Cumbria 2 Carlisle - Google the Giraffe/ A day in Caer Luel

---

Google the Giraffe . That is what the sign said . The instruction was writ large beneath a metal sculpture of a giraffe alongside the M6. What was that all about? You could hardly drive past without googling the Giraffe . It was a clever piece of marketing . We expected something like the Angel of the North . What did we get - a advertisement for a local company..

So why are we driving up the M6? Gabby the motorhome had arrived home a few weeks ago and we had spent the last few weeks emptying her out and refilling her with essentials for our first trip out of 2021. She had been nothing more than a wardrobe and storage cupboard for the last six months . This was our first opportunity to get her on the road . It has been a funny old week all this planning and news that our country was not opening when it was promised . We had to pass four tests for our freedom . Number 1 - the number of vaccinations had to be increased and this had been passed quickly . Test two the number of hospital admissions had to remain low and deaths low . Ticked that box . However number 3 - the R rate had failed miserably. That has been rising and continued to do so. Test 4 was based on no new variants causing concern . Sadly the scientists have not agreed that that has been passed . The Delta variant was the fly in the ointment of re-opening the country. Hold that opening now for another month.

So Calais was on hold so where could we go . Cumbria - Carlisle to be precise . We spent a couple of days emptying boxes , filling them up, putting water in our girl Gabby ready for the trip out. It was so long since we took her on the road we had forgotten what was in her and what was missing . We used to use a shakedown list with Suzy. Somehow we had got out of the habit . We would have to wing it and relearn it along the way.

The day dawned bright . We left Wales to blazing sunshine . A typical sunny June day. By the time we reached Cheshire and England the sun had become hidden by the grey and white clouds. The potholes in the roads meant a bumpy ride and one sensor on the TyrePal we use to monitor the tyres failed to work . The rain even started to fall by the time we reached Lancashire and the Giraffe. Sally Sat Nag was programmed for the Castle Car Park just beneath the castle in Carlisle . Caer Luel in Old Welsh or Brythonic .

As we arrived it became mizzly. The city had provided us with motorhome sized spaces especially marked out for us . I paid our £3.70 parking fee which enabled us to stay overnight if we chose to. We were not staying as the gate would be locked to keep out the boy races .

I left the driver in Gabby as he needed to check the water and get on top of other tasks . I was heading over the Millenium Bridge into the city . I wanted to see the Cathedral . It looked interesting on line and was listed as one of the great cathedrals in the North of England . It certainly looked imposing as I walked towards it along the West Walls that surrounded the city. Built in a red sandstone it was imposing as I walked through the ornate golden gates . The cloisters once must have wonderful . Sadly now they looked more like follies set in a beautiful garden . There were not many people about and I had the gardens to myself . I was welcomed inside and asked to scan my phone for Track and Trace . My phone did not have the app on so I offered to give my name and address . Oddly they did not want them . I masked up and joined the others inside this Gothic /Romanesque building . Inside it was quite light and airy with wonderful stained glass windows . The problem with the glass was that it let the light in and spoilt many of my photos .

There were the usual monuments along the walls . Not as many as in some cathedrals . It was the same with side chapels . There were a few with interesting altars particularly the one which commemorated the dead from the Second World War campaign in Burma and the Chindits . Unusual to see such a special one - at least special for me . There were not many tombs either . Just the odd one or two around the chancel . Perhaps they had been removed when the Victorians set about improving the cathedral .

The highlights for me were the Medieval wood wall paintings with scenes from the Bible , the saints and probably a Doom scene or Dance of Death . I say probably because they were poorly preserved and the lights from the windows made it impossible to photograph them . The verger came out and headed for a small chapel where six worshippers sat . They stood and the small service commenced .

I headed the nave but was blocked off and could only see the High Altar and the choir stalls through a screen . But what caught my eye more than made up - a ceiling covered in the most vivid of blue with hundreds of golden stars filling the firmament of the heavens . It was stunning even it was a Victorian addition . Having feasted my eyes on it I left the building to go out into the rain .

When I arrived home the driver was in deep conversation with a motorhome homer who was parked next to us . He was from Northern Ireland and was thinking about downsizing his van. He wanted an opinion on Gabby and how we felt using a smaller van . We told him that Gabby gave us everything we needed and more . OUr first stop of the trip was coming to an end but first we had a date with Carlisle castle .



s

---