Christmas in another place is always exciting! This time we opted to return to Arran and the cottage we stayed in several months earlier for our 2021 wedding anniversary. It being late December we knew the weather would be unpredicable and that cold, wind and rain being distinct possibilities. It was ever so!
The ferry crossing was good and we arrived in good time to get the rooms warm and the steak and chips on the table before wanted nothing more than to go to bed. We spent the days revisiting various east coast towns and villages, admiring the coloured lights and door bows folks had adorned their homes with. It all looked very festive.
Christmas day dawned and we opened the gifts we brought to exchange. Tara spent a good few minutes unraveling the fluffy red blanket that Ian gave her. It became her firm favourite for snuggling up with and going to sleep.
As usual in the Neal grouping we headed out for Christmas Day to take in a good breath of air and greet anyone and everyone we met along the way. A walk along a sandy beach and then back to the cottage to the traditional Christmas activity of eating more food!
A day or so later saw us taking in the sights of the fields, hills and villages on the road up to Lochranza. Another short walk along the village road and off to the castle and back along with half the local population has become a great memory of the holiday. The picture below shows the stone bench where we had a picnic lunch. We mentioned this bench and the inscription round it (and the artist) in our last Arran Blog - do look it up.
When we headed home to catch the ferry back we came unstuck. It wasn't running! We kept our fingers crossed and asked if we could return to the cottage for a while. We waited with bated breath to see if we could get a place on the next ferry. Fortunately we did. This made for a long return home day but after having had such a special Christmas we were really very happy and ready to embrace the start of a new year in a couple of days.
