12th August
The day started with breakfast at the Cairndale.
Our first stop was Lockerbie. This little town suffered a horrible tragedy on 21 December 1988. Libyan terrorists brought down a PanAm flight which crashed into the town of Lockerbie. A sad and sombre town.
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| The monument outside of town |
Onto the M6 and a scoot down to the town of Lanercost which is the gaetway to Hadrian's wall. The wall is (was) an impressive piece of engineering. Hadrian's wall also called the Roman Wall was started in AD 122 in the reign of the emperor Hadrian. It was Hadrian's wish to keep "intact" the empire" which had been imposed on him via divine instruction. It is a very popular walk and today you can hike the 135 kilometres from coast to coast in about 7 days. We saw a few walkers go past.
The Lanercost Priory was built some 9+ centuries later (and the builders borrowed much of the stone from Hadrian's wall).
From Lanercost we set off for the Lakes District. The Lakes District is some of the most beautiful countryside in all of England. It is a number of valleys with lakes and surrounded by green fields divided by stone walls. The hills are a mixture of rock, heather and grassland... of course, dotted with white sheep and the odd black sheep.
We stopped for lunch at the Travellers' Rest (a small tavern in Glenridding). We had ginger and carrot soup - it was very nice. Then it was onto the World of Beatrix Potter (Windermere). Wow! Talk about commercialised! The town was packed with fellow tourists. Unfortunately, we didn't make it to Beatrix's house.
It was soon time to move onto our overnight destination - Liverpool. Our accommodation was at the Crowne Plaza, John Lennon Airport. The Plaza is a re-purposing of the old airport terminal. It is decorated in an art deco style. Quite nice!
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| The rear of the hotel. |
After dinner, we decided to go to the Cavern (the 'birthplace' of the Beatles). Saturday night in downtown Liverpool was eye-opening. Lots of music, lots of people, lots of young women in thick make-up with extra long eyelashes. We found the cavern but were disappointed to find out it had been closed many years ago. Oh well! The bars in the area were called Imagine, Revolution etc. A very clear Beatles influence.
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| Eleanor Rigby statue |
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| The Cavern. |
I loved finding sections of Hadrian's wall all around the countryside. You're brave venturing out into the heart of Liverpool on a Saturday night! But it must be done.
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