Knittinggarden

We left Bamburgh Castle and headed for our next destination, a town called Barnard Castle in the County of Durham.  This drive took us again through Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, which would be the second time we were in this vicinity.  (Further proof of our circuitous route of travel.)  The drive was pretty easy as drives in Britain go and we approached our destination in the late afternoon.  We saw signs for Raby Castle, which was a place we intended to visit during our stay in this area.  Since we were going right by and it was still open, we stopped.  It was another very enjoyable visit. We were just in time as it closes for the winter in October. Raby Castle is another privately owned place and was built in the 12th century by the Nevills.  They owned it until the 1600s when ownership reverted to the crown.  In 1626, the castle was purchased by the Vanes.  The family still maintains ownership of the castle.  It sits on a large piece of land, including a 200 acre deer park, and deer can b

I know this will ruin the suspense, but we made it home!  Nevertheless, I will continue the posts so I will have a record of what we did and where we went and it will be here for whoever else is interested.  It was hard to update the blog from the road, as it's more difficult to post from the iPad that I had and also the WiFi wasn't the best always.  Now that the excuses are out of way, onward! While we were planning, I happened to notice the little town of Berwick-Upon-Tweed on the map.  It rang a bell because my book club had read The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce some time ago.  It's about a man who sets out to visit an old friend and ends up walking the length of England, ultimately arriving in Berwick.  I also read the companion book, The Love Song of Miss Queen Hennessy,  also set to a large degree in the same charming town.  Since we were "in the neighborhood," I decided we should visit.  This is where our route got a little circuitous

Now we start our rather convoluted path through the northern part of England. I had found a really nice looking bed and breakfast near Hadrian's Wall early in our planning and reserved for two nights that were available. At that point, we weren't sure where else we wanted to go, so as we added destinations, we ended up doing a bit of backtracking, but it's worked out fine.  From Edinburgh, we took the train to Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, where we encountered our first rental car. The plan was for me to drive most of the time, but after the first day, that plan went out the window. 😜 Pat turned out to drive very well but it still required vigilance from both of us at all times to ensure that we turned into the correct lane, kept to the left, and made it out of the roundabouts as we travelled clockwise. Whew!  Anyway, we made it out of Newcastle, even though the two Sat-Navs we had were giving us opposite directions for awhile. We ditched one and got on better. We arrived at Lanerc