BAR      What a journey?  ! !       A journey from Nottingham to Kingussie (and return) over Christmas 2009

It is now Monday 28 December 2009.  Yesterday evening I returned from Northern Scotland after staying in The Duke of Gordon Hotel in Kingussie, a small town in the Cairngorms.  Earlier in the year In decided that we would go somewhere over Christmas and let them do the cooking.  My wife likes a coach ride and we generally choose something the Skills of Nottingham have to offer.  I studied all my brochures and the internet.  All that seemed to be available was a six-day outing to Kingussie with two days taken out for travelling.  Never again !

It seems that the coach company and the hotel are the same management.  So I paid the deposit.  Closer to Christmas I found more suitable options, but rather than lose my deposit I soldiered on.  Shortly before we were due to travel I got final details by post.  Cairngorm Travel had a total of eleven places that they were picking up people.  The list was Leicester, Loughborough, Nottingham, Mansfield, Sheffield, Doncaster, Ferrybridge Services, Wetherby Services, Bowburn Services, Newcastle and Belsay.  And, of course, they are not in a straight line up the country.  The journey in both directions was too long for one driver so we changed drivers at one of the pickup points in each direction.  In found both journeys tedious and very uncomfortable.

Having booked early I would have expected to have seats near the front of the coach,  But NO!  We were on the bench of five seats at the rear (just over the rear wheels I imagine).  It was not until half-way on the return journey that I found that a midway seat was just as uncomfortable, so it wasn't he position on the coach that made every tiny bump into a clunk.  Looking at the road ahead through the windscreen, the road appeared perfect, but the unexpected clunks were disturbing to say the least.  I assume that there was a fault with the suspension.  It often seemed that we drove off a four-inch kerb in the middle lane of a motorway or in the city centre.

At the hotel one could not ask for more.  The place was warm, the food was good, the staff and guests were all very helpful.  The bar was well stocked, with an enormous range of whiskeys.  There was a good food menu for those staying in when the coach was out on a trip.  And all the prices were reasonable.  I didn't use the TV in the room; it was a huge plasma one.  The bathroom was a wee bit chilly, but not really serious.  The twin beds were comfortable and warm.  But the light switches were a strange confusion.  I worked out the two-way switching of one set of lights almost at the end of our stay.  But the room was poorly lit and I could not read in the room.

When I first entered the room I thought it was cold and I was expecting a miserable week.  But another guest discovered why the place was cold.  The window that was hidden by substantial drapes was open. And he found that one of the radiators was turned down to its minimum.  When those two points were corrected, the room was as warm as the corridors.  Plenty of wardrobe and drawers' space.

In the bathroom the hot water was almost instantaneous.  A good bath with a shower that I did not try, but it looked modern.

The wife and my step-daughter went on all the outings.  I developed a full-flowing headcold at the beginning of the journey and step-daughter got me some medicates in Stirling. on one of the trips.

The journey up was significantly delayed by the weather.  Of the umpteen pick-up points people were late due to the snow.  And it snowed quite hard while we were there.  On Christmas Day we were visited by Santa Clause in his sleigh drawn by two (rather diminutive) reindeer.  I didn't see the sleigh, but was told that it had wheels.  The snow wasn't that deep, and the reindeer didn't fly either.  We all got a box of chocolate liqueurs that I have yet to open.

The return journey was delayed before we started.  One of the main roads out of town was closed because there had been a heavy fall of snow overnight.  But the delay was not long as the snow-ploughs were out early.  Everywhere was covered in frozen snow.  I was helped down about three steps that were only partly cleared, but still very icy.  The inside of the coach was much warmer that the chill wind outside.

As we drove through the Highlands, some of the time it was just blank white on all sides.  The driver pointed out deer on the high points of the hills. They were grazing through the snow.

The same number of stops on the way home as there were on the way up.  But we stopped at the Nottingham Victoria Centre behind a row of black cabs.  We all climbed aboard with our luggage that included  my four-wheel walker.  Ten minutes and we were home.  And stepdaughter made the best cup of tea I have ever had.  I slept like a top that night.

And no-one mentioned Global Warming !