Singapore

Resting at Singapore airport between flights. Home tomorrow. Whoopee!

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Bath - Monday

The Roman Baths

A very warm day wandering through the roman ruins and other sights of Bath. Things have changed since we were last here over twenty years ago, there are more modern displays within the ruins and some areas we previously visited are now closed.

Currently having a fab lunch at Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant (so Gen can get the apron we couldn't get in London), a great place for lunch.

We have been having problems posting on our blog, the last couple of posts have vanished into the ether. Hope this one works.

One more day in Bath then the journey home begins.

Wells, Somerset

Historic Wells, Somerset


Having fun fighting the traffic on the M5 on our way to Bath, we stopped for a break in Wells.  

An ancient town with a 16thC cathedral and Bishops Palace. Being  a Saturday means market day so the place was busy, busy, busy.

Yummy market stall food for lunch, a few local veggies and fruit purchased for the week, and back into the traffic to get to Bath.

Glastonbury Festival on this weekend so the traffic was horrid.  

We are in a little cottage about 10 minutes out of the city. Will be visiting some stately homes in the area and of course the Roman Baths in the city.

Cheers
Gen

Checking out the waterways

John on the quay at the Tamar River

Thursday

Today we did a bit of really local exploring and spent time wandering the riverside of the river Torridge at Bideford (our nearest town). Lots of fishing boats and smallish pleasure craft were sitting high & dry in the mud as the tide was out and there was no water to be seen.

We had dinner in our "local", The Black Horse, recommended by our landlady and well worth the visit.

Friday

Today we ventured further afield again and headed towards Plymouth to visit a stately home - Cotehele. Sadly when we got there the house was not open, (bugger!). But the gardens, the mill and the private quay were still worth seeing.

The photo shows John looking at a small 19th c river trader moored there, that plied the Tamar river down to Plymouth with local goods.

They have a working 18th c flour mill, powered by a waterwheel and still producing flour.

Tonight we pack up for tomorrow we move to another cottage just outside Bath.

Cheers
Gen

Cornwall

Waiting for the Doc

In our wanderings today we visited Port Isaac, a typical Cornish fishing village that is also where Doc Martin (ABC) is filmed. The photo shows me outside the Doc's rooms.

It was a very cute little village, small fishing boats in the little bay, lots of eateries with local produce.

We also visited Padstow, which is where Rick Stein had his first restaurant. He now has 3 places here, a cafe where his original place was, a shop selling heaps of merchandise and now a rather large seafood restaurant on the actual waterfront.

Our original plan was to eat at Stein's but at £35 plus for a main course we decided to forego. We tried something a little less excessive and bought handmade traditional Cornish Pasties at the bakery and they we just perfect.

We also got in a bit of history at Launceston, walking thru the old Norman castle and keep.

Time for a rest!

Cheers
Gen

Dartmouth

Visiting Dartmouth Castle

Monday
A quiet day as John obtained some help from the NHS for a crook knee. Thankfully there is a reciprocal health agreement between Aus and the UK which made things quite cheap!

Tuesday

Exploring quiet areas of Devon are made easier by the combination of a lousy road atlas and poor road signage, we ended up on all sorts of places.

Driving on some very narrow lanes with very high hedgerows preventing much of a forward view for oncoming traffic made for interesting times!

We drove through parts of Dartmoor and visited both Totnes and Dartmouth castles.

Lots of little villages, cottages with thatched roofs, traditional little pubs, but of course also heaps of tourists too!

Devon

The North Devon Coast at Lynton

Saturday
Picked up our hire car at Lewisham and drove through the London burbs. A nice car, a Golf, well suited to our trip.

Navigated our way out of town with some difficulty and then took a fairly direct route to Devon. Heavy traffic all the way and intermittent downpours for good measure.

Taw cottage at Great Torrington will be our home for the next week. Our cottage is an old stone farm building beautifully converted into a stylish home with a loft bedroom.

Our views are of lush green fields, hedgerows and lots of cows & sheep. There is a determined little garden hen that tries to get into the house anytime the door is open.

We are very grateful to our friends the Londoners for their hospitality. London wouldn't have been the same without them.

Sunday
Today we explored Exmoor and the north coast. Much better weather, mostly sunny, and lots of Sunday drivers.

The photo shows you some of the typical coastline we saw. Very rugged cliffs and small beaches.

To get down to the beach from Lynton, there is a very steep "cliff railway", a little cablecar that is powered by water.

