Today, I'm going to start this blog as I count down to retirement. My last day is in August. Soon after, Concetta and I are going to catch a Delta flight from Reno, and, with a four-hour stopover in Atlanta, head out over the Atlantic toward our ultimate destination, Edinburgh, Scotland. Because this trip is a sort of retirement present, I'm going to be doing most of the planning. So far, we've nailed down the airline tickets, the rental car, and the first four B&Bs where we will be staying as we travel from Edinburgh to Wales, to England, and back to Scotland.
The car we want to rent, just for kicks and giggles, is the Mini-cooper S model. Boy, they're not cheap. After some research I finally found one for about half again more than a standard rental sedan, which I consider to be reasonable. Right-hand drive is going to be a little challenging at first, however I do have some experience with driving on the left side of the road when I lived for some months on the island of Malta back in the early 1970s. I found you get used to it pretty quick. The round-a-bouts are a little hair-raising, but you soon master even those.
My next challenge is going to be acquiring a GSM quad band cell phone, which I consider to be essential for this trip. On our recent trip to Italy, we found that the thing me missed the most was our ability to communicate any time we wanted. Right now I'm leaning toward "Brightroam" through which you can acquire the GSM phone, and the necessary SIM card with the necessary time on your account to cover the period we will be gone. Then you need only acquire a new SIM for your next destination when you get ready to travel again. There's no contracts, monthly bills, or trips to the phone store. Everything is done on the web.
Anyway, welcome to the "Happy Wanderers" blog. I'll try and keep you posted as I do my planning and eventually take to the skies.
Buona sera. Ciao.
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2 comments:
Sounds amazing Dad!! Nice work on the blog as well; I have added it to my subscriptions! While you are on the trip you should try and post whenever you can so we can share your adventures :)
Odd place to leave this message... but: Are you the Tom Davis whose Mom was known as Dot? We were definitely classmates at Muir, and I believe our mothers (RIP) were classmates at Scripps.
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