Written for GBE2
This week Beth has challenged us to consider what we were
doing or where we were at this time last year.
She, of course, did this directly after we had all (at least those of us
old enough) had been thinking of where we were 10 years ago on September
11. For a moment, I couldn't even
remember what I was doing a year ago, but WOW, I forgot we were planning for
the trip of our lives.
We had both retired (or in my case perhaps asked to leave)
and my husband inherited a little money. We
decided to take a trip to the one place that he's wanted to visit for years,
Ireland. My husband is pretty well
traveled due to his military service and has gone to many places in Europe and
Asia. I however was never out of the
United States until we visit my son in Germany a couple of years ago. Some of the places my spouse has traveled I
don't regret not seeing such as Vietnam in 1968, on the other hand I would have
been happy to see Bermuda, Florence or Sicily.
Neither of us had been to England, Scotland or Ireland
before and so we decided to take a tour that would take us through all these in
11 days. I know this tour is reminiscent
of the title of a B movie, "3 countries in 11 days". It was a little rushed, but at least we
didn't personally have to drive on the wrong side of the road. We saw little of London to our regret, but we
saw York, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dublin, Waterford, and Wales. It was fun and surprisingly we liked Scotland
best of all.
One of the best advantages of the tour was meeting people
from all over the world in our little troupe of passengers. I think Canada was the country most represented
then Australia, U.S., Japan and a couple from South Africa. We learned a great deal talking to all these
folks about their homes and lifestyles.
One thing we learned is that Australians love to travel and most of
those on our trip had just come from another tour in Europe.
I think that the saddest thing about this post is that when
Beth posted the topic my first thought was that I had been doing nothing last
year. How did I forget such a fantastic
trip? Where was my mind (not a question I usually want the answer to)? We were
eating Haggis (hubby not me), listening to bagpipes, circling Stonehenge,
touring castles and seeing the world (or at least the UK). Thanks Beth for jogging my 62-year-old
memory.
Haggis? I hope I'm that brave if I get to Scotland.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a trip to remember!
Since I live in the UK, this made me smile. 11 days for 3 countries? I've spent more than treble that time in Ireland and still haven't seen all there is to be seen there. Similarly with Scotland. And I've lived in England all my life, and have seen a lot of it, but there are still areas I've never visited.
ReplyDeleteBut then I could probably say I've actually seen more of America than many Americans have! I've been totally amazed at how many Americans have never been to Washington DC or New York (both of which I've visited several times).
You must come back to the UK and see more.
@Gene Pool, it was a trip to remember oddly enough.
ReplyDelete@Paula, We'll be back I hope.
BTW my husband says there are a lot of errors in this, if so, what the heck blame them on him.
I would LOVE to go to Ireland! This from someone who really hates to travel, but I would if the destination was Ireland! My husband was stationed in Germany for 3 years from 1965-1968. He took advantage of his time in Germany to visit as many places as he could in Europe. His Mother used to say that my husband wasn't a GI - he was a tourist! LOL
ReplyDelete@Darlene, the opportunity will come up when you least expect it. Enjoy it when it does
ReplyDeleteThe trip sounds positively exciting! You didn't forget the trip, you forgot the time before it! The working to make the trip happen part.
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful! I've been all over the US and visited Canada, but haven't been overseas since I was a kid. Ireland would be my foreign destination of choice, but I have less wanderlust than most people, so it's not an aching need.
ReplyDelete