Driving thru the narrow roads and lanes in these little villages is certainly an experience! But the sights have are quite spectacular.

Last day in Greenwich

Clip clop - it's the cops

Friday
A very cold, wet day in London. Visited the local markets and preparing a thank-you dinner for our hosts. Fried rice and spring rolls - yum!

Tomorrow we are off to Devon in our hire car.

More London exploring

St Paul's Cathedral

Suffering through rainy downpours we visited Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. We were lucky enough to be going through when there was a dress rehearsal on for a play opening this weekend.
This meant we were able to experience a little of what it would be like to go to a performance. Amazing acoustics in the open air theatre.

We then walked across the Thames over the Millennium walking bridge and visited St Paul's.

The cathedral was very sparkly and clean having just completed 15 years of renovations and cleaning, the inside mosaics and stained glass were fantastic to see. Luckily a spot of sun shone thru to help show the work.

Pushing on through the rain we finished the day with a walk around the British Museum, checking out all the Greek & Egyptian treasures.

By the way dinner last night at Jamie Oliver's restaurant was fantastic!

Cheers Gen

Lesser Fire of London

Fires of London

Tuesday
Caught up with Cam (nephew) for a lovely lunch in Marylebone High Street. Cam looked fit and relaxed after completing the first year of his MBA.

Then on to the Sir John Soane's museum, one of London's more interesting sites.

Later, we walked down to the Strand to find the source of the voluminous smoke that had been smothering us as we wandered. The photo shows the burning building (which was being refurbished) and firies hosing the rooftop.

Wednesday
Walked through the beautiful rose gardens and flower gardens of Greenwich Park, watching cheeky squirrels looking for food. The park is huge, filled with lots of tourists heading for the observatory, but also used by local workers during their lunch breaks. We enjoyed a nice pub lunch.

We hope to get into Jamie Oliver's Canary Wharf restaurant for dinner tonight. You cannot book, just gotta turn up and hope for the best.

Monday

Greenwich Observatory

The Weekend
Saturday was party, day and night! Fiona's birthday was celebrated in fine style.
Sunday was a quiet recovery day.

Monday
As we are currently staying in Greenwich it was time to check out the famed Observatory, it's telescopes and timepieces and, of course, the prime meridian. We straddled 0 degrees of longitude, standing in both the eastern and western hemispheres at the same time.

Later, we visited the National Maritime Museum before a bit of shopping and a lovely home-cooked (by Gen) dinner.

Exploring London

The Thames (low tide)

Friday

Today we hit some of the usual sights, heading to Westminster and battling the huge crowds of tourists.

Would you believe they want to charge you £16 to visit Westminster Abbey!! Which we chose to not pay by the way.

Getting caught in the typical London rainburst, watching every body go into the local Boots to buy a cheap brolly.

Anyway, using our English heritage membership we visited the Duke of Wellington's home and museum and visited the Jewel Tower.

We wandered Hyde Park, walked past Buck palace, and checked out Aspley House.

London

Wednesday

Today was a travelling day. After a leisurely morning we were on a very full plane on Vueling airlines (Spanish & cheap!) arrived at Heathrow among the throng at about 3.40 PM.

A mix up with booked cabs that didn't turn up caused a bit of a hassle, but some many pounds later (cab fare from airport) we were safely ensconced in our B&B, in Greenwich.

Catching up with very good friend Fi at Dave's wine bar in the evening rounded out the day.

Thursday

A day wandering around Greenwich.

We actually moved to Fiona's place today, great to be in a comfortable home with a full fridge and with long time friends. I won't go into boring detail about catching up with domestic duties!

We went for a bit of an explore around Greenwich, walked along the Thames riverbank, and attempted to visit the "Cutty Sark" an 1800's Clipper Ship, but much to John's disappointment it is all blocked off, undergoing major renovations it seems.

The day finished with another day reminiscing and laughing a lot with Fi & Leann.

Gen

A Coruna

A Coruna harbourside, Tuesday June 7

Coruna - my kind of town, fabulous bays, beaches, boats and fishing. We enjoyed a 35 minute, 160kmh train ride on an ultra-modern train to get here from Santiago. The train even had on-board vending machines.

Coruna is a very modern city with ancient roots. It has lovely little trams servicing the 13.5km pedestrian promenade along the coastline. There are a number of wide sandy beaches along the promenade, right next to the city streets, no doubt extremely popular at the height of summer.

We caught a tram round to El Torre de Hercules, a lighthouse built by the Romans and still working. Climbing the 234 narrow steps to the top was tough and reminded us of some hills we have climbed, but provided a panoramic view of the city, the harbor and the Atlantic ocean.

