Of Bed and Breakfasts

“Will ye be havin’ kippers for breakfast?” he asked. We said we would although my travelmate did have some misgivings. Kevin told us of the breakfast time and the menu as we checked into the charming bed and breakfast on Loch Alsh in Scotland. We had driven across the bridge to the Isle of Skye and had had an enjoyable afternoon discovering the back roads and interesting sights of the island earlier. We climbed the stairs to our room on the second floor. It was large and comfortable with a bay window overlooking the loch. From the window our car, a Mercedes 130, also known as “the baby Benz”, was in full view. You get kind of a secure feeling when you can see your car from your room. The bathroom nest door was huge with a claw-foot tub as well as shower. We prefer staying in bed and breakfasts when traveling for a number of reasons. First, they are usually less expensive. Secondly, you get to enjoy the company of your host. Thirdly, casual interaction with other guests and the atmosphere is much more relaxing. There is also accessibility. Frequently small villages do not have a hotel but have bed and breakfasts. This B & B in Scotland was certainly a treat.

Staying at bed and breakfasts you get to know the natives.  In Scotland we found that Kevin was a musician and showed us his collection of stringed instruments.  In Kinsale, Ireland, my travelmate had much in common with our hostess there.  They both had become widows.  Near Newcastle, our host told us,”You must visit Durham, it had the first cathedral to use flying buttresses in England.” Durham wasn’t on our list of places to see but we went there and thoroughly enjoyed the city. While in Homer, Alaska, our host regaled us with stories of stalking the mountain goats on the frozen slopes of the Alaskan mountains. We sat in front of a roaring fire with mugs of hot chocolate under the watchful eye of the mounted goats head on the wall.

The dwellings themselves are not without certain charms. One such place was the Parson’s Purse in Cody, Wyoming, which had once been a Methodist church. In Vaison la Romaine, France, our lodging had once been an olive oil producing mill. Our lodging in Vernon, France, was a three-hundred-year-old town house. It had high ceilings with antique furnishings and fixtures. The house we stayed in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, had a deck with a panoramic view of the walled city of Derry. The owner had a great display of Pinocchio memorabilia including a four-foot-tall marionette. Many of these lodgings were old and in most the heat is turned off at ten o’clock in the evening. But in the British Isles you can always depend on the ubiquitous tea pot! A spot of tea will warm you up.

We met many interesting house guests in our travels. Breakfast is the only meal usually served as the name of the lodging implies and usually all lodgers eat together. In Alaska we met a nine-year-old boy of native and Minnesotan descent who could not wait to get back to checking his trap line in the frozen North. And there was the Israeli doctor in France who had gotten a heart transplant at the Mayo Clinic and had a son in the Israeli Air Force.

As we continue our travels we will continue to utilize bed and breakfasts as our favorite means of lodging. I can’t wait to see what we can find in Spain, Italy and beyond!