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!

The Best Experiences You Can Have In Baja California Sur

Located in the extreme north-west of Mexico, the Baja California Sur peninsular is already firmly on the mainstream tourist map.

Destinations here like Cabo San Lucas are renowned for their water sports, luxurious hotels and endless entertainment options, and as such is one of the most popular vacation spots for tourists heading to Mexico. However there’s much more going on in this region, and those who want other kinds of experiences can find plenty of opportunities which range from deep-sea fishing to flying through canyons on an exhilarating zip-line.

We're thinking of a return to Albania!

I finally got through to the dental school that was advertising free treatments, but they weren't interested in my problem. They only deal with minor fillings and such, which seemed odd to me considering they said the students are in their final year of school.

Anyhow, I ended up calling the closest dentist to where we are staying, explained the situation, and was given a 2:00pm appointment.

I have sore tooth!

There are a lot of wooded walking areas within a half hour drive of the house, so we chose one of them and drove over there. 

While we didn't get any rain, we didn't see the sun either...

Booked more flight tickets!

Saturday was pretty much a rain day here in this part of Scotland! In the morning, we said goodbye to our hosts as they were headed for a ten day holiday in Turkiye. 

Then, we waited for the rain to let up before finally heading out for a walk with Loki, although we ended up getting wet anyhow. Yes, we do have proper rain gear, so it didn't matter.

House sitting near Aberdeen for the next 11 days

Yesterday we drove from Glasgow to Aberdeen with a short detour along the way to stop at a waterfall.

And, we met out host family and their dog Loki who we will be looking after for the next 11 days.

Today is moving day!

Friday the 13th... and we are moving up to the outskirts of the small city of Aberdeen (pop 224,000) for our 12 day housesitting assignment looking after Loki the chocolate lab, and some chickens.

So, we've got almost a three hour drive ahead of us, plus we want to stop and do a walk to a waterfall, and a stop in Perth to see the house my great aunt used to live in.

We had a great day doing things we shouldn't have been doing!

Wednesday was another day of nice weather. We actually had one older local man comment to us that we should enjoy it because "Scotland's weather isn't always like this". 

We had picked out three different things to do that looked interesting.

Glasgow was good for a day

Tuesday was a beautiful day with the weather, and it's supposed to be even warmer today! Calling for sunshine and a high of 22C (72F) which is pretty decent for Scotland in June.

So, we set off into downtown Glasgow yesterday. We thought about taking the bus just to avoid dealing with any traffic, but I found a free parking lot about 3 kms from the center, and of course we don't mind the exercise.

We are going to stay in a castle!

I've always had a bit of a fascination with castles, and we have visited many over our years of travel. The best ones are the ones that are authentic and not necessarily restored to "modern" standards.

And I've always wanted to stay overnight in one! But first of all, it's usually prohibitively expensive, and secondly, most of the castles that have been turned into hotels are are more similar to a manor house rather than an actual authentic looking castle.

Last minute surprise visit!

Long time readers will remember that we have spent quite a lot of time over the years with Ruth's cousin Helen and her husband Tony. Even back in our working lives, we sometimes took vacations together, including one way back in 1987 when we went to Scotland!

Helen and Tony live in southwest England, but they recently bought Vinnie the motorhome and decided to do a trip up to Scotland with Vinnie. We had planned to meet up with them, but not this soon!

We picked up our brand new car, and saw some interesting sights on our way to Glasgow

I had to go back to downtown Edinburgh to pick up our rental car. Ruth stayed back at the house because it didn't make sense to pay another £2.20 bus fare just so that she could accompany me. 

Car rental in Scotland is much more expensive than Spain was. I started searching months ago, and the best price I could get for a one month rental was £578 ($1,071 CAD, $782 USD).

There is a lot to see in downtown Edinburgh!

As is evidenced by the 56 photos and one video below! 

In fact, we probably could have done with two full days in the central area. But we will have to return our car rental here, so maybe we will do another day towards the end of our time in Scotland.

Edinburgh day 1

Our accommodation is located about 8 kms (5 miles) SW of the center of the city. It's a newer three bedroom three bathroom townhouse. The owner is a single woman about 35, and there is a flatmate who is rarely seen, and when she is here she spends most of her time in her room. And they rent out the third bedroom on Airbnb, which is of course our room. The room itself is tiny, but we have full use of the kitchen and living room so it's totally fine. And the bed is comfy!

On Thursday, we went for a 10 km (6 mile) walk around the area.

Welcome to Scotland!

We had some time to spare before we had to drop off our car rental at Madrid airport, so we did a small detour to the 11th century town of Sepulveda.

Then we drove to the airport and waited for our flight to Scotland!

Today is a busy travel day!

On Tuesday, we drove from Palencia to the village of Fresno de Cantespino, with a stop in Peñafiel.

Overcast, with the threat of rain almost all day, but we never got more than a few drops.

Through Astorga to Palencia, Spain

On Monday, we headed further east from Molinaseca to Palencia, taking a route with a stop in the town of Astorga.

I've forgotten to include a map of our travels the last couple of weeks, so I'll include a map update below.

The gold mines at Las Medulas and the city of Ponferrada

Our next accommodation stop was just past the city of Ponferrada at the small town of Molinaseca.

It was only about an hour and a half drive, but we had a stop to make along the way.

More waterfalls and viewpoints!

I published our May expense report last night. You can check it out here.

We headed out fairly early yesterday because we wanted to beat the heat. We weren't going far... only about half an hour away to a parking spot in the forest near a trailhead that leads to a waterfall.

May Expenses... right on target!

Usually when I make up the budget for the next month, I do so with a best case scenario... to try to give us something to shoot for. That's why we generally go over budget. It's not that we absolutely need to stick to the budget... it's just a guide. And provided the annual expenses don't often go over $40,000 CAD ($30,000 USD) or so, then we're doing just fine. And even if they do go over that amount, we're still doing just fine!

Anyhow, it is odd when we do come in under budget... and even more odd when we pretty much meet the budget bang on!

Boat cruise on the Sil River

We stayed home and relaxed until about 3:00pm when it was time to get going for our 4:30pm boat tour departure on the Sil River.

Oh, but before we get to that, I have to show you a video of the drive we have to do to get to our accommodation here on the side of the hill...

Viewpoints over the Sil River Valley

We are in what is known as the Ribeira Sacra... a spectacularly beautiful wine region in the Sil, Miño, Cabe and Bibei river valleys in Galicia in the northwest corner of the Iberian peninsula in Spain. 

There are many miradors... viewpoints that are made overlooking the valleys. Yesterday, we decided to drive to some of the viewpoints.

Day trip to Pontevedra and Spain's west coast

We got a fairly early start, hitting the road at just after 9:00am for the two hour drive to Pontevedra. 

Pontevedra itself is only about 83,000 people, but the built up areas continue all along the coast and as you reach the beaches, it's quite busy. 

Day trip to Montforte de Lemos

The nearest grocery stores of any size are located in Montforte de Lemos, about 25 kms (15 miles) away. 

We had already been there when we first arrived as we needed to stock up, but we never explored the city itself at the time.

We are going to rent a house!

No, we're not "settling down". 

However, we do want to have a home base. A place where we can be part of the community. Somewhere that we can just lock the door and leave, and come back to and find things exactly as we left them. Somewhere close to a major international airport, because of course the travel will continue!

And we think we have found that place.

It was a good test of my new boots!

Ruth packed a lunch and we set off walking directly from the house. We were headed to two different viewpoints.

Into the city of Ourense, and a wine tasting evening!

I only had one pair of shoes with me so far on this trip... the new Sketchers that I had bought in Madrid. I learned the other day that I need some hiking boots! Those Sketchers are fine for walking on flat paved surfaces, but they have zero support for anything more than that. And, I knew I was going to have to buy hikers soon anyhow. 

So, we headed into the city of Ourense (pop 109,000) to see the sights and buy some hiking boots.

Well, the time has come

But let's face it, it had to happen eventually.

A fun hike, right from our front door!

We decided on an 8 km (5 mile) round trip hike that leaves right from our door. The destination was the deserted hamlet of San Cosmede.

We kind of thought we might get some nice views of the Sil Canyon, but unfortunately not. However, there were a lot of other interesting things to see along the way! In fact, it turned out to be a really good hike!

Day trip to Ribadavia, and the Melon Waterfalls

There are so many choices of things to do and places to see, it took us a while to decide!

We chose to go to the town of Ribadavia, about a 45 minute drive. Then, Ruth found an 8 km (5 mile) hike with some waterfalls a few kms past Ribadavia, so we went there afterwards.

Hike to a beautiful viewpoint

Once again, we woke up to fog that doesn't seem to totally burn off until after lunch. And there's no point in hiking in beautiful scenery if you can't see the scenery!

So we didn't get out walking until about 2:00pm.

A few photos around the village where we are staying

We woke up Monday morning to thick fog. We couldn't even see the mountain on the other side of the river valley!

Our schedule has been pretty hectic for the past while, and it was nice to just relax for the morning. It was after 11:30am by the time we hopped in the car to go find a grocery store.

Our home for the next two weeks... what a great area!

We headed out of Valladolid with plans to make one stop... at a big Carrefour grocery store on the outskirts of the city. 

Good thing it wasn't much of a detour... because it was closed!

A busy day as we explored both Segovia and Valladolid

We took the metro (subway, underground) from the north part of Madrid to the Atocha train station. We had used up our original ten ride purchase at €0.61 a ride, and it didn't make sense to buy another ten ride package so we had to buy individual tickets at €2 ($3.12 CAD, $2.23 USD) each. 

Arrived at Atocha station a half hour early for our 10am rental car reservation.

The bus broke down, so extra time in El Barco de Avila!

Well, Friday was the last day of the volunteer language program, and we are now back in Madrid.

Busy, busy though... I didn't even have time to do a blog post yesterday, and time is quickly running out this morning too!

Walk into town

Another busy day. They give you fun group assignments, and you think that maybe you don't have time to complete them, but somehow you manage to get them done, even if it cuts into your free time.

As I said, they sure keep you busy!