Monday

'Eat Street' - Rua Do Franco

This view of our favorite restaurant area from a balcony of the Cathedral Museum. Not as crowded as usual as it's a cool, drizzly Monday.

Our last day in Santiago was spent wandering the streets and museums, taking pinchos and tapas for lunch and just generally sightseeing.

We have certainly gotten to know Santiago much better over the last week, discovering markets and sights we had missed on previous visits.

The highlight of the week was seeing the botafumeiro (a giant incense burner) in full swing during a mass in the Cathedral. This 60kg monster is only used on special occasions or when groups pay for the sight. Quite a sight to see it soaring over the assembled masses.

Pilgrims once slept in the Cathedral and the incense was used to improve the general aroma, as well as it's religious uses.

We look forward to visiting La Caruna tomorrow, before heading back to the UK.

Domingo (Sunday)

Another relaxed day wandering and exploring.

We visited the Museo das Peregrinacions, which had a display of various pilgrimages around the world, a fantastic photographic exhibition of arriving pilgrims from a local photographer and a detailed historic record of the life of St James. We ended up spending a couple of hours wandering thru.

Further to yesterday's blog we forgot to mention that we lunched yesterday in a beautifully refurbished 16th/17th century seminary. The San Martin Seminario Mayor still trains priests and currently has 38 seminarians. They also have an albergue for arriving pilgrims as well as operating a normal commercial hotel.

A beautiful old stone building with a cloister area, huge vaulted ceilings and a peaceful quiet atmosphere. We had the traditional pilgrim lunch of 3 simple courses and wine for only 12 euros, about a third the price you would pay elsewhere.

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Fisterra

The end of the known world

Friday
Fisterra or Finisterre was known to the ancients as the end of the world. After an arduous 3 hour bus ride to get there I can see why. The scenery along the way was stunning, crystal clear blue seas, white sand beaches, fishing villages. Just stunning!

Saturday
Took an English language guided tour of Santiago today. Only four people in the group and our guide, Italo, was a font of information. A great way to learn much more about the history, legends and origins of our locale.

The markets were in full swing today with mountains of fresh, local produce. Especially seafood.

Festival Day Santiago

Festival Day Santiago, Thursday

The town was a very vibrant place today, many locals had a day off because it is a holiday, we are not sure of the reason but were told it is a local festival for the town.

The streets were busy, more than the usual buskers, beggars, uni students and pilgrims. As you can see in one of the photos there was roaming groups of dancers and musicians putting on shows of local traditional dancing and music. Fantastic to watch, they were very energetic.

We visited a fascinating little museum at the San Martino Church, giving an interesting history of a Monastery on the site dating from some 8 or more centuries ago. They had displays of early manuscripts, books and printing, an early farmacia with all sorts of concoctions etc

The main square has been taken over by a peaceful tent protest, as is happening in most large towns and cities across Spain, you may have seen something of this on the local news.

Adding to the crowds is about 400 or so pilgrims arriving onto town each day at this time of year.

The other photo shows part of our delightful tapas and sangria lunch.

John has looked at the blog settings on the computer at our hotel trying to fix the problem with comments, but has been unable to isolate the problem. We would love to hear from you via email or facebook.

Cheers
Gen

Santiago De Compostela

Music college band roaming the streets

Tuesday

A rather slow train trip from Oporto to Santiago. If nothing else it gave us a good view of the countryside of Portugal traveling thru wine regions, large industrial towns and some fantastic seaside views.

We arrived in Santiago early afternoon and on the walk to our hotel saw many pilgrims coming into the main square looking very happy to have completed their challenging walk. It brought back many memories of our own pilgrimage of a few years ago.

Let me tell you that it also made me happy that I wasn't feeling any where nearly as footsore as they looked hobbling to their hotels.

We have a lovely hotel right in the old
town with our own little courtyard, perfect for afternoons relaxing during siesta .

Wednesday

Today first on the list was to work out our plans for our week. There are many things here that we have not seen despite previous visits, monasteries, museums and the like.

We roamed the little alleyways, found the tourist office, saw some street performers (see photo of one band), and basically had a very relaxing day.

We enjoyed a delightful tapas lunch with sangria at our favorite little "hole in the wall" bar watching pilgrims coming and going.

I am now sitting in our room with a glass of local Rioja red and some great Spanish manchego cheese while I write this blog.

