Long drive to Carlisle...

Wednesday, 11th May & Thursday, 12th May - (Catch-up)

Breakfast was in a lovely room downstairs, and although we saw only a few people having breakfast whilst we were there, Lee had seen many people walking from the hotel and across the bridge, up into the forest. 

By the time she'd stopped counting, 36 different people, all kitted out for possibly a long day in the mountain trails, had headed into the hills.

Not for me! Today was going to be a fairly long drive, but with the last 60-70 miles being on the M6, which is a major freeway running north and south. Like everywhere else, there are too many trucks on the road and I had to brake hard to avoid a large semi, overtaking other traffic on a bend!!! There was a lot of driving through here that was bendy, and narrow, and we really had to have our wits about us. After Tarbert, (another Tarbert), it widens out a lot and is easier. The drive around Glasgow is made so much easier by the excellent signage, and we had no trouble following it, and did not get a break tho until we stopped for petrol, and a coffee near the approach to Erskine Bridge, across the Clyde River. We had no previous knowledge of the bridge but it is very impressive. 

The big trick is to have something with you which tells you which road numbers and which exits you need to take, and you get plenty of warning.

The next two nights we had booked in Premier Inns and so knew what to expect, and we had been to Carlisle before on the last trip. 

We went into Carlisle city, to sort out the problem we were having with the dongle for the mobile internet.

Having done our bits of business, we headed off for Lancaster.

Beautiful stone buildings in Windemere

We had intended to turn off at Penrith but missed the turn and instead drove through the town of Kendall, and then across to the pretty town of Windemere, in the Lakes District.

Nice lunch of roasted pumpkin soup and yummy bread. The run along the road from Windermere is narrow and winding and no real views of the lakes, and house blocking the views. Some fabulous homes, but the day didn't lend itself to doing much outdoors, so we pushed on to Lancaster.

The top-up voucher we bought to sort out the dongle problem didn't work, so we went into Lancaster town and got that fixed. Then we had a walk around and found the castle, which is actually H.M. Prison!

H.M. Prison (and castle) Lancaster