These boots are made for walking

We have just completed all the travel and accommodation arrangements for our inter-rail trip, so all we have to do now is to sit back and wait to enjoy the actual trip itself! It’s a relief because in most of the places we are visiting there is such a vast choice of places to stay with a huge range of prices, and when you don’t know the place, it can all feel a bit hit and miss. We’ve tried to mix and match the standard of accommodation so that in some places we have gone for cheap and cheerful, while in others we’ve pushed the boat out a bit and booked somewhere with a bit more comfort and luxury. We’ve got one airb&b place in Italy, an apartment in Bamberg, a ship anchored in the harbour in Stockholm and our final stop is a hotel widely renowned for its breakfasts, the best in Norway apparently. The one thing we haven’t felt able to compromise on, given our maturity, is having en suite facilities.  Our kids, two of whom have inter-railed in recent years, were urging us to go for some of the cheaper hostels, which they’d found had met their needs perfectly; however, 50’s and 60’s aren’t the same as teens and 20’s so as none of the hostels offered en suites, we decided they weren’t for us at this time in our lives.

We have made sure that everywhere we stay is close to the railway stations we’ll be using as that will be when we’ll have our luggage to consider. Once we settle into our room, we can leave all the heavy gear and we are used to doing a lot of walking, minus the luggage, once we start to explore. We also haven’t yet decided whether to go for rucksacks and be real backpackers or to go for suitcases on wheels, which might be easier on our backs and offer a bit more room as we are going to need warm clothes in Scandinavia, while it will hopefully be warmer in Italy.

On the subject of walking, my car is feeling very neglected as I have made so little use of it since I retired. I have been using it once a week to do a supermarket shop and stock up on heavy and bulky goods, but I walk every other day to buy veg and fruit, and other small items, as a way of ensuring I’m getting the exercise and burning some calories. I have also made good use of the train taking advantage of my much loved Senior Railcard to go out of town; it means I can avoid the inevitable traffic jams which seem to be the norm at the moment, I can read and relax on the train and I can even have a glass of wine (or two) if the occasion presents itself. I filled up my car with petrol on the 2nd January and still have almost half a tank left. This is in contrast to the 3 or 4 times a month I had to fill up when I was working, driving a 40 mile round trip.I did take my car out on Saturday evening to see Bridge of Spies, and actually enjoyed the drive for the novelty value. The film was well-worth seeing, as well!