This evening we went for a walk in the Alameda gardens where there is a large fair going on. Sideshow alley, fairy floss for the kids, a ferris wheels and various rides. The place was very crowded and the weather perfect.

Cheers
Gen

Last day in Porto

John on the cable car

On the south bank of the Douro River all the wine cellars of the regions port wine growers are located, they call them wine caves here. Anyway, we finally got around to visiting them today.

We did a tour of the cellars, learnt all about the different types of port, and eventually got to taste some white and some ruby ports. Now we have some little samples to try out on our own time too!

We happened to then bump into a couple from Adelaide that we had met on the UK walk, so had a lovely lunch by the river in the sun.

A ride on the cable car heading back to our hotel, and all up a great last day in Porto.

We have found that as long as you try places that are not total tourist traps, the food can be very tasty and quite different. They know how to cook fish in this town!

Porto

Shopping in Porto

The photo shows the usual Sunday markets by the river at Porto. Very much the tourist trap for trinkets and silly souvenirs.

We spent a great day doing the tourist thing around Porto, including an hours boat ride up and down the river, visits to monasteries and the old town.

We have decided to forego the walk to Santiago, which is a shame. But my knees are just not up to a second long walk so soon after the recent walk.

We are planning to still head to Santiago (by train or bus) stay a few days and then cruise around the north coast of Spain for a while, checking out the beach resorts and the little fishing villages.

Porto

Sao Jorge Castle

Friday - Lisbon
Struggled out of our sick-beds determined not to waste our last day in Lisbon. Hopefully the dreadful bug will go away soon, either that or the city will soon run out of tissues.

The Lisbon metro is wonderful and cheap, less than 4€ for an all-day, all transport pass.

So down town to Alfama, the Se cathedral and then on to the castle.

Wandering around the ruins of the old castle and along the battlements was very enjoyable, with great views
over the whole city. There was a sort of market of local arts & crafts in the grounds which was fun, always good to find a way to spend the euros!

Getting a bit lost in the Alfama area was easy, it is a very old part of the city with very narrow laneways that basically all look the same, it took us quite a while to find our way back to the main part of the city. Locals have been very friendly and helpful wherever we have been.

Saturday
An easy and cheap (21€ per person) train trip to Porto and then another quick metro trip to our hotel.

A lovely dinner at our hotel and now busy planning tomorrows excursions to get the most from our few days here at Porto.

We are hoping to get a first hand taste of some of the regions famous wines.

A day in Lisbon

The Tower of Belem

Well, believe it or not we did a bus tour today. We took the opportunity to take a tour to see some of the outlying sites of interest here in Lisbon.

It gave us a chance to see some things we might not have seen otherwise. Lisbon is a large city with quite a history, great little bars and cafes, and lots of museums.

We are both fighting a "dreaded lurgy" of a cold germ, but we are "soldiering on " trying to see as much as we can.

We have left the castle and the cathedral for tomorrow, before heading to Porto by train on Sat.

Lisboa

Lisbon

Tuesday
Up at 0630, left hotel at 0730. Walked a mile with backpacks to York railway station. Waited. Train to Manchester airport. Waited. Watched news of airports closing due to Icelandic volcanic ash cloud.

Flight to Heathrow, much relief as we are further from ash cloud. Waited. Flight to Lisbon. Reached hotel at 2310. Sleep.

Wednesday
First day in Lisbon. 29 degrees! Warm weather at last. Lots of sight-seeing. Lovely city.

I'm still trying to shake off a bad cough while Gen's knees didn't like the backpack. A pair of old crocks.

York - Last Day

Ye Olde English Pub

A cold, wet and windy day in York. Checked out the enormous York Minster and a little bit of sight-seeing.

Escaped the rain in a cute pub, tourism is such hard work!

Tomorrow we fly to hot and sunny Lisbon, exploding Icelandic volcanoes permitting.

More York

Love those old buildings.

Spent a chill, windy and occasionally damp day sightseeing in York.

City of York

Micklegate

We are now in York for a few days. We happened to arrive on the day of the annual York races, so the city is packed with very fancily dressed folk, some the worse for a bit of drink! Just like Melb cup day.

York has an historic old town area, and is one of the few places in England that has much of the old city walls. Micklegate is one of the old gateways into the old town.

A chance for us to visit old medieval and roman ruins, which we love doing.

My feet are now beginning to feel normal again, I was bit footsore at the end of the walk. We managed to catch up with a number of our fellow walkers who finished the day after us. It was a great feeling to share our accomplishment with others, everybody feeling very elated at finally finishing.

