, parking, discounts at non-National Trust sites, and some attractions in Ayrshire. We have two other sites near our house sit, so we look forward to seeing them next week!

Darrell: Housesitting. We’ve really enjoyed all of our house sits, especially because it gives us a chance to slow down our pace and relax. It’s really the only time we stay in during the day and watch Netflix! While being at this house sit we have become addicted to a UK game show called The Chase, it’s pretty amazing! Our house sit here is a gorgeous property, and we are looking after three adorable dogs, two/three (one comes and goes) cats, and four hens. The property has a stable as well, so there are also two horses and two ponies, but we don’t have to do anything for them. It’s been really fun to look after this quaint place this week, and we still have one more week here.

Some highlights are getting 4 fresh eggs every morning and cooking in a gorgeous kitchen. They have an Aga, which is a huge cast iron cooker. It is quite different from a modern stove and oven. We’ve made a bunch of home cooked meals, which is awesome because we rarely have a kitchen with all the bells and whistles.

Least favourite part of the week

Sharleen and Darrell: Receiving so many “free” whisky glasses. While we were Oban and Islay we went on quite a few whisky distillery tours. Most of the tours we went on let you keep your whisky glass at the end, or you got one as a gift after the tour. We figured we would keep them because they make for cool souvenirs when we go home. However, we’ve accumulated 12 of them! We do not have room for all of these glasses, so we are going to be sending home another parcel. It will likely cost us another $130, which is why these glasses aren’t exactly “free” anymore. On the plus side, we can send home more clothing and items that we don’t need, which will free up more room in our bags and make the last half of our trip a little lighter.

Favourite city/town/village visited

Sharleen and Darrell: Ayr. As mentioned we haven’t really explored too much this week. We did make it into Ayr - the closest town to our house sit. It’s a charming coastal town, which has a beautiful skyline. From a distance it almost looks like it has a mini Eiffel tower, but its just a church steeple. The town is packed with shops, galleries, and boutique stores, which makes for great window-shopping. We learned that quite a few shops have closed down, due to an increase in online shopping. This has left quite a few vacant shops along all of the streets, which is rather sad. We really love small local shops and it is a real bummer seeing the impact that larger commercial stores and online shopping have on smaller “mom and pop” shops.

Favourite meal

Sharleen and Darrell: Soup and sandwich at Brig o’ Doon House. While visiting the near by Robert Burns museum we popped into a hotel for lunch. The hotel is located along the water near the famous Brig o’ Doon Bridge, and offered great views of the hotel garden. We each had a soup and sandwich, and both were very tasty! This seems to be our go to lunch lately. The air outside is getting crisp these days, so it’s really nice to have something that warms you up!

We are looking forward to another week in Ayrshire. We have a few sights left to see around our house sit, plus we are hoping to make the trek over to the Isle of Arran. On a clear day we can see the Isle from our house sit, and it looks so rugged! We’ve really enjoyed all of our Isle trips, so we think visiting Arran would be a great day trip. This is also our last week in Scotland, which is a little bitter sweet. We’ve had a wonderful time here!