Terry's Travels: Travelling around the UK

Sunday 2 Aug
I spent the day with my second cousin Margaret and husband Tom. It was the first time I had seen them since 2001, so we had a lot to talk about.

Monday 3 Aug
Left Buxton for Harrogate making a slight detour to visit Holmfirth (Last of the Summer Wine) and saw ‘Nora Batty’s house’ and had coffee at ‘Sid’s Café’. Very pretty little town. From there we went to Marsden and visited Standedge Tunnel

- ‘the highest, longest and deepest’ canal tunnel in the country. ‘Leggers’ used to move the boats through by lying on their backs on barges and ‘walking‘ sideways along the walls - there were no paths for horses which were walked overland to the exit. The tunnel is 3.25 miles long and 7 feet deep. It took 15 years to build with 3,000+ workforce between 1796 - 1811. We took half-hour boat ride into the tunnel. Arrived Spring Lodge, Harrogate 4.30. I met with a friend, Maureen, who is English, but we met in New Zealand, and we had a meal at Betty’s Tea Rooms, followed by a drink at a small pub. Maureen caught the 9.45 train home and I took a taxi back to our B&B.

Tuesday 4 Aug
Left Harrogate at 9.15 for Haydon Bridge. Took the long route - first heading NW to Settle then on to view the Ribbleshead Viaduct. Huge! Lunch in lovely old pub there - the Station Arms. From there we drove to Haydon Bridge via mainly minor roads. For most of the way we drove through ‘Postman Pat country’ then over the northern Pennines where the scenery was stark but stunning. Cloudy day but very atmospheric, Arrived at Hadrian’s Lodge at 4.30pm. Way out in the country with beautiful views all around, Very nice home cooked Shepherd’s Pie for dinner.

Wednesday 5 August
We spent the day at Hadrian’s Wall today, first visiting Housesteads Fort which gave a very good impression of what the original Roman fort was like.It was a lovely day and we could see for miles in any direction. Our next stop was at Vindolanda - another fort and settlement which is still being excavated. Our final port of call was the Roman Army Museum which threw a lot of light on what we had seen during the day. We then had a 50-60 mile drive to Warkworth, again though lovely scenery. We are staying 2 nights at Beck’n’Call Guest house and it was nice to make the acquaintance of Mo and Brian who run the B&B We went to Amble in the evening and had a nice sea-side walk followed by fish and chips.

Thursday 6 August
Not much driving today as we spent most of the day at Alnwick Gardens and Castle, only around 6 miles away. The gardens are beautiful and include the Grand Cascade water falls with four different displays on the hour and half hour. We were too late to see the roses at their best. We went into the ‘world’s largest tree house’. Our combined ticket included entry into the Castle where we wandered around for quite a while. The state rooms are very grand with wonderful furniture, beautiful silk wall coverings and millions of pounds worth of paintings on the walls including some by Van Dyke and Canaletto. The day ended with a return visit to Amble to take an hour’s Puffin Cruise out to Coquet Island.We were just a week or so too late to see the puffins as they leave end July/early August but we did see one lone one flying around - disappointingly just a black speck in the distance. We saw many tern and lots of seals popping their heads out of the sea. The day ended with a meal in the Hermitage pub in Warkworth.

Friday 7 Aug
Left the B&B this morning and headed for Edinburgh. On the way we stopped at Bamburgh Castle - a very large and imposing castle on the Northumbrian coast. Time did not allow us to go into the castle so we walked through the sand dunes and along the beach to get the best and most famous view of it. From there we drove up to Holy Island. We crossed the causeway and had a short drive to see Lindisfarne Castle but did not stop as time and tide did not allow. Our next stop was Berwick upon Tweed where we had lunch then had an easy 50 or so mile drive to Edinburgh where we arrived at Judy’s cousin Penny and Peter’s around 3.30pm. Pete did a BBQ for supper and we all enjoyed the ostrich burgers Judy bought in Berwick.

Saturday 8 Aug
This morning, we drove into the city to visit the Royal Yacht Britannia. This beautiful vessel has special significance for me, as my father attended a cocktail party on board her, when the Queen and Duke were visiting Kiribati in the late 1950s. I still have the guilt-edged invitation, which was amongst Dad’s possessions when he died. The yacht is very well maintained and it was fascinating to see the royal bedrooms, plus the crews’ quarters and the sparkling clean engine room.
Tomorrow we drive to Stranraer, where we will spend the night, before boarding the ferry to Belfast, early Monday morning. As none of the B&Bs we will be staying in, in Ireland, appear to have wi-fi, this might be the last blog entry for a while.