Relaxing in Robin Hood's Bay

End of C2C

Have now organized our next week of travel. Saturday we go to ancient York and then on Tuesday we fly to Lisbon.

Today was a relaxing day, visiting Whitby and it's 1000 year old abbey (ruins).

And wandered through the old alleyways and shops before returning to Robin Hood's Bay to catch up with other walkers.

Robin Hood's Bay

Robin Hood's Bay

We're here!!!

Glaisdale

More Moors

A day of fairly even flat walking today, across Farndale and Glaisdale Moors, amongst others.

We saw more local wildlife (grouse, curlews, and deer) but other than that no much else to the day.

But we do see spectacular views of the dales and from time to time see glimpses of the North Sea, our goal.

Tomorrow we look forward to a ride on a steam train (we hope).

Blakey Ridge, Tuesday May 17

The Moors

After a wonderful night at Urra we were back on the moors today. After a short climb we walked along a disused railway for the day. Spotted more wild pheasants and red grouse.

Last night we were the only guests in the B&B at Urra. Our hosts were wonderful, giving us a superb three course home-cooked meal, sherry before dinner, a potted history of the area and fascinating conservation, great people.

Tonight we are in the Lion Inn at Blakey Ridge, fourth highest pub in England, a lone building high on the moors. It's booked out, mostly with walkers.

Urra

The fields we crossed yesterday.

Back into the hills and moors today, a dry but very windy day. Very excited as we can now see glimpses of the North Sea from the hilltops, still three more days of walking to go though.

More steep climbing and descending, which is hard on the legs. We are on the lookout for Heathcliffe and Kathy.

The Coast to Coast path joined the Cleveland Way path just outside Ingleby Cross and the two will remain together for a while.

Adding to our tally of interesting animals sighted along the way (red squirrel, deer, wild pheasants), yesterday we saw several magnificent horses. These were all similar and we believe them to be Cleveland Bay horses.

Ingleby Cross

The Blue Bell Inn

Spending a quiet Sunday evening in the local pub after walking from Danby Wiske.

It drizzles almost all day but not too cold. More broad acre farms today, little in the way of interesting scenery or history.

Tomorrow looks to be more interesting as we head into the "tops", the hills that lead to the North Yorks Moors.

We passed through Herriott's "All creatures great and small" country and are about to enter "Heartbeat" country. Our walk ends in the setting for part of Bram Stoker's "Dracula", in and around Whitby.

Danby Wiske

Bolton-on-Swale Church

Hallelujah! Sunshine today, only a couple of brief rain showers late in the walk. Hardly had to wear the goretex gear. The landscape has altered since Richmond. We are now surrounded by broad-acres farms with few villages or features. The dry-stone walls have been replaced by extensive hedgerows.

Many of our fellow travelers are now moving at a different pace, some taking rest days in Richmond while others zoom across the plains. We continue our modest plod.

Richmond

Richmond, Friday May 13

Left Reeth at 7:30 am without breakfast, worst accommodation of the trip and not prepared to eat the breakfast even though it was already paid for.

Found a lovely brunch at a remote farm teahouse, fabulous views from a warm, cosy conservatory.

Our journey continued across rolling fields, thru small woods and along dry stone walls. Beautiful scenery not quite matched by the squally weather.

Looked at Richmond Castle later in the day and then dinner at a local French restaurant. Now to sleep.

Reeth

Reeth Village

We arrived here in sunny skies after a day's walking in very chilly showery weather.

Walking alongside the River Swale down thru the Swaledale, said to be the prettiest example of the Yorkshire dales.

We are now resting our weary feet in the Kings Arms in Reeth.

The views of the moors and the dales have been spectacular, lovely green farmlands, drystone walls, blackface sheepies everywhere, so very different to Aust.

Looking forward to visiting Richmond castle tomorrow.

Tarn Hill Inn

The Pennines

Today is day to be marked for three reasons.

We crossed the Pennine range, one of the photos shows the "nine standards rigg" on the top of the range. These are 9 pillars built of dry stones (no mortar), what they are for is anybody's guess.

We are now passed the official halfway point at Keld.

And lastly we are staying tonight in Britain's highest pub, the Tarn Hill Inn. The view here is of rather bleak looking treeless rolling hills. (moors)

The walk today has been adventurous, up over the Pennines in the rain & chilly wind, then across moors with huge peat bogs we had to wend our way around without losing the path.

A long day at about 24 kms, now feeling relaxed and ready for a soothing ale or two.

