Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Off to Haltwhistle

We had planned to cross into Scotland and travel around to the west. We changed plans and drove up to the Northumberland National Park and are spending two nights at a great B&B.Not only are there a number of great little towns and villages but this is sitting next to Hadrians Wall so will report on that next. As we left we removed the snow and ice from the car. The ice detector light was on till late morning.
Our first stop was at another of the lakes of the Lakes District. Keswick is very pretty but today it was very cold! Too cold to enjoy so we soon retreated indoors for tea, coffee and toasted buns.



                                     Does Gail look cold in this photo? It was snowing a few minutes later!

The drive was wonderful, especially with the car heater turned up. Lots of stone fences, very cold sheep and green fields with a light dusting of snow.


Our main stop was at Carlisle We visited the castle. It was Anzac Day but not a single reference to it at any time today!


The castle is the most besieged place in the British Isles. We were close to the current Scottish border!


                      It was a long climb to the top of the keep so a rest was in order.


                                This is 15th century graffiti from bored soldiers.


                                                Rob held an impromptu book reading!


                                                           We need a new cannon!

We drove on past the Roman Fort when we reached the National Park near Hadrians Wall but will return tomorrow. We found a great B&B, possibly our best. It is the main room of the former vicarage
and very large and comfortable...and warm as it is still cold outside.


                 This seat was very cold and wet! The building dates from 1856.

Haltwhisle is an interesting town. So far we have not done much except have lunch and dinner at local establishments. We had some difficulty deciding on where to patronise. Here are some of the options.

                                         
                                             The Working Men's Club....or


                                                   the comrades club....or


                                                       the conservative club!

Haltwhistle is considered to be at the geographic centre of Britain if you base it on the Orkneys rather than The Shetlands!


          We could have stayed at The Centre of Britain Hotel. Every second business has the 'Centre of  Britain' in its name as in The Centre of Britain Dog Wash.

Tomorrow the wall!

1 comment:

David said...

interesting - didn't see any snowman or snow angels