2018 - Europe

Friday 21 September - Our check out time from Budle Bay was 10 am and check in at our next accommodation, Peebles in Scottish Borders, was from 3pm. The journey time to Peebles is two hours, so the dilemma for us is how to fill in three hours. The answer my friend was blowin' in the wind high above the village of Bamburgh in the form of Bamburgh Castle.  Having only just walked past this enormous, elegant castle on earlier walks we decided to have a look inside so we loaded up all our goods and chattels, drove the 15 minutes south and parked our car in the near empty main street of Bamburgh. Bamburgh Castle The day was very cool and the wind was blowing a gale. Arriving as the castle gates opened we gave the mandatory donation and in we went. Bamburgh Castle is set high on a volcanic outcrop on a site occupied since at least 420AD. It was destroyed by Vikings in 993AD after many years of ownership swapping between the Anglo-Saxons and the Britons. Today it has been well re

Friday, 14 September 2018 - Moving Day Our week long stay at Airton in the Yorkshire Dales came to an end on a drizzly damp day. Today we are headed further north to Northumberland, specifically Budle Bay just north of Bamburgh and just south of the Scottish border. We are detouring east a little to visit another of Julie's cousins, Jacqueline, who we haven't seen for several years. Cousins - Jacquie and Julie The roads up the north of England were a lot quieter and in better condition and the two hour drive to Jacqui's place was very pleasant without any traffic jams or delays. Because of this we were going to be 30 minutes early according to TomTom so we started looking for a cafe with an hour to go. Well, we drove through village after village, past pubs and nurseries but to no avail, they were all yet to either open or even exist. We eventually found one 100 metres from Jackie's place. The owner, come local baker, knew Jacqui, and even more so Jacqui