Home comforts in Scotland

After 26.5 hours of travelling we arrived safely in Troon, Scotland, at teatime on Saturday. It was lovely to feel a breath of icy cold air when we stepped off the plane in Amsterdam! The relative lack of trees in Britain compared to Costa Rica was striking too... Returning via UK before the next leg of our travels made the flights nearly £2k cheaper and has enabled us to visit Laura's family too. Backtracking like this seemed daft when we were planning our travels but we are all enjoying a couple of days of home comforts - comfy bed, home-cooked food, the space of a house and most of all the much-needed washing machine! Yesterday we want for a walk in the woods and we were all a bit chilly to say the least! Seeing a blanket of snowdrops made up for it though. Species count in Troon - birds 4 (crow, herring gull, starling, oystercatcher), mammals 1 (Laura's Mum's dog, Toffee)! Oh, and the gaudy model parrot we saw in the fairy garden!!! Today Solana got to spend time with her cousins, Finlay and Emma, which she loved.

Things we've particularly appreciated being back here are good cups of tea, "normal" food, clean clothes, not having to plaster ourselves in sunscreen & DEET, not having to calculate money conversions in the 1000s and having clean feet! Tonight's task is to finish the re-packing, ready for our 2 long flights to Hanoi via Dubai....Read more