Tag: remote

Eighteen months without a change of scenery, two alpha dogs in their home office. Constantly in telephone- or video conferences; in meetings all of the time but not a single (business) trip. My wife and I felt like many others in last summer: we went a bit nuts. Some colleagues had shown us how to do it: remote work from other places seemed to work pretty well. So the decision was made: we’ll do it too! Flights to the Canaries or Balearics are out of the question. For a variety of reasons, we are currently trying to avoid flying. And we both have a soft spot for Scotland, having got married there almost 10 years ago. So we try to spend time in this beautiful country at least every two or three years. We like the Scots, their humour, openness and hospitality, love the landscape – and we both love our golf. By car from Berlin to Scotland So this plan came up: we’ll drive our car from Berlin to Amsterdam (with a stopover at my parents’ place in Northrhine-Westphalia), take the ferry to Newcastle and then go off to “Scotland’s Golf Coast”, to East Lothian, spending four weeks and practising our work/life balance in Scotland. Our plan worked out. The journey with the giant ferry “King Seaways” was an experience in itself. The ship is designed for 1300 guests, but there were only about 250 passengers on board. The boat is really tidy and well-maintained, the staff super motivated and friendly, also because they were happy that guests were travelling at all. Dinner in the only open restaurant on board was excellent, and the drinks in the bar afterwards were also exceptionally good. The ferry departs from Ijmuiden near Amsterdam in the late afternoon, and the boat docks in Newcastle at 9:00 the next morning. The standard cabins are clean and functional. I have never arrived at a holiday destination so relaxed and well rested. Despite the pandemic-related increased administrative procedure at enetering Great Britain, we were off the ship at 10:30 am and headed north along the beautiful English coast. A first stopover in the Harry Potter filming location, the village Alnwick gave us our first Full English Breakfast. Arrived at last! Then another 1.5 hours and we were there: in our cottage near Haddington, called Carfrae Farm. Our amazing landlords in Scotland, who run an organic farm, had their four cottages, each about 100 years old, freshly renovated and beautifully furnished – we felt right at home.… weiterlesen