Holiday Bookings........

It's getting round to the time when we look forward to our annual holidays, and having left the booking of them a little later than usual, I thought I had better get round to sorting them out! I usually look in late September/early October for a couple of weeks when I have no weddings booked. This particular year, there was very little choice when I could fit in a couple of weeks. It seems that I have had far more than the usual number of weddings booked! 

 I spent last Friday (June 24th) booking our holidays. We usually spend a week at Lamlash (on the Isle of Arran) then drive across Scotland and spend a further week at Waren Mill, a tiny hamlet just a couple of miles north of Bamburgh.

What should have been a simple exercise - book the first week on Arran, book the CalMac Ferry tickets, and then book the second week at Waren Mill turned into something of an extended drama!

We had settled on taking our holidays between Saturday 24th September and Saturday 8th October (a 14 day period when I had no weddings booked), so I rang Stuart, the gentleman who lets Prospect Hill Studio Flat on the Isle of Arran  and arranged for the first week there. This was done on a Friday afternoon, and he said he would let the booking agency know that he had let the studio flat, but it would be Monday morning before he could contact the booking agency.

I arrived home on the Monday morning after having been up to Skipton to collect our kitchen wall and floor tiles, and picked up a "left message" on the answerphone, telling me that someone had already booked the studio for that week, however the week before and the week after were available.

This entailed a hasty look at the diary to see if I had any weddings booked the week before. Luckily I didn't so, I went ahead and booked the preceding week.



Prospect Hill Studio Flat - Lamlash, Isle of Arran

This meant that I now had to move my booking forward for the cottage we rent at Waren Mill. When I looked on the web site, I found that somebody had booked the last two days of what was to be our stay there! The couple who own the property are away on holiday until Monday 11th July, so I contacted their agency with a request to book the cottage from the Saturday until the following Thursday. I won't know for certain if I've got it until they return from their holidays on the 11th!

Cove Cottage, Waren Mill

Now I had to try to get accommodation for the Thursday and Friday nights! Holy Island was suggested, and the couple we stayed with for our Ruby Wedding celebrations, but unfortunately they were booked up! After trying the sister of this couple (who lets two self catering establishments), and the Lindisfarne Hotel with no luck I finally tried the Crown and Anchor. I had been told during my searches that they had recently opened a room where dogs could be taken.

Partial success! They could offer us Thursday night, but were booked for the Friday. So it looks like we may have to curtail our holidays by one day.

The Crown & Anchor, Holy Island