Stirling Here We Come!

We have another week in Scotland, with no house sit scheduled: AirBnB to the rescue!  Even though this is our third visit to Scotland, we have never been to the Stirling and Glasgow areas.  There is a lot of history waiting for us, as well as walking in the footprint of ancestors.  Fun!

Admiring a stone wall while waiting at the light for highway construction.

 The drive down to Old Plean, the village we are staying in, was a change of pace.  There was road construction on both the small roads and the A roads.  Instead of using people to control the traffic when the road narrows to one lane, they have signal lights on sensors.  Seems like a more reasonable way than two people with radios holding stop and go signs, while enduring all kinds of weather.

As we got closer to Perth, the traffic increased and by the time the road split to go either to Edinburgh or Glasgow, it was frantic.  I think I like the lack of traffic in the highlands much better.  We found our AirBnb after a bit of searching; no street address just the name of the house and a postal code. Our host is very friendly; even is planning a trip to Tucson to birdwatch!

Making coffee in our little kitchen.

 Our little apartment is wonderful.  One bedroom, one bath with an enormous shower, and open plan kitchen, dining, lounge. There is also a lovely garden with seating area, but it's been a bit wet and chilly to sit out and enjoy.   I think we will be quite comfortable here, and it's only $69 a night!

The bathroom.

Panorama of our open plan living area. The door on the right leads into the bedroom.

Paris Apartment from AirBnB

Note to self; next time make sure there is an elevator when not staying on the ground floor!

When we decided to stay over in Paris for a few days on our way home from Scotland, we really didn't want to be in an hotel.  Several reasons; cost per night, cost of breakfasts (which are usually only croissant and coffee for 10 euro), space and laundry.  We had heard of Airbnb, so decided to give it a try.  What a good idea!!

Panorama of the kitchen, livingroom, part of the entry hall and the bathroom doorway.

We stayed in Katia's apartment, while she was in Italy for a holiday.  We had a living/dining room, with the kitchen in the corner, an entry hall, bathroom and a bedroom. The apartment windows opened onto an interior courtyard, so were private. There was a washer/dryer, but we used the drying lines in the bathroom. The place was comfortable, had wifi, and tv, although the only channels in English were news; boring!  The kitchen had all the necessities for cooking, including condiments and coffee.  It came with all the necessary linens and all that was asked of us was to leave it clean, but not a deep cleaning as that would happen after we left, and the garbage emptied.

Our apartment was on a pedestrian street in the 5th arrondissemont, also known as Rive Gauche, the Left Bank.  We were two short blocks from the river and could hear the bells of Notre Dame!  We loved it! The price was much less than staying in a hotel and included doing our laundry, which usually would run about 20 euros.  We chilled our own wine, cooked our own breakfasts (which included scrabbled eggs with our croissants!) and on one occasion, we returned to eat take away from one of the Greek restaurants on our street.

Would we do it again?  ABSOLUTELY!!