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Last Friday, after Bob and I took Bruce to the vet for his allergy shot (no flinching or yelping — such a good boy!), the three of us had a good walkabout to the ruins of Morton Castle.  This castle is located about 2.5 miles from Thornhill.  It was built sometime between 1270 and 1307 on land belonging to Thomas Randolph, the first Earl of Moray.  

 

Sunday was beautiful, so Bob and I headed to Rockcliffe on the Solway Coast for some coastal walking.  It was a scenic 55 minute drive and well worth it.

 

On Monday, we had Bruce walk us to Drumlainrig Castle from Thornhill.  Once there, we did a 2.5 mile walk, called “A Turn along the Marr Burn.”  It was another great day out with lots of sunshine.

Bob and I continue our Scottish adventure by visiting some purpose-built attractions as well as exploring new towns.  We have been having good luck with the weather in terms of minimal rain so have been trying to take advantage while we can.

On Wednesday we headed out of Thornhill for an hour and a half drive to the town of Falkirk.  It is almost halfway between (though a bit north of) Glasgow and Edinburgh.  To help capture some of the tourists visiting the two larger cities, Falkirk has created some of its own attractions.  One attraction also helps to reconnect Glasgow and Edinburgh for boat travelers.  The other attraction is a pair of large horse-head sculptures, called the Kelpies, as part of the Helix project to create a local green space for the community.  They are located about 15 minutes apart by car.

The Falkirk Wheel is a rotating boat lift (only one in the world) that raises boats by 79 feet, limiting the need for a series of locks to link the two canals.  It opened in 2002.  At the Wheel, you can pay to take a boat ride which takes you up and down in the wheel, but you can also walk or bike on some path, climb on a climbing wall, or do some other water activities.  We rode the boat but decided you could experience it just as well by watching.

Kelpies are a mythological creature that are usually in horse form but can take human form as well.  They are said to have the strength and endurance of 100 horses.

Thursday we drove a much shorter distance (a little over 20 minutes) to the village of Sanquhar.  We planned to do 2 hikes —  1 that would take us out of town and around the nearby community of Crawick and 1 that was around the village itself.  Based on something we had seen in the paper that day and what we found when we got to Sanquhar, we ended up doing a little more.

The following few photos are from the Crawick Multiverse which is a reclaimed former cast coal mine that has been transformed into a landscape art venue.  It was created using materials found on site, including thousands of boulders half-buried below ground.  It represents various cosmic patterns.  The site was on our route anyway but had been coincidentally featured in the newspaper that morning.



Last Friday, Bob and I took a train from Newcastle, England to Dumfries, Scotland where we were met by our homeowner.  It was the first time that we have been met by someone we know, as we sat for these same homeowners last year.  It was great to get reacquainted and hear about their trip to New Zealand and Australia.  We had a great afternoon tea and lovely home-cooked meal with them as well as a couple of walks with Bruce, our favorite border terrier, before they headed off on April 1.

Bruce is as adorable and energetic as ever.

Sunday, April 2, was sunny so we headed to the local castle for a walk in the woods that had been highlighted in the paper the prior day.  There was no charge to hike on the grounds.  We chose the 5 mile Castle route.  

Today (Tuesday) we did another forest hike.  This time we headed towards the little village of Ae (yep, just the 2 letters) to hike a little over 5 miles in the Ae Forest.  Bruce accompanied us on a lovely, sunny day out.  We saw a number of people — mostly families enjoying the mountain bike trails — but no other hikers or dogs.

We Megabussed into Newcastle (for $7.50 per person!) from Leeds last Thursday, arriving about mid-afternoon.  The bus stopped right outside of the public library, so we popped in to see if they had any information on sites to see/things to do in Newcastle.  The librarian had a great map and pointed out three free museums, the location of the Angel of the North sculpture and how to get there by bus, as well as the name and location of a couple of pubs that we might like.  Besides being a wealth of information, the library was located just up the street from the Euro Hostel where we were staying.

After checking into the Hostel (we had a private room with bath — though the room contained 2 sets of bunk beds), we walked back towards the Library to visit the Laing Art Center that we had noticed across the street from the library.  The museum is free though there is a charge for special exhibitions.  It mostly contains paintings from 18-20th century British artists.

We then walked down to the River Tyne to walk along the river and check out some of the seven bridges over the Tyne.  We would gravitate towards the waterfront area for much of our visit.  I enjoyed a couple of runs along the waterfront paths.

