There is a certain satisfaction in arriving somewhere for the weekend and realising you don't have to do anything.

You put the bag down. Look around the room. Check the view from the window.

For the first hour, you may still be carrying the week with you. You check your phone without thinking. Remember something you didn't finish. Wonder whether anyone replied to the message you sent before leaving.

Then morning comes.

Coffee takes longer because there is nowhere to rush to. You stand by the window while it is still hot, watching a place that doesn't look anything like the view you normally wake up to.

Eventually you head outside.

You find a road you've never walked before. Stop at a little shop because something in the window caught your eye. Order lunch somewhere you didn't research first. Take photographs of things nobody else would understand why you photographed.

"A good weekend away gives you stories you weren't looking for."

By afternoon, you know the road back to where you're staying.

The jacket comes off. Shoes are left near the door. You finally get to read the book you brought, although you might only make it through three pages before the view steals your attention again.
Dinner can be somewhere local or something simple made back at the cottage. Bread on the table. Something warm in a bowl. A drink poured without checking the time.

The evening stretches a little longer when tomorrow has nowhere urgent to be.

Sunday Comes Quickly

It always does.

One last breakfast. One last walk outside. Then somebody asks: “What time should we leave?”

The bag gets packed again. You check the bathroom, look under the bed and make sure the charger is coming home too. Then you're on the road.

You stop for coffee somewhere along the way, pick up something small to take home, or pull over because the view is worth one more photograph.

By evening, you're back. You put the keys back in their usual place and hang the bag near the door. Unpacking can wait until tomorrow.

The house is just as you left it. You went somewhere new. Ate somewhere different. Took the long way back once or twice.

Now you're home again.

And you enjoyed every little bit of your peace.