Kirkby Stephen, Tuesday May 10

Smardale Bridge

A wet and windy day across the moors and fells of Yorkshire. Our route takes us around the milder dales and onto the high fells. The going is easier than the Lakes District while navigation is more difficult.

Tomorrow we tackle the Pennines to reach the halfway point of our walk. The Pennines pose a challenge with their peat bogs and the currently dodgy weather. We are hoping for sunshine but preparing for rain.

Orton, Monday

Pretty bridge outside Bampton Grange.

After a wonderful night at Bampton Grange (best room, food and bar so far!) we had our best days walking so far.

We are finally settling into a good rhythm and covering the distances more easily. It helps a lot that we are now walking instead of climbing!

The countryside is very pretty with lots of new-born lambs wobbling about. Yesterday's highlight for me was a superb vaulted bridge on the Carlisle to Settle railway, today it was walking across the moors on a Roman road (well, the remains of one.)

Bampton Grange

The Crown and Mitre

To avoid a 700 metre climb up Kidsty Pike we bussed to Penrith and then walked about 10-12 kms to tonights stopping point.

A wet & stormy start, walking in the rain no matter how well equipped is not real fun. Weather cleared as afternoon wore on. We move into Yorkshire moors over next days, still hilly but not as severe countryside.

Patterdale, Friday 7th May

White Lion Hotel

We're staying in a nice B&B one hundred metres up the road but now spending a damp afternoon in the pub.

Used today as a rest day and did a bit of bus tourism. Went down to Windermere to see the famous lake and visit the town. Very heavy car traffic and flocks of tourists. Absolutely fabulous scenery enjoyed from the bus.

Now in Patterdale just south (I think) of Ullswater and Penrith. This is our last day in the Lakes District and Cumbria. Tomorrow it's Yorkshire and the Pennines.

Grasmere

Moss Grove Eco Hotel, Grasmere

A third day of Fell walking, that should be Fell Climbing. Very severe ascents and descents on rocky, muddy mountain goat tracks. The severity of the climbs has been something of a trial.

Last nights heavy rain continued this morning, turning to impenetrable mists at the peaks. We gathered with a large group to stumble along until the path was found. Later, met a couple who had wandered in the mists for two hours before finding a way down.

The sun came out once we reached Grasmere, the biggest town so far on the walk. A real tourist hub, all facilities but priced to match.

Stonethwaite

Stonethwaite - view from our window.

Another very hard day, longish distance but very, very steep and rocky. Walked the length of Ennerdale Water (the easy bit) and then along seemingly interminable forestry tracks before a stunning, near vertical, climb up and over the fells.

Meeting lots of like-minded folk who are walking coast to coast, including a few more Aussies.

Fabulous dinner at the local pub (only one in village). Early night planned for tonight.

Ennerdale

The Stork Hotel

A loverly sunny day for day one of our walk. We walked about 24 kms today from St Bees to Ennerdale. A tough walk along coastal cliffs then inland over some very high hills.

Now looking forward to lamb chops for dinner at the Stork.

St Bees

St Bega

Brrrp....Brrrp....Brrrp Eventually the train started and we didn't have to push. A delightful trip along the Irish Sea coastline to St Bees.

We travelled from the Eden Valley (Carlisle is on the banks of the Eden River) to a town named after St Bega. Which is odd considering our home is in Eden in the Bega Valley.

The sunshine continues and we enjoyed walking around St Bees today and, following tradition, dipped our boots in the Irish Sea. Tomorrow we start walking in earnest.

In search of the iconic English pub

The cosy corner bar, the local strong beers, the traditional bar snacks (toasties). We found one yesterday but these pubs seem to be disappearing in England.

So many pubs have been taken over by franchise kitchens selling pricy rubbish food, with huge screens for sport, appealing to the young I suppose.
And so the search begins........

Historic Carlisle

Yet another bright, sunny, warm but windy day. We've been told that this continues three weeks of dry weather - in England in spring! Climate change denying people please note.

Today we rejoined English Heritage and visited Carlisle's historic castle, historic cathedral, historic houses and historic pubs. Great fun!

Hobgoblin red ale for lunch (with an omelette) and venison burger for dinner. Must start walking soon!

Arrived in Carlisle

A glorious sunny warm day, a 3 hour train and bus trip, we are now in historic Carlisle. Photo shows main square, lots of historic bldgs here, and close to Hadrians wall. Both still tired, getting over long flight I think. We plan exploring the castle tomorrow.