That's Capital!

We have arrived in Edinburgh!

Janice managed to drive the van about 100 yards out of the site!

We had a cycle into Edinburgh and went for the Holyrood Royal Palace tour.  It was very good with the standard audio tour.

Janice had a rant about how ugly the Scottish Parliament building is.  Janice claims to be Scottish on the basis that a grandparent was Scottish.  Her daughter, Laura, used to go to Uni in Edinburgh for four years and Janice has visited many times and therefore knows 'what's what'.  We had a pint in the Tolbooth Tavern on the Royal Mile and then went to a favourite Indian Restaurant called Kismot.  We cycled back to the site and treated ourselves to a nip of Scotch.

I think the glasses are big enough!

Up the coast.

We had a quiet day in Durham, after doing some physical jerks (that's exercise to the uninitiated) we walked in along the river Wear and got our feet and legs very wet in the long grass and overgrown weeds.  We bumped into Sue's auntie Carole but couldn't find Uncle Andrew.  Carole said he would be waiting outside the library but I think that must be code for him being in the pub! coz he wasn't outside the library!  I made up for the previous day's 1-0 defeat in the sneezing competition with a convincing 4-0 win.

On Thursday the weather picked up and we had a nice sunny but breezy day.  We were travelling to stay on a Caravan Club certified location at North Berwick.  I feel I need to explain some of the caravan terminology.  Certified location (CL) doesn't mean it's a place for mentally ill caravaners!  It is actually a small privately owned site for up to 6 vans.  They usually have limited facilities but most now have hook ups.  For those of you with more imaginative minds I must say that 'hook ups' doesn't mean what you are thinking, it's just an electric connection....behave yourselves.  Some of the CL's are Adult Only!! draw your own conclusions about that!

Anyway, back to the travels.  We called at Alnwick for a late morning coffee stop after doing a bit of shopping at Lidl. 

 We admired the castle from the exterior and then continued to another castle at Bamburgh.  What a beautiful location.  The beach and dunes were fantastic and the castle looked majestic.  We walked through the dunes, along the beach and into the village.  

The sun was shining and the great British public were out and about (it was probably the only nice day all week for holiday makers so they were making the most of it).  It was so good I got my sandals out for the first time.

We drove over the border to North Berwick which had a nice beach and small harbour.  We had lobster and chips at a restaurant next to the harbour and a view of Bass Rock.  We could tell the lobster was fresh as it was still snappy!  

We could play 'Spot the Crustacean'!

Onward to the CL which was at East Fortune, 5 miles out from North Berwick.  It had nice uninterrupted views over wheat fields and a small castle in the distance.  Tomorrow we go to the big city of Edinburgh.

Pink Panther country!

.Here we are on a grey and drizzly day at Durham.  People of a certain age will know what I mean when I call this Pink Panther country!

We had an nice early start and had a morning coffee at a cafe in Barnard Castle where we bumped into a retired police sergeant from Penrith.  We had both been on traffic and had a nice 'crack'.

Janice and I will be starting our annual holiday sneezing competition this year but so far it's been a slow start with a nil nil draw.  You can tell already that the tone of the blog is going to be rather childish.  We arrived at the Durham caravan club site calling ourselves Howard and Hilda, from a sit com called Ever Decreasing Circles.  To capture that image we took the following photo :-

These mugs were presents from Janice's neighbours, Tim and Linda.

Despite the weather we risked a cycle ride into Durham and went to the Cathedral and the Castle for a guided tour. 

 By 5 o'clock I was desperate to get to my favourite pub, The Victoria Inn, which is just outside the city centre.  It was quiet but I was keen to show Janice the pub and she quickly took a shine to the pub when I introduced her to a 'stud'. 

 It just happened to be the name of one of the beers on tap!  Anyway the beer must have been good because we came out and I couldn't find my cycling gloves and went back in to find them, only to realise they were in my pocket all the time.  At this rate I will need to take a dementia quiz each day now that we are retired!  I'm still not sure who the prime minister is? 

We managed to cycle back by a different route which included a muddy diversion through woods which was impossible to cycle, it was bad enough pushing the bike through the track without collecting a load of the local flora in the bike chain and cogs!

Back to the van and at the time of writing Janice has just taken a 2 - 0 lead in the sneezing competition.

On your marks, get set, GO !!

Tomorrow is our start day.

The good news is that our Hymer has passed its MOT test today.  The bad news is the weather looks pretty grotty for the next few days.

Our plans so far are as follows:-

2 nights at Durham (visiting my favorite pub - Victoria Inn).
1 night somewhere further up the coast
3 nights at Edinburgh
3 nights at St Andrews.  This includes seeing Janice's daughter, Laura, and her fiance Oliver and some of his family who are having a bit of a reunion.

Beyond that we could go anywhere and having looked at the longer range forecast we are packing our passports just in case the weather beats us into submission!  Where we will end up?  I certainly don't know. We will be back home briefly mid September for my (very important) dental appointment!

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Janice's retirement

Friday was a momentous and emotional occasion as Janice worked her last day at Castle Park School.  There had been several leaving do's and a final school assembly.  This was followed by me taking her to a surprise location.

I arranged for Andy Brown of Lakeland Chauffeurs to pick us up at Janice's house and take us to The Punch Bowl Inn at Crossthwaite.  We had champers in the car. Janice really was surprised.  She was further wowed by the room we stayed in and the ring I gave to her symbolising our future life together.

We had a lovely night.  All the arrangements had gone so well, except... I had left my car at the hotel so that we had a vehicle to return home in, however I had left my car keys at Janice's house and needed to get a lift back to Kendal to get my car keys!  What a plonker I was!  

Anyway, we are now ready to start on our adventure.  We intend to set off northwards on Tuesday 28th July. First stop will be Durham.  I have called it an adventure but we are looking forward to doing all the boring and routine things just as much as the places we visit.

The blog will start properly in one weeks time.  Be afraid, be very afraid!!!