We are in North Yorkshire, England for the next eight days

On Friday, we arrived at our next house sit. We are in the town of Yarm, on the river Tees in North Yorkshire, England, having driven down from Aberdeen, Scotland over a period of three days. I'll include a map down below for you.

Scotland is where the game of golf originated

And I have family history that involves the game of golf!

Yesterday, we left the amazing Balintore Castle, but not before we had a look at the Great Hall. I was actually surprised and impressed to see the completed condition of it, as I was expecting it to be still under renovation.

Well, we weren't awoken by any ghosts!

Balintore Castle was built in the early 1860's as a hunting lodge for the Victorian elite. Even at the time, it was only occupied during summer and fall. The original owner died ten years after construction, and it went through several owners until the last one used it regularly until the 1960's. 

It was then that it began to deteriorate. 

Hiking near Balmoral Castle

Scotland's Balmoral Castle is the summer residence of the Royal Family. Queen Elizabeth loved spending time there, and she was there when she passed away in 2022.

Ruth had wanted to do some walking on the estate grounds, however it's very expensive. 

Castles and seaside!

On Monday we took a drive up to the northeast coast of Scotland. We had a couple of castles marked off that we wanted to see as well as some attractions along the coast itself.

It was a really windy day though... glad we weren't driving a motorhome!

Researching our upcoming cruise

For those of you who missed the news a few weeks ago, we are going to be on the Princess Emerald doing a 16 day cruise to Greenland and Iceland departing on July 31st.

Our friends Glen and Steve have done a lot of cruises, and a couple of weeks ago she sent me a few ideas regarding how to make your cruise better.

Quails, chickens, and dogs

We've never had to look after chickens before as part of our house sitting responsibilities, and of course never quails as well!

But our daughter Lindsey and her family have chickens, and so we've kind of seen what's involved... and it's not that difficult!

Dunnottar Castle and the town of Stonehaven

We have been waiting for a nice day to get to the coast and visit the beach town of Stonehaven, and we finally got one yesterday. And, Stonehaven has several fish and chips places, one of which does gluten free!

And of course we did the walk to Dunnottar Castle...

It's quite the schedule we've got for the next two months!

I'm pretty good at keeping track of our schedule in my head, just knowing what's booked and what's not. But I actually had to make a list this time to make sure I don't forget to book something.

Yesterday, I booked our return flights from Tirana, and managed to figure out how to fly direct into Southampton!

Booked some more flight tickets!

I got sidetracked yesterday morning while doing more travel research, and then we met up with Helen and Tony in the afternoon and I never got back to doing yesterdays blog post. 

But, I did get our flights booked to Tirana, Albania... with a stopover in Bologna, Italy!