As we needed to print out our train tickets for our trip to Dumfries, we walked up to the Rail Station and then grabbed a drink at the Centurion pub in the train station (and recommended by the librarian).

Most of our first full day in Newcastle (also called Newcastle-upon-Tyne) was walking to and from the Angel of the North statue and visiting the fun Baltic Contemporary Art Center.  The Angel of the North statue is not really in Newcastle proper but in Gateshead which sits across the Tyne from Newcastle.  We walked across the High Level Bridge (double decker bridge — one level for cars and pedestrians and the other level for trains which was opened by Queen Victoria) into and through Gateshead to find the statue which appears to be a roadside attraction for motorists.  It was designed by Antony Gormley and completed in 1998.  It is made of steel, is 65 feet high, and has a wingspan of 175 feet.  It can withstand winds of over 100 miles per hour.

The Baltic Contemporary Art Museum is also located in Gateshead, right across the Millenuum Bridge from Newcastle.  It is housed in a 1950s industrial building that was renovated in the late 1990s.  It opened in 2002 and has rotating exhibitions of contemporary art.  It also has a great gift shop where Bob and I amused ourselves for awhile reading all of the fun cards.

Our second day in Leeds we focused on seeing the remains sites of interest to us — the Cathedral, the Castle, the Lit & Phil, another museum, a football field, a park, et.  It was a great day that we topped off with a real cocktail and a rare dinner out.

The St. Nicholas Cathedral, is a Church of Englad cathedral that is the seat for the Bishop of Newcastle, the most northerly diocese of the Anglican Church in England.  It was founded in 1091 during the same period as the castle .

We had picked up something, or read something on line, about the Lit & Phil and their large collection of books.  We weren’t quite sure what this was, but it sounded good!  We learned from a nice volunteer that this is the Literary and Philosophical Society and that they have 180,000 books, many very old.  They also host book and poetry readings and other lectures.  Their website claims that they are the largest independent library outside of London.

 

That was awesome, but we continued on to learn a bit more about the history of Newcastle at the free Discovery Museum. Are we the only ones that didn’t know that Earl Grey was more than just a tea?  He (Charles Earl Grey, 2nd Earl Grey) was Prime Minister of the U.K.from 1830-1834.  Something to think about over your next cuppa.  Newcastle even has a column for him.

We explored a bit of Leazes Park and saw the Newcastle United stadium immediately adjacent to it.

Bob and I got into Leeds via train on the Saturday night that we left our housesit in West Farndon.  we arrived to a hopping atmosphere with lots of people in the station, including a hen party of older women who had definitely been enjoying themselves.  We weren’t sure what our trip to Leeds would bring, but we ended up having a lovely time.  We stayed in a hotel just outside the city center.  

Our first full day was sunny and warm.  We had a great walk through the ruins of an old Abbey, strolled along a canal, and explored a bit of the retail district. 

We walked to the Abbey through town, but we walked back into Leeds along a canal path.

After finding the bus station where we would pick up the Megabus for our journey to Newcastle on Tuesday we headed into the town center.

 

Our second day in Leeds wasn’t as sunny and warm, but we still had a good walkabout.  We walked a little over an hour to Roundhay Park which is a large park (over 700 acre so) on the northeast edge of the city with football fields, a tropical garden, a manor, ponds, and lots of walking trails.  In medieval times, the park was used as a royal hunting park.



Bob and I spent a day reminding ourselves of how incredibly intelligent other people can be by a visit to Bletchley Park.  In case you aren’t familiar with Bletchley Park, this is the area where a number of individuals worked on code-breaking during WWII.  Bob and I became interested in this after seeing the movie, Imitation Game, a few years ago.  The movie focused on the work of Alan Turing, but there were a number of individuals who contributed to the effort.  The grounds (and many of the buildings) where the individuals worked and lived are part of a tour of the grounds.  The whole experience is very well put together with an opening film to provide context for the exhibits, buildings, etc. that you see during your visit.

 

Bob and I spent our last full day at our West Farndon housesit doing a walk out of the community of Brackeley, a town in South Northamptonshire.  During our 2+ hour walk, we saw some of the town of Brackeley as well as the smaller village of Evenly.

Dogs

Bob and I spent Tuesday at Woodstock — nobody’s farm and no music.  This Woodstock is a small town in Oxfordshire, England.  We were there to visit Blenheim Palace, the principal residence of the Duke of Marlborough and the birthplace of Winston Churchill. It was originally built as a reward to John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough, for the Duke’s military triumphs against the French and Bavarians in the Battle of Blenheim during the war of Spanish succession.

