Dalston Hall Hotel Carlisle

After making arrangements by text last night my friend Steve (from Crewe this time - I know a lot of Steve's) caught a train to Penrith with his family to arrive around 8am to collect my car. Joanna brought me back to Appleby and that little task was sorted. Typical of me to be finishing off such a large task at the last minute but it all got sorted and that's the main thing.

It is now the time to be assembling my stuff into ...

... by the time we were ready to leave, the wind had picked up & the rain was coming down sideways. When we crossed the border we were all leaning the bikes at 45 degrees just to go in a straight line and trying to brace for the gale force gusts!

So by the time we reached Haywick the weather had deteriorated & group decision was made for safety reasons to not continue to Glasgow but instead ride down to Martyn's sisters house in Warcop, Westmorland.
Appleby, England, United Kingdom charliebears

... affair. This is good though, as the next time I am here will be on the day of my last injections - which is also day before I depart - so there will be precious little time for social arrangements.

This evening marked precisely 2 weeks to departure - awesome! XD

Day 2 and I need to fix the LR!

My first night in a hostel and first experience of having to share a room with 3 other strangers. There was one man that kept waking me up with his snoring, lets hope I got some revenge throughout the night;-) It's 8am and time for breakfast. Most of the Hostel are here for the Great
North Run so when I turn up for breakfast it is packed and everyone is excited about their days events.

I am ...

We leave after another full English breakfast, this morning I asked for scrambled eggs so there wouldn't be so much fat in the meal. It was good.

We head out north to Carlisle Castle. The country side is hills and dales, lots of farming, cows and plenty of sheep. There are stone walls or hedges dividing the pastures. It is very picturesque looking up at the hills. Another warm sunny day.

We find Carlisle Castle in the city of ...

... of the road north. However, it wasn't the end of the trip. It just meant we had to go south now.

So with a quick stop off in Gretna Green (home of quick weddings) we passed over the stunning Yorkshire Dales, which were full of two different types of person: Motorcyclists and Gypsys. The former come to the Dales for a hoon on the roads, the dangers of which we saw first hand ...

Busy busy busy today. First we went to Castlerigg Stone Circle, which dates from the Early Bronze Age - around 3200 BC. Pretty old. The setting is amazing - surrounded on all sides by mountains, and hardly a sound to hear...except for this annoying little **** who kept climbing on the stones. I realise I'm a killjoy, but for ****s sake, a bit of respect please? If you ...

... be to visible and I might have crossed that border yesterday. When I photograph it a almost meditative state, so I tend to forget the outside world. The gigs seems to go faster each evening. Will try something different every evening, so that there is a variation in the photos from the gigs. After the venue closed the others went to a metal night club next door, but I thought I will make it a night. And I had all my gear with me, did not want to leave ...

... has forced the freight trains to look for alternative routes. Luckily the S&C has provided the solution and today it is a thriving mainline railway: with some of the prettiest stations in the land. Arriving in Carlisle , in the late afternoon I left the station in search of my digs, which was to be the Old Brewery Residences. Student accommodation, used during the summer months as a Youth Hostel. Outside the station was the longest line-up of police ...

Lake District was the northernmost area we visited. That's probably why the Lake District is one of the best attractions of U.K. John told me the story of Beatrix Potter, the author of Peter Rabbit.
Actually, I don't remember which lake I visited, because John took me there. I still remember I took a boat to the opposite ...