I’m not going to say it was a good start or a bad start just a start. We woke in plenty of time and we’re standing outside with our packs waiting for our driver. After five minutes we went back inside and called. He would be another 25 minutes. Okay.

He actually arrived sooner and we made it to Gent and our first train to Brussels with five minutes to spare. Nice.

This allowed plenty of time for our second train from Brussels to London. This is our first time to travel under the English Channel, pretty cool.

We ate a sandwich on the train that I made at home. It reminded me of trips when I was a child and we always packed a lunch. And later as a teenager when we traveled to see my sister and her family when they were stationed in Germany and Italy.

The exchange from St Pancras station in London to Euston Station was seamless. The busyness of London overwhelmed both of us. The streets were crowded with cars, busses, taxis, bicycles. The sidewalks were packed full of people. We saw signs of homelessness which always breaks my heart. People asleep on the sidewalk, against a building with their belongings and some food that looked to be left by kind souls. How they slept with so much noise amazed me.

We had a little trouble with the ticket machine in Euston Station but a nice British man helped us figure it out and we were set. (We did decide to splurge on first class tickets and we highly recommend it). Nice meal and drinks served by the nice and amusing cabin crew.

While on the third train we discovered we stupidly forgot a converter for plugs. I have asked for advice on The West Highland Way fb page and have good advice where to find one. No worries.

Everything was going so smoothly until we got to Lancaster. When we pulled in the station we didn’t pull out for two hours. They kept announcing that the delay was due to a serious incident on the track farther north. When we finally got moving again we heists that someone had been hit by a train. News reports confirmed this. So incredibly sad.

While we were waiting we had a nice chat with a gentleman from Liverpool who was headed to Glasgow for a reunion with colleagues. They were getting together because one of their colleagues has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. They will continue to do this to support him.

We arrived in Glasgow an hour later than we were scheduled to arrive at our final destination. We purchased the converter plug then found where to get tickets to Milngavie (pronounced Mulguy) and found our way downstairs to the platform only to find no train to Milngavie. We asked a young woman for help. She told us to get on the train for …can’t remember but it was her train. And she kindly told us where we could get off and catch the train to Milngavie.

We made it. Found our sleeping quarters. Went to eat. Dropped in bed. Ready for the adventure that follows.

Make sure and tell the people you love how important they are to you. ❤️

We took our morning walk knowing that today would be sitting in cars, planes and waiting areas. It was a foggy day and not very cool.

Afterwards we packed up and headed to Bergerac airport. It is without a doubt the smallest airport I have ever been in. There was a small cafe where we waited for our flight.

After experiencing security check in Amsterdam where you could take water, you didn’t have get out liquids or electronics, didn’t have to remove shoes we felt like we stepped back in time. But we made it through, repacked our bags and made our flight.

Long drive home. Laundry started. Dinner. Very tired and I have Dutch class early in the morning.

It’s Monday and we have our bags packed. Finally have the arrangements to get to the train station in the morning. Very grateful to our friend Irene who was willing to take us if other plans failed.

Dinner, sleep, adventure!

I hope your today and tomorrow are full of good.

On our last full day in France we decided to take it easy. Well easy for us.

We got up and took a short walk to wake up. Then we prepared everything to be ready for our departure on Sunday morning. Packing, laundry and cleaning up a bit.

Then we headed out to see Pujols another medieval village as well as one of the most beautiful villages. It is very small, quaint and beautiful. We visited the church and even collected a camino stamp. Then we wandered around the village. It was so small it didn’t take long. So we sat down at a cafe for a drink and a snack.

On our way out we walked out the gate and I saw the Camino Shells.

On our way back to the house we saw what looked like a castle at the top of a mountain. We decided to have a look. We drove a long way up and we came across another medieval village Penne d’Agenais. And another sign for the Camino de Santiago de Compostela.

We were not quite to the top but as far as we could go in the car. So we parked got out and walked the rest of the way up. The castle turned out to be a beautiful church. We wandered around a bit. And then headed back down and back home.

We ate our left over pizza and relaxed before heading to bed and our next adventure.

Hope your day is amazing. ❤️

A plan can always be changed if the circumstances call for it. The beauty of this is you might end up with something more beautiful.

We started today super slow. And finally decided we could walk the 12 kms to Fumel for our errands run. And we decided to go with packs as another training experience. After walking about 2 kms we encountered a detour. Okay, detours happen when traveling as well as in life.

We checked our route on the phone and suddenly realized our 12 kms/7.5 miles had an additional 5 kms3.1 miles both ways. This was more than we bargained for…so we learned the lesson from the day before, “Adjust, Adapt, Accept.”

In front of us about 1 km ahead was a village and it looked quaint and beautiful so we decided to have a stop there. We walked around the church but alas it was not open. We walked down the street and found a nice cafe, had a drink and decided to head back to the house. Another 5 km and we would be home. We are our sandwiches as we made our way. Also this route took us on actual walking/biking paths so much nicer than being on the road. And through a vineyard.

The change in plans allowed for a more relaxed walk, a visit to a village we would have just driven through on our way somewhere else, and more ease for our bodies. I think we are ready to head out next week for the West Highland Way and I’m certain it will come with its own challenges. I welcome them.

We ran our errands in Fumel, came back to the house, rested, showered and got read for a nice dinner out in Puy l’eveque. We planned to eat at a little Italian restaurant.

The restaurant was at the top of the city. We parked at the lower part of the city and walked up. We figured we would walk off dinner. 😂

The restaurant opened at 18u so that’s what time we got there and that was fine but they didn’t start serving until 19u. So we took another walk around town and down to the bottom of town again. We stopped at a cafe for a drink and at 19u made our way back up to the top.

It was worth every step we took. The food was delicious (we actually ordered a pizza to eat Saturday night, our last night in France). The staff was friendly and more than accommodating. We met a group of English travelers looking to buy property in the area. He’s been coming here for over 20 years so he thought why not buy a place? Why not indeed, life is too short not to make your dreams a reality!

And that was another day on our French adventure!!

Hope you make today memorable! ❤️