We toured the exhibit on Winston Churchill who was made an honorary American by President Kennedy, an exhibit on fashion, and the animated tour on the history of the home and family. We also explored the expansive grounds.

The palace is beautiful and has been the setting for some fashion shows for Dior.  The grounds are also amazing.

Bob and I are currently at our week-long housesit in the village of West Farndon in Northamptonshire in the East Midlands.  (We have been calling this our Banbury housesit as that is the closest bigger town, but our house is actually about 11 miles northeast.). We spent a lovely afternoon and evening, including a great homemade meal with the homeowners on Friday evening.  They are now off skiing in Austria with friends while we are caring for their lovely old home (formerly a mill house) and their two golden retrievers — Hebe and Stella.  

Hebe (the name of a type of plant as well as the Greek goddess of youth) is the grandmother of Stella.  Hebe has doggy Parkinson’s, so needs some assistance getting through the stiles on the nearby footpaths but other than that loves her walks (and meals) as much as Stella.  They are both very sweet natured and quite use to walking in areas with sheep (common here along the footpaths).

The closest town for shopping is Woodford Halse which is an easy 20 minute walk.  We walked the dogs there via the Jurassic Way walking route which runs very close to their property.  This route runs the length of Northamptonshire.  It has nothing to do with dinosaurs but is named for the Jurassic limestone escarpments that helped to create the old estuaries that the route follows.

From there we walked towards another village, Eydon (pronounced Eden), to the Harley Equestrian Country Lifestyle and Cafe that had been recommended as a good place for lunch and cute gifts by our homeowners.  We arrived there at about 1:30, and the cafe was busy with people having lunch or tea and cake.  We had a yummy lunch and perused the shop.

We walked into Eydon after lunch.  We found a local pub for perhaps a future visit before going home for an afternoon walk with the dogs.  

Today (Monday) Bob and I spent some time in Banbury to check out the local “big city.”  Banbury is a town of about 47,000 on the River Cherwell. Per Wikipedia, it is home to the world’s largest coffee-processing facility (Jacob’s Douwe Egberts — we’ve had their instant) and are known for their oval Banbury cakes.  I made a hair appointment for later this week, and then we did a short tour of the downtown area, including a stop in their free museum.

Bob and I spent much of our time during the last week getting even better acquainted with our “hood” — Isleworth, Brentford, Richmond, Kew, and Chiswick. We took in a play, Gaslight, at a lovely old theatre in Richmond. It reminded us a bit of the Paramount Theater in Austin. And we got in on a little of the Six Nations Rugby festivities by going to the pre-game activities at the famous Twickenham Stadium. We were outside (didn’t spring for the pricey tickets) the venue where Prince Harry and Princess Anne (as well as some footballers) were in attendance! England won big over Scotland to clinch the Six Nations cup. They (England) play Ireland today. If they win there, they would earn the Grand Slam, meaning they have won every game in the Six Nations championship.

We really loved our stay in Isleworth — awesome to be in a smaller, residential community with access to great running paths, good theatre, as well as easy access to the big city. The fact that we got to meet some new friends (human and animal) made it all the better.

The beautiful Richmond Theatre —

Some fun and informative finds walking to and along the Thames Path —

We had a rugby (not football) day one Saturday, as we headed to the famous Twickenham Stadium to participate (people watch) ahead of the Six Nations match between England and Scotland.  England won that game easily but lost today to Ireland.  While England still wins the Six Nations Cup, they don’t win the Grand Slam (winning all of their games in the championship series).

New friends that our homeowners introduced us to, Bev and Rae, got us into the Kew Royal Gardens for free.  They are members and are able to bring guests.

We walked to Chiswick (pronounced Chisik) one day to see the Chiswick House and Gardens and the Fuller’s Brewery (photo ops only) and then toured the Syon House and Garden in Isleworth on its opening day of the season.

Bob and I are just beginning our week-long housesit in Banbury, England, but we need to finish our posts for Isleworth/London.  The following is my attempt to show some our highlights from the big City of London with a second post to follow on our final excursions closer to Isleworth.  Our time in London over the past week or so was spent on seeing the sights from a boat, a pod, and a Skygarden.  We paid for the views from the boat and the pod (the Eye).  The Skygarden was free, but we had to reserve a time to go up.  We also made time to people watch and enjoy some